Kashmiris say ‘No’ to the Rightists

Humra Quraishi

The RSS-BJP combine has been so far kept out of the Kashmir Valley. In these latest elections, every possible effort by the masses to keep the Right-Wing out of the power, at least in their home territory–the Kashmir Valley.

In the recent years Kashmiris of the Valley have been witnessing the worsening of their situation …well, worsening to such an extent they been even fearful of talking aloud their apprehensions. Keeping their anger all too shut and tight, for fear of the aftermath.

I had been reporting from the Kashmir Valley for years. Looking back, I could see signs of conditions deteriorating right from the early ’90s but couldn’t have ever imagined that the State unleashed havoc would compound to extent that there’d be nothing called free speech or even free movement or free living! All too fearful!

The shocking extent of the political deterioration in the Valley hit, when the Muftis, Mehbooba and her father Mufti Mohammad Saeed joined hands with the BJP to form the government in the state of J&K, in 2015. Several prominent members of the PDP had been extremely upset with this alliance, though the Muftis continued claiming that the alliance was for the so-called ‘development’ of J&K, for the ‘modification’ of the Valley!

One of the prominent faces of the PDP, Tariq Hameed Karra, was upset to the extent that he resigned. Karra is a well-known political figure in Kashmir with the ‘giant killer’ label prefixed to his name ever since he defeated Jammu & Kashmir National Conference (JKNC) leader Farooq Abdullah in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. In fact, I had met Tariq Hameed Karra in September 2016 that is just days after his resignation from the PDP and also from the Parliament. My first query to this former Member of Parliament (MP) was: Why did he have to resign when he could have stayed on and spoken out in the parliament? He detailed he had been feeling ‘suffocated’ ever since the PDP decided to form the alliance with the BJP. “For the last several months, I had not been attending any of the party meetings. This decision to resign from the PDP was a difficult one for me, as I’m one of the founding members of the party, but I just listened to my conscience! How could I justify to my people that we had formed an alliance with a communal party—the BJP? I had been upset and pained by this alliance. The way the situation was handled in the Valley left me feeling outraged. So many Kashmiris were killed…worst form of human rights violations. Mosques locked and closed by the government on Fridays and even for the Eid namaaz! I didn’t want to be a part of this government. From day one I had been against the PDP’s alliance with a party like the BJP but thought Mehboobaji would realise the folly and break the alliance, but she’s going ahead, deceiving our people.”

Karra had minced no words, lashing out: “It’s high time the government stopped its practice of looking at Kashmir as a territorial issue. It is about political aspirations. Don’t overlook the fact the state has its own flag and Constitution. This reality cannot be blanketed by the economic or developmental or administrative issues. And where’s the so-called development taking place? Nowhere! Could you see any traces of development?”

I saw the ground realities for myself as I went around Srinagar city and then travelled further, towards the adjoining districts. Couldn’t see any signs of development. Only sorrow and despair spread. …Valley looked overburdened with anger.

Needless to add that Burhan Wani’s killing by the security forces provoked anger and restlessness amongst the Kashmiris. No amount of speeches or announcements of relief packages could help contain the indignation as protestors were hit by bullets…One couldn’t have imagined that the violence would peak to that horrific level, where even young children and teenagers would be battling for survival, with impaired vision and lifelong disabilities… Photographs of brutality unleashed on humans—eyes, face, ribs, chest, stomach, lungs, and limbs ruptured by pellets and bullets. This fuelled apprehensions of what further disasters could follow in the Kashmir Valley.

Apprehensions had more than persisted amongst the citizens of the Valley as communication lines and also newspapers and connected offices were made to remain shut. Questions and queries did the rounds: Why should news get murdered by the political rulers of the state? Why crackdown on the media? What was the establishment trying to conceal or throttle?

The establishment seemed somewhat determined to worsen the mess, as additional security forces were sent. Instead of banning newspapers, efforts should have been made to publish them against all odds; after all, newspapers play a vital role in connecting the masses with the ground reality and help curb rumours and apprehensions… To compound the mess, numerous television discussions came up where the so-called experts dwelt on the use of bullets and pellets to ‘settle’ the crisis. Why didn’t those ‘experts’ travel to the Valley and see for themselves that the Kashmiris could no longer contain their anger and disgust? Why didn’t the political rulers move around Srinagar city and around the outlying rural stretches? None of the VVIPS could be seen flying from New Delhi to the Valley to be there with the local population during the crisis.

None of the Sarkari officials were charged with crimes …for killings, for inflicting injuries on the young of the Kashmir Valley? This, was when most of the protestors were young and naïve, unarmed and clueless as to what the future holds for them.

And as the establishment tried to crush the uprising, the anger of the people couldn’t really get crushed.

Simmering to this day. And with no outlet, no platform, no forum, no leader or statesman at the Centre in New Delhi, where can the Kashmiris talk aloud their grievances?

The results of the latest elections have more than held out that the Kashmiris of the Valley do not want to see any of the Right-Wing politicians around them. Though they, the Right-Wing politicians, are lurking not too far, as the Jammu election results have shown!

And as the political orders and commands come from New Delhi, the vital questions to be asked are these: Do we want to bypass the Kashmiris or start the crucial dialogue process? Do we want to know the ‘why’ to this increasing alienation of the young Kashmiris? Why do we insist on aggravating this anger and alienation that has been increasing every single day? Do the political rulers in New Delhi realise the human disasters that the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) drags along? Who is answerable for the fake encounters, unmarked graves, illegal detentions and hundreds of missing Kashmiris? Why should Kashmiris become victims of political games? Why should this generation of Kashmiris be ruined because of political treachery? Why the ongoing persistent dislike for the New Delhi politicians?

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Frontier
Vol 57, No. 19, Nov 3 - 9, 2024