For  a moment, please  give Kashmir a break. It deserves  to be free of theories and sermons. It is  fed up with the formulas. It wants a real life. The people there  want  an   end  to  being seen as playthings in the hands of  political leaders  sitting in their drawing rooms and speaking from the comfort of having no  idea of what  a death  in life means.

Kashmir, it  is clear now, wants an  end  to a host of  theories and  formulas floated by so-called experts, who have their own agenda of selling themselves  at the national end international level. Recognizing  and feeling pain of the people is an emotion  and speaking  on it at seminars and TV panel discussions  is quite  a different  thing. Those who  cannot feel pain  can only draw roadmaps suiting them.

No one is clued in Delhi  or Srinagar  as to how to move forward. All of them are floating trial balloons, hoping  that this would keep  hopes of the people alive and  they can buy time.  It is not going to be that way.  The time for false hopes is over. It is as simple as that. There is no need to emphasise this point  because those sitting at the helm of affairs  have failed to  deliver so far and if they repeat the mistakes of the past, the results would be far more serious than have been  experienced so far.

In fact, the deadly combination of  a political class indifferent to the  basic thought process of the  people of Kashmir  has contributed to what is happening today.  They  should be aware that any  more games of playing games would be suicidal.  Kashmiris deserved a better way of life  with all  their political, economic,  and more importantly,  the right to live a safe life. The people  are not having any of these elements. Such a vacuum  is where  frustration and anger breed and then fill the space for ever.

Now, when  Delhi  is making  noise of looking forward  on Kashmir, what it is not doing is to unshackle itself of the traditional outlooks and formulas. It does call Kashmiris “our own people”, but nothing  is happening to  substantiate these  sweet-sounding words. For are “ own people”,  there is  no  hesitation  in taking steps.  Today, what appears is that a theatre of absurd is unfolding all the time.

New Delhi should shun its  aid- giving attitude.   Indeed, the  populace in the Valley is   marooned. Luckily, not by a natural disaster.  But unfortunately, it is  a victim of man-made disaster.

A  common discourse in New Delhi is  that Kashmiris  have a typical  habit of getting excited. They are described as people with “ soda water reaction”, which   goes  up fast and then  fizzles within a minute.Another thing is that any action of the people in the Valley is never seen as something  ingenuous. It has  to have foreign roots. Those can be traced either to the immediate neighbhour  or to distant lands. It is projected as if the whole world  is   using Kashmiris  as a plaything, and the Kashmiris are a willing partners to their  self- destruction. It is given out that  all what Kashmiris need is a government job and the whole thing would be  smooth  thereafter. Indeed, the sense that one gets from the Valley is that the  youth are asking for jobs and they need to occupy themselves.
But is that the only reason?  If that was the case, the government employees should not have been sending their children  to streets to join protests. Had  that been the case, the people should have jumped with joy as and when  there were announcements of  filling  vacancies. If the six lakh youth of the valley were to get jobs, then the whole problem should disappear.  That should not be a big problem for the government of India. It is  spending an astronomical amount  in Kashmir  on the security forces and  also as part of economic package. The burden on the state exchequer  in providing employment to  youth  would  be  peanuts as compared to that.   Delhi should do all this  without even a second’s delay.  Will that be the end of the problem.

No, is the answer. It has to be a political solution. But what sort of political solution. There is a huge debate on the issue.  An endless stream of arguments and counter arguments has been going on, and still there is no   way forward. Union Home Minister P Chidambaram was still looking “elusive  starting point”. Sixty three years down the line, the starting point is not in sight,  it can be anyone’s guess that how long will it take to  find a solution to the  problem.
The fact remains that even 
Kashmiri leadership  has never pondered its own contradictions, day in
and day out. The developments in Kosovo – a land hundreds of miles away
from the Vale- were noticed by Kashmiri leadership and media  almost
instantly. The parallels were drawn. But the solutions were not offered. They spoke of East Timor, but the solutions were not  thrown at the table. And, Delhi loved it. The  problem has another solution – Punjab experiment. Punjab and Kashmir  are two different situations. These are not going to offer any solution. The only thing they can do is  to add to the confusion.

It is not time to give  a false hope to Kashmiris. They have seen through the falsehoods. The leaders who cannot stand even for smallest  of small things  cannot be expected to deliver on a larger issues which demand real-life  experience, intelligence and connect, not just the rhetoric. This should be understood by one and all.

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Lastupdate on : Mon, 6 Sep 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Mon, 6 Sep 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Tue, 7 Sep 2010 00:00:00 IST