Kashmir is ours, Kashmiris are ours and Kashmiriyat is also ours: Rajnath Singh
BY HARVINDER AHUJA
It wasnice to hear from Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh that “Kashmir is ours, Kashmiris are ours and Kashmiriyat is also ours”. Addressing a public meeting in Sikkim on Sunday, the senior BJP minister also said that “Our Government will find a permanent solution to the problem of Kashmir”.
A significant statement indeed, but its genuineness will always remain questionable in the mind of an ordinary Kashmiri. That’s because what has been lacking all along, and more so under the Modi dispensation, is to treat Kashmiris as part of the national mainstream. The ‘them’ versus ‘us’ sentiment gets all the more pronounced during jingoisticdebates aired on national news channelsday in and day out.
What has been missing from the national discourse is treating Kashmiris as one of us. “Kashmir Bharat ka atoot ang hai” (Kashmir is integral part of India), we keep on hearing. But there is hardly any talk of Kashmiris being like any other citizen of India. No one wants to part with the land mass that is Kashmir but there is little empathy with those who inhabit this region.
Successive governments at the Centre have been espousing lot of bluster on Kashmir but no serious attempt has ever been made to solve the core issue which is at the heart of the seven-decade-old imbroglio. Dismissing it merely as a handiwork of Pak mischief has not helped solve the problem so far, and is not going to do so in the future as well.
While stone-pelting, violence or killings (which are the dominant Kashmir imagery in national conscience) can no way be justified, the fact that there is genuine anger in the Valley and there have been serious mistakes on the part of New Delhi can also not be ignored. Raking up history may become tedious here but a dispassionate look at the recent past is sufficient to prove why Kashmiris, particularly the youth, are feeling wronged and alienated.
The PDP-BJP alliance had thrown up a golden opportunity, even though it was not to the liking of an ordinary Kashmiri. The Bharatiya Janata Party, which was always seen as a core Hindutva outfit in the Valley, and therefore suspect, could have risen about petty politics and, along with its dominant partner, initiated some serious steps to usher peace in Kashmir but all it has done so far is to the contrary.
No confidence-building measures have been taken and not a single promise in the ‘Agenda of Alliance’ has been brought near its fruition. No attempt has been made to let a Kashmiri breathe a little more freely by starting the AFSPA withdrawal process. No reassurance made on the sanctity of Article 370. No development projects initiated and no fresh job opportunities created. Instead, polarising issues like beef-eating, gharwapsi or cow-slaughter have come to hog the national limelight causing increased fear and further alienation in the Valley.
The Government’s mishandling of the situation post-Burhan Wani’s killing has angered the youth to no end. The use of pellet guns and the incalculable damage they causedhave deeply wounded the Kashmiri psyche. The sense of alienation of an ordinary Kashmiri has been exacerbated by all these and now even school and college students are out on the streets clashing with security forces. Reports, at times exaggerated, of stray attacks on Kashmiri students studying outside the state have led to more disaffection and estrangement.
What has been missing all along is an attempt to reach out. Leave aside Central representatives, even the local elected representatives have failed to assuage the feelings of the youth in the Valley. Political class, across the spectrum,has virtually become redundant and disgruntled Kashmiri youths are left nowhere to go to. Anti-national forces and enemy country Pakistan are bound to find the ground fertile to carry forward their evil designs.
It’s in the fitness of things that voices emanating from Kashmir are heard, and acted upon as well. Dubbing the entire chorus as anti-national or secessionist is like showing an ostrich approach. There could be some genuine demands which can be met within the framework of the Constitution,and they need to be acceded to. There must be others which deserve outright rejection and these should be dumped. But for all this to happen, the right kind of atmosphere has to created which can be done only by treating Kashmiris as “one of us”.
That is why the Union Home Minister’s statement is loaded with significance, provided it is made with serious intent. No one would like it to become another ‘jumla’, for which the BJP Government is well known by now. Neither should it ever meet the fate of Vajpayee’s oft-repeated phrase: “Insaaniyat, jamhooriyat and Kashmiriyat”!
(The author is Delhi based Consulting Editor of Kashmir Age and can be reached at: harrysnigi@gmail.com)
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