When I had started this blog, I had thought of keeping my writings distinct from my personal experiences. However, a seminar which I happened to attend today had made me cross that line and write about something of which I was a part of as an audience if not a vocal participant.
I thank Shri Tarun Vijay for inviting me to the Multi Party Seminar on Jammu & Kashmir, held at Nehru Museum today. Unfortunately, I reached the seminar quite late and could hardly spend time with him, the same being the primary purpose of my visit. That said, the galaxy of eminent personalities at the seminar made me stay back and be a part of the proceedings.
Owing to prior commitments, I had to move out at 5 PM, without hearing out Yasin Malik and Mehbooba Mufti, two people who I very much wanted to listen to. I am sure that the thoughts of these two separatist leaders, one a born again terrorist responsible for the ethnic cleansing of Kashmir and the other, a prominent leader of a front organization of the separatists who has fought elections waving a green handkerchief, would have been quite interesting. But then, what I did hear from the others, from Ram Jethmalani, Madhu Kishwar, Muzaffar Hussain Baig, representing the PDP and an ex Deputy Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir, Mohd Shafi Uri, MP from National Conference, Sonam Wangchuk Narboo of Ladakh Union Territory Front, Abul Ghani Bhat from the Hurriyat Conference, Nancy Kaul from Panun Kashmir/Daughters of Vitista, Sanjay Tikoo from Kashmiri Pandit Sangharsh Samiti, Ramesh Manwati from Panun Kashmir, Prof Ellora Puri from the Jammu University and belonging to Panthers Party, Balbir Punj, MP, representing the BJP, eminent journalist BG Verghese and a host of Kashmiri Pandit youth, was sufficient to feel distressed and dismayed at the current state of affairs and the future path which we are being pushed towards.
We had Prof Bhat spouting Persian poetry, reminding us that Kashmir was the paradise longed for by the Mughal decadent Jehangir when he died and more ominously, telling the august gathering that the Kashmiri is a snake with a forked tongue. That the Kashmiri is a species which can test, which can bite and which can kill; and that the Kashmiri is a very intelligent and flexible creature, one who balances ragda with participation in polls, the one who has a twisted way of walk, one who adjusts but still persists in what he wants. What do you think the reaction of the public to this speech and assertion of sticking to the core demand would have been? Condemnation or at least rebuttal? No Sir, nothing of that sort. Speaker after speaker (not that many actually) hailed the flexibility of the Hurriyat and painted it as a victory of the ‘normalization’ process, all because Prof Bhat had so kindly desisted from the use of that dreaded word ‘Azadi’
I could not but fail to contrast this with the treatment meted out to Nancy Kaul of Panun Kashmir who was made to shut up by Madhu and Ram. To be fair to Madhu, Nancy was reading out from her prepared script which did not really construe the right reaction to Mr Baig’s statements. However, what stood out for me was its contrast with the treatment meted out to Prof Bhat, who again had only rhetoric and veiled threats to offer. Not only was Nancy forcefully shut up, she was chided by Mr Jethmalani for ‘spoiling the atmosphere’. It would have been laughable had it not been so sad. Here we have a bunch of separatists who have been condemning the country and its people from every available fora being feted and pampered to mitigate their supposed grievances. One the other hand, we have another batch of Nationalists who have been a target of ethnic cleansing in the most brutal a manner, being asked to shut up and not ‘spoil the atmosphere’. This was not the only instance. Another representative from Panun Kashmir, Ramesh Manwati was interrupted twice by Madhu and one other time by another hyper gentleman for hankering back to the past when it was time to move ahead. When Ramesh pointed out that he had been only listening without interrupting even once the entire day and would close in five minutes, Madhu gave way and apologized, with sealed lips and a loud ‘I’m sorry’, inviting smirks and titters from the more liberal and forward looking of the audience.
I could not help but feel dismayed at this discrimination. The real victims have become a National shame, like a penniless cousin in family who everyone prefers to ignore while the bending over backwards to pamper the rich but wicked aunt. So, other than Mr Jethmalani’s chidings, we had Madhu very condescendingly telling the Kashmiri Pandit representatives that everyone feels for them and that no solution of Kashmir is possible without them but that they have to move ahead and not dwell on past. Then we had Prof Ellora Puri giggling when Balraj Punj was narrating the gruesome murder by torture of Rajneesh Sharma in Srinagar. On a more personal interaction level, a lady journalist who has been based out of Kashmir for last 9 years very emphatically telling me that the demands for Panun Kashmir cannot be fulfilled. After all, aren’t they so impractical? Of course impractical! In this country, talking of autonomy short of independence is practical, talking of virtually ceding the territory of the Nation is practical, even talking of secession is practical but talking of building an enclave for the displaced in their own historical lands is an impractical supposition of the highest order, matched only by another impossibility, that is the abrogation of Section 370 of the Indian Constitution.
