Author: Balbir K. Punj
Publication: The Asian Age
Date: August 29, 2008
Introduction: Mr Omar Abdullah, who made a
terrific speech in Lok Sabha on the government's trust motion, now threatens
to resign his Parliament seat. He as well as the PDP have almost surrendered
to the secessionists instead of challenging them on the ground. This exposes
their claim of nationalism.
Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar
Farooq's interview to a Delhi newspaper draws the curtains on the real issue
in the on-going crisis in Kashmir Valley. "Kashmir can survive as an
independent nation," the Hurriyat chief claimed. "Much smaller places
are surviving as a nation, why can't we?" he countered all those who
doubt that the state can remain economically-viable as an independent entity.
The Mirwaiz overlooks the fact that all these
small nations he refers to are surviving on a single product like oil that
has large and fast-rising global demand. That is the situation in all Gulf
nations, separated only by their history and the royal households in charge.
In Europe, there are nations like Monaco surviving mainly through promoting
casinos, or Luxemburg, which is the world's money laundering hub. Even these
"small nations" now find it essential to work with their larger
neighbours in organisations like the European Union. There is also cultural
identification with these neighbours and their "independence" over
the decades has become simply a matter of technicality; otherwise they are
fully integrated with their neighbours.
Besides, if Hurriyat succeeds with its nefarious
plan of secession, surely Jammu and Ladakh regions are bound to disassociate
with this move. That reduces the so-called "azadi" demand to the
Valley alone. The Valley would be a landlocked area and would have to seek
opening through Jammu on one hand and Pakistan on the other.
The Valley's economic interests are largely
bound with India, the largest market for Kashmir's produce. The Mirwaiz talks
of hydro-power of the Valley. Here again it is India that could buy so much
power and has the economic clout to pay for it.
The Mirwaiz's claim that the Valley would
be a "vibrant nation" is factually a miasma promoted specifically
to cut asunder Kashmir's age-old cultural and economic ties with the rest
of India and is essentially based on the virus of pan-Islamism. If he was
so committed to the culture of Kashmir, why did he not raise a powerful voice
when the Pandits of the Valley, as much a part of the Valley as the Mirwaiz
himself, were hounded out of the state? No Muslim organisation in the state
came to the aid of the Pandits. Even mainstream political parties were silent
spectators to this blatant violation of human rights. Neither National Conference
president Omar Abdullah nor his father Mr Farooq Abdullah raised a finger
to protect Kashmiri Pandits. They all were part of the move to get rid of
the minority so that the state would be totally Muslim-dominated and hence,
easy prey to secessionist propaganda and militancy in support of it.
Mr Omar Abdullah, who made a terrific speech
in Lok Sabha on the government's trust motion, now threatens to resign his
Parliament seat. He as well as the PDP have almost surrendered to the secessionists
instead of challenging them on the ground. This exposes their claim of nationalism.
Mr Abdullah even goes to the extent of challenging the benefits of Kashmir's
linkage with the Indian Union. This despite the fact that the Abdullah family
has been ruling Jammu and Kashmir for decades. Mr Abdullah would be denigrating
his own family's record in government if he now echoes the secessionist's
castigation of the Valley's Indian link in development. He is probably willing
to trade that for surviving in the surcharged air of the Valley and that is
why he did not come forward to challenge Mirwaiz and others supported by the
gun culture.
There are much larger issues that Umar Farooq,
Yasin Malik and Sajjad Lone and others prefer to ignore in promoting "azadi"
as a convenient slogan to perpetuate their own relevance in the Valley's troubled
politics. First is the linkage with pan-Islamic militancy and systematic violence
sponsored by Pakistan and the Taliban regime in Afghanistan till recently.
The problems of Jammu and Kashmir are hardly different from problems of rest
of the states in the country.
The present crisis was no doubt the result
of incompetent handling of the sensitive issue of land transfer to the Shri
Amarnathji Shrine Board. The Congress-led coalition government, and its partner
PDP, failed to educate people on the truth, allowing separatists to mislead
them for the 50-odd days between the proposal for the transfer and the actual
order of implementation. The state government also failed to curb the anti-India
and communal propaganda following the land transfer order and preferred to
surrender to militancy on this issue.
This gave an advantage to secessionists like
the Mirwaiz and made mainstream political parties irrelevant.
The Congress, with all its claims of political
roots, failed to mobilise people and other parties, including the NC and PDP.
Why didn't Mr Abdullah mobilise his cadre to counter militants and secessionists
who are in alliance? It is the mainstream parties' surrender, following the
government caving in to extremists' demands, which has led to this so called
"azadi" storm. Of course, the pan-Islamic virus had been in action
in Srinagar and was imposing its code on the people with the government and
mainstream political parties just unwilling to respond to this challenge.
How does the rest of Indian political leadership
react? Not very differently. Despite their loud declaration of fighting terrorism,
the reality is that they are competing among themselves to mollify terrorists.
Look at the way the Congress, SP and others have rushed to Azamgarh to commiserate
with the family of Simi leader Bashir who was picked up by Gujarat police,
in consultation with IB, for his pivotal role in the Ahmedabad, Baroda and
Surat blasts? How can police nab terrorists if political leaders underline
the routine accusation against them of harassing innocent people?
Every terrorist claims innocence and accusing
the police is the best way of defence. It has now been revealed that Kerala
police did pursue and nab some of those involved in the terror camp that Simi
organised there in 2006. But police had to retreat when, under political pressure,
they were forced to release the arrested. Similar thing happened in Congress-ruled
Andhra Pradesh.
Now we are told the CPM and other Left parties
are bolstering with their presence a positively communal meeting organised
by several fundamentalist Muslim organisations, ostensibly to oppose "imperialism"(read
the US).
The Left is now fully aligned with Muslim
communalism and orthodoxy. The Congress, SP and BSP are not far behind.
There is greater danger in this alignment
that amounts to self-styled secular parties surrendering to pan-Islamic communalism
and militancy, than in the so called "azadi" movement in Kashmir
Valley. In fact, these two forces are deriving inspiration and support from
each other.
If this is not abetment in the disintegration
of the nation what else could it be?
- Balbir K. Punj can be contacted at punjbk@gmail.com