In 2014 the floods, as natural disaster and furry, brought whole machinery to stand still. Immense loss of property got damaged worth infinite amount, could not be exactly ascertained, now the unrest from last two months, can be called as disaster of people for freedom.
In both the cases the administration failed and worsened the situation. Despite their enormity in its embrace have exceeded now to 90 in contrary to 30 and we are still counting the dead. To be aware, that time the floods crossed the banks of river Jhelum even exceeded more, while presently the tensions and anger have escalated crossing the limits. The authorities at that time didn’t foresee the water coming up and this time they again failed to see the anger out brust of people. The same people who voted some months back after listening to their conscience, came on roads by giving back life to resistance. That time they ran away from waters, and now they became escapists too, to leave the anger of people unattended.
The vacuum of planning and planners is felt now as it was felt at the time of floods and it seems they don’t have the will to address the issues of people. Daily reprimanding that Kashmir is the integral part of the India, then Kashmiris should enjoy the same democracy that is being enjoyed by the people of Delhi. Here what can I say, right efforts in right direction are missing.
Kashmir has always been a volatile zone, that can erupt anytime with no cause or reason, as Dal Lake is not cleaned, left unattended weeds and encroachments have made its beauty to die sooner or later, in the same way the Kashmir has been mismanaged, at the point of political level. Vajpayee had the stature, nationality and in the Sangh Parivar, to take a holistic view of this triangle. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh picked up the thread until he ran into Pakistani recalcitrance. He and some of his Pakistani interlocutors knew that agreement is possible without any territorial bargain provided the triangle is kept in focus. Since key elections are near, India and Pakistan can wait, and the machinery of killing spree would go on by killing the poor, crediting it in the account of National Interest Scheme.
Today despite intense street violence, the situation is totally lost. By nature, the youth are angry, leaders are supposed to shape this anger, by positively channelling them and their grievances but as flood waters were seen encroaching the dry land and not taking timely measures, here Mehbooba also excepted that fire will extinguish itself, but unfortunately it burnt the whole forest, and is still burning.
The mantra now is that everything has to be quick fix and catchy. But as the situation is here, and nobody wants to talk to the delegation within the Indian Constitution, the Centre cannot parachute a delegation in the middle of crises and expect the intended gains. The government is crushing the dissent, and denying the rights from the very beginning of the turmoil. Threads of building confidence so that people can speak out without their being any disturbances have to be picked up and very carefully. The government cannot afford to be losing the brief conciliatory window that can establish peace after a violent phase in which many scores of people died and thousands have got injured. There has to be difference in the way government respond as greater responsibility rests on their shoulders. In an agitated atmosphere and total Lockdown of valley for near two months it is rational to think that people may not be easy to approach to.
Efforts should be made to reach out to all the concerned whose intervention and engagement would help in resolving the present crisis. As Karan Singh said, I can write four books on the mistakes committed by the government in Kashmir, it is good indication that state must accept the follies, and to be very candid, in the past 35 years, centre has funded in more than crores for the people of Kashmir for its development works but all went into the black money of the so called politicians, they never even spent the one third of amount for the development of the Kashmir and never made ways to crush unemployment.
Those politicians always remained busy in building their property and worked on nepotism, ignoring youths and only used them while filling their vote banks for a mere amount of 500 to 1500. Can it be said youths somehow are little bit responsible for their doings that fetched them nothing but deceit and deaths. After lifting of curfew from the Valley, the way youths came out to protest from all corners like hungry and violent beings, and hurled stones at security forces, showing their anger, anguish and hatred, depicts the story that they are firm enough this time to resolve this issue of freedom and want justice that never has been done with them since 1947.
If brought under surveillance, by the CBI, they will all be booked in scams and corruptions, in Jammu there are 10 fly overs, but here all fly overs got digested into their so called bank accounts, only one was made in Ghangir Chowk, that too have got many cracks from sides.
The cause is bleeding with injury inflicted on it, the freedom doesn’t imply here that , we are not allowed to offer prayers, we cannot move here and there, here Islam is in danger, Muslims are being killed that is not the criteria here. Criteria is open to all, that our demands are not fulfilled, justice is not given, our birth rights are ignored, promised made with us were always broken, schemes and schedules that were to be implemented and given to us were denied, corruption in jobs with nepotism favoured, deserving candidates were dropped, backdoor entries were made, and lot more, what our past leaders kept for us on papers was never brought in political scenario, was never discussed, all these mistakes or I would rather say blunders brought this revolution to life. Still nothing positive efforts are not done for healing touch. It is sure that the delegation that is visiting Kashmir can’t be of any success, because untill government would delete in bringing Constitution on the table, no talks would be possible from all stakeholders of the Valley including separatists.
The views presented in this article are the Author’s own, and does not in anyway depict the views of the Kashmir Digest. This is an Op Ed
Syed Abadi Hamdani
Freelance Writer
Writes on Social, Economical and Environmental Issues.