One more student is killed in cold blood and the gullible people ask: Why was he shot dead when he was a non protestor? So the language has expectedly trickled to the masses. They have come to believe that protestor must die. This is what State authorities wanted to make people believe. If a protestor comes on street he will be sent back in shroud. This is what, in Chomskyean phraseology, is called `manufacturing consent'.

        So why does police target teenage students only? Why is that when nothing is happening all of a sudden troops come and kill youth? Why is this thing happening every now and again? How many of our innocent buds have been murdered in broad daylight without any provocation? How many more are there in the offing? Despite claims of ‘investigations’ and ‘tough stance’ why men in uniform kill indiscriminately? The Macchil killing resulted in the ‘removal’ of an officer. What does this removal mean? That is not answered. When people vent their anger through stones the stone pelting youth are shown hurling rocks at troopers from very close range. This image is played consistently in electronic media and some newspapers with inflammatory narrative. The Chief Minister says that ‘attacking’ CRPF is suicidal. What does ‘attacking’ mean: bare arms, some with stones in hand out to attack a sophisticated paramilitary trooper who from the head to toe is safeguarded with bullet-proof vest and other ancillary. Then why are stone hurling pictures getting more space then APDP’s silent sit-in?

  Is it because they want Kashmiris to be reduced to the level of monkeys? So that they will justify the use of brute force as Kashmiris have become beasts and beasts understand the language of violence only? That is why there are not questions raised: why do troopers aim at only on chest and head? How come troopers use Rudra smoke shells that are used in wars which always hits the head of the students with precisions? Why can’t these troopers use water cannons to disperse agitators, which is effective and economical?

            Using brute force dehumanises.  A colonised man resists, oppressors shoot him dead.  He gives up and is taunted for having no pride and honour. Shame and fear engulf him tearing his character until his self falls to atoms. Since the decline of militancy why state speaks through force only? Do they take pleasure in showing their domination by giving samples of their unbridled power? And when someone tries to curb their powers a great tussle ensues. Earlier troopers kidnapped and murdered three youth in Macchil. Police exposes them. There is talk of revoking AFSPA. The troopers reject it. Couple of weeks later police kills a teenager. Forget Macchil. Forget AFSPA. Forget the atrocities of troopers. Come to today. What is happening here?  Has Kashmir been turned into war industry where death means Rs one lakh ex gratia to family and two lakh for troops? Have Kashmiris become sacrificial lambs between two powerful institutions of the State? Or are Kashmiris made to believe that to be not killed one has to kill.

   Authorities try to pacify people by setting commissions of inquiry. But for masses these commissions do not exist. For the past 21 years we have been hearing of these commissions but not a single trooper indicted before Indian courts of justices in the murder of Kashmiris has been punished.  These commissions make people believe that they are faked from the beginning.
 
    To crush the anger, the State, as it is not so naive, pushes its men to the forefront so that they come up with abstract principles but refrain from issuing definite commands.  The action of these mainstream political men is to string sugar coated philosophical political dissertations which superficially sound antiestablishment. These spokespersons will talk in detail on the themes of the rights of men to self determination to the right of holding peaceful protests, from freedom of men to human dignity. But in hindsight they are pacifist and partisan to the existing order and all the blather is meant to impress their masters to give them power. More power. These party spokesmen sound radical in their words but they end up as conformist to the very order they try to belittle. “The business of obscuring language is a mask,” wrote Frantz Fanon in his outstanding work, The Wretched of the Earth, “behind which stands out the much greater business of plunder.”

         People are tied up hand and foot and humiliated. You can't fall any lower than this. Repressions do not halt national consciousness. They act as catalyst. Ordinary Kashmiris may be living for survival but when humans see so many dying men they prefer victory to survival. This is the universal truth.
 
              Fanon aptly summed up: “When the people have taken violent part in the national liberation they will allow no one to set themselves up as ‘liberators’. They take good care not to place their future, their destiny or the fate of their country in the hands of living god. Yesterday they were completely irresponsible; today they mean to understand everything and make all decisions.” Then he prophetically emphasis: “Illuminated by violence, the consciousness of the people rebels against any pacification. From now on the demagogues, the opportunists and the magicians have a difficult task. The attempt at mystification becomes, in the long run, practically impossible.” The streets of Kashmir explain the rest.

Lastupdate on : Sat, 26 Jun 2010 21:30:00 Mecca time
Lastupdate on : Sat, 26 Jun 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sun, 27 Jun 2010 00:00:00 IST