One learning for me was that we must learn how to play the victim. If I may say so, none of the three representatives of Kashmiri Pandits on board were the suave, sophisticated and articulate type. Contrast them with Prof Bhat and others. It was while the lunch was in progress that Yasin Malik arrived. His arrival for preceded by a public announcement by Madhu that he would be arriving any minute. Malik was the cynosure of all eyes when he came, looking smart and elegant, and more importantly, the type you would want to be photographed with. Now comes the learning part…I went up to Yasin and told him that I do not support anything what he stands for except for his abjuring of violence. Yasin thanked me and while I was shaking his hands drew me close and held me in a hug. Was I astounded? Yes…I was. Firstly, I have never been hugged by anyone who had just met me and secondly, I hadn’t exactly told him that I was his fan. But then, this is probably what makes these ‘victims’ so effective in peddling their victimhood. We, as a Nation, have been suckers for praise, for rhetoric and for feel good and we take everything personally. So, it becomes….there is no way that such a refined and cultured person can be a blood letting terrorist….we must make an effort to walk the extra mile for these people who are the blood of our blood…..the hospitality of the Pakistanis is a delight…if you are an Indian, the taxi driver won’t charge you…the people love each, its only the politicians that….and so on and so forth.. Sadly, the actual victims are probably so overwhelmed by their destiny and sense of loss that they forget the need to play to the gallery in this age of made for order victims. Probably the Kashmiris can train some of their youth to play to the gallery and be the perfect victim. Those present from that community might take heart from the speech of Prof Ellora Puri from the Panthers Party, which was extremely low on substance, repetitive and frankly, pointless but at the same time, very well received. After all, this had come from a pretty lady, with a perfect command over the English language and quite a lot of publications to her credit. So how could the words of this lady be interrupted with comments like..’Please offer a concrete proposal’.
While on Kashmiri Pandit representatives, Sanjay Tikoo from the KPSS made quite a pertinent demand for a truth and justice commission to be formed by the Indian Parliament to look into the issue of how 57,000 youth managed to cross the heavily guarded LoC? In a small but quite significant demand, he called for a stop to the demonization of Jagmohan as the cause of Pandit migration from Kashmir and pointed out that in between 1998 and 2008, the 19,000 strong Pandit population has dwindled down to 3,000. I wish he had spoken of Wandhama and Chittisignpora among others but then, he still lives in Kashmir under the shadow of gun. When Madhu supported the demand for a Truth and Justice Commission but asked Mr Baig on why can’t the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly form such a Commission on his own, Mr Baig conveniently sought refuge in the fig leaf of Atrocities committed by the Indian Security Forces, over which (unfortunately, it seems) the J&K assembly has no jurisdiction and hence cannot address. In one stroke, a demand for seeking of truth behind the rise of terrorism and ethnic cleansing of a vulnerable minority was deflected to the ‘atrocities’ committed by the Indian Security Forces. Any counterpoints made? Of course not!
The double face of Kashmiri separatism is beautifully highlighted by the submission of Mr Baig. His disposition was masterly, emotive and impactful and to be fair to him, if he really meant what he said, then it certainly is a progress from what PDP has stood for. The moot point to note was that the arguments and suggestions offered by Mr Baig were substantively different from the autonomy proposals presented by the PDP in 2000 and circulated in the seminar. But our worthies seem to believe that written words are meaningless and what is said by honourable people is more worthy than Gold. After all, hadn’t Bhutto committed to recognizing rhe LoC as the de jure border? Poor guy could not do anything for he was deposed. After all, we are not Chinese and we should not let ourselves burdened by history. In fact, let us trash all our collective memories and start afresh, without being burdened by irksome wisdom passed on by history. But then, I’m digressing. Let us come back to Mr Baig, I met him during the lunch time and commended him for his comments, his displayed feelings for the Pandits and his commitment towards the resolution the Kashmir issue. Then I asked him if his views represented the views of the party or were his own individual opinion? Very diplomatically, Mr Baig responded that dialogue is a continuous process and people who are of contrarian opinion will be bought around !
