Dogs are enjoying a greater publicity than all politicians in Kashmir put together. The dog debate is hogging the whole space of newspapers and why not? This week it was dogs going berserk perhaps conscious of the fact that they are being written against. Hundreds have fallen to this canine terror. Every day pictures of mauled children will make even beasts hang their head in disbelief (animal rights activists excluded as theirs is a class apart). Wounded limbs and mutilated faces of these tender souls don't move them to action. What else can?
What surfaced as a small problem has now gone beyond limits. Civil society groups, legal bodies, NGOs - all are expressing their passionate concern about the menace. Amid this chaos what sounds conspicuous is the silence of separatist factions. There is a section of them who consider anything except occupation, aggression, militarization, self-determination and plebiscite a clear `distraction' from the main issue. They exhaust their whole quota of condemnation on what they perceive as colonial agencies and their machinations. Whatever happens in Kashmir (to their understanding) is the outcome of the Indian intelligence agencies and their stooges working hard to tear us apart. From dog menace to power cuts to road accidents to unemployment to traffic mess to pollution – they quite conveniently shoot their anger on the politics played by New Delhi with Kashmiris since 1947. Such thinking not only offers us a cover to hide our own incompetence, but lets us rot. We have been fuming against non-implementation of United Nations Resolutions. There has been a lot of trumpeting about the promises Nehru made with Kashmiris which we demand must be fulfilled. Till that is done, we can't voice our concern against anything. Yes not even against dogs.
We don't know how many will have to fall to this dog rage till government finally comes out with a policy. The everyday images of blood-soaked children spread on newspaper pages, till now, have not ruffled up a feather. Till they do, we can't help but protest. If separatists join the fray, all groups will find a chance to stand up against the same form of terror. We may have our own political interpretations of Kashmir issue, but the dog issue concerns all. Talking about dogs won't make them lose their constituency anyway. `Pro-movement' or `anti-movement', dogs bite indiscriminately.

Lastupdate on : Sat, 28 Apr 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sat, 28 Apr 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sun, 29 Apr 2012 00:00:00 IST