This refers to the programme The Buck Stops Here (NDTV; Feb 23) regarding the killing of an 11-day old infant in Varmul. The Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, DIG HK Lohia, and Mehbooba Mufti, all failed to convince people about their stand on stone-pelting and the “best action possible” against the stone-pelters. While Omar blamed Pakistan for the mess, DIG held separatists responsible, and Mehbooba saw “bad governance” behind it. Nobody could answer the basic questions. Yes, it is a gruesome incident if the baby died because the protesters didn’t allow the family to move toward a hospital. But the question is: who were these protesters? The unruly mobs? The paid agents? Or really the stone-pelters? While one has completely sympathy with the bereaved family, the incident never merits to be blown out of proportions and compared with the killings of Wamiq and Zahid Farooq. There is a difference between the ‘accidental happenings’ like the death of a baby and the cold-blooded murders like those of Zahid and Wamiq. We must know the difference. If we go by the state’s premise that the mob didn’t allow the infant to reach hospital, leading to his death, the issue backfires on the government itself. For instance, during the “undeclared curfews” announced by the government, many patients are unable to reach the hospital in time. That time the unruly mob happens to be the “security” forces itself. And who knows how many patients die because of the “curfew imposition.” They die unreported. But at the end of the day, they are taken as accidental happenings, where patients are declared “brought dead” in the hospital. So how is the death of an infant an incident which is blown exactly like a Fidayeen Attack? It is better if such issues are confined to condemnations and sympathies only, and at the same time, ended at a certain point where the real culprit is first identified, and then punished. Beyond that is sheer politics, which both the government and opposition is playing to hide their inefficiency of handling the law and order. You can’t justify bullet versus stone theory, for state has to be responsible even if the outlaws disrupt the law and order. And that is the point the Roving Editor of The Telegraph made in the programme that the stone-pelters could be dealt with water-cannons instead of PSAs and bullets and teargas shells. And then how do you justify charging Wamiq Farooq after his killing by the state forces? That is adding salt to the injury, to say the least. And by the way, where was The Buck Stops Here when Wamiq and Zahid were killed in cold-blood?
Tehleel Aslam
Srinagar

Lastupdate on : Sun, 28 Feb 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 28 Feb 2010 18:30:00 GMT
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