That the Indian intellectual class is still in denial mode was bought about quite starkly by the venerable BG Verghese who made a startling claim that the problem of Kashmir is not that of Religion. Huh!!!! We must have been in slumber all along, imagining nightmares that of religion being the root of the issue in hand. We used to think that the Kashmir terror cycle is a Jehad by the Muslims, that it is left over issue of Partition, which happened on religious lines, that Kashmiris want to secede because we are seen as a Hindu Nation (??) and Pakistanis is seen as the logical ummah, that the Kashmiri Pandits were brutalized for they were Hindus, their temples were deflied and descreted because those were kufr and that they protested against Amarnath Yatra because it is a Hindu religious celebration. No Sir…we were all grossly mistaken. After all, if a Magsaysay award winner, that too of such a long standing in public life and a one who has written on Kashmir, says that Religion is not an issue with Kashmir, then it must be true. We must tell the Pandits to stop pretending that they became victims for they were Hindus. They certainly must have conspired with the Devilish Jagmohan and hatched the diabolical plan to run away from their homes and give a bad name to the poor innocent Kashmiri Muslim. The poor innocent Kashmiri Muslim, who used to share his plate with the Pandit was never liked by the Pandit, you know and what better way of getting back to him than to give him a bad name by running away? Cries of 'Agar Kashmir me rehna hai, Allah hu Akbar kehna hai' never rent the air, Mosques never did blare 'Nallay taqdeer Allah-hu-Akbar' nor did newspaper advertise slogans of 'Asya ghazi Kashmir batnain san te batav roose'. Rechristening of Sankaracharya hill to Suleiman Teng or of Anantnag to Islamabad never happened nor did the killing of Tikka Lal Taploo or the rape of Sarla Bhatt ever happen. It must then be malicious propaganda that the Jammu Hindus, the Ladakhi Buddhists and Kashmiri Pandits, want complete integration with India. Am sure that newer revelations by Mr Verghese will throw light on how all these communities secretly hate India and desire to be a part of Nizam-E-Mustafa which certain sections of the Indian intelligentsia are helping the separatists to achieve.
And helping others is something which we Indians have in blood. Even a cursory reader of Indian history will know that each and every invader of our country was ‘helped’, be it Alexander by Ambhi, Muhammad Ghori by Jaichand or Babur by Silhadi. This tradition of helping is still very much alive and kicking and hence, we have an orchestrated campaign by the ‘civil society’ demanding resumption of talks with Pakistan (note that the PDP, NC and Hurriyat are one with this demand) and more dangerously, advocating open borders and horrendously, pitching for ‘Joint Management’ of the state of Jammu and Kashmir by both India and Pakistan. So, we have Mr Jethmalani disclosing that the Jethmalani proposals on Joint Management were actually a slightly revised version of the original proposals sent by Parvez Musharraf to him through a personal channel. Mr Jethmalani then made slight changes in that, got it approved from Musharraf (so logical, you see) and then published it as his own proposal. Mr Jethmalani was quite categorical in stating that he, along with others will organize a campaign to ‘pressurize’ the Government to accept the proposals.
I am still unable to digest all this.
Mr Jethmalani is among the foremost legal brains this country has produced post independence. He may be old and a bit infirm but his mind and tongue seems as sharp as it could be. So, when he says that autonomy merely means shifting of some topics from the Union List to the State List, is makes me doubt my rudimentary understanding of our constitution and federalism. When he says that Section 370 cannot be repealed, except by war, I cannot understand which war is he talking about? The Kashmiris have already been waging a war against the Indian Nation since the last 25 years. Which other war and against whom? When he so vehemently supports Joint Management, I become numb. The thought of Joint Management for me means accepting that Kashmir never belonged to us, that not only Kashmir, Jammu, Ladakh, Pir Panjal, Aksai Chin, Baltistan, Mirpur and Kargil never belonged to us, that the Muslims in India are indeed vestiges of Pakistan whose interests can only be safeguarded by Pakistan and most importantly, that we had actually brutalized and colonized a Nation for the last 62 years. It would mean that in spite of us being under various degrees of foreign occupation for centuries, we are bullies which oppressed a race for more than half a century. I will of course, be then forced to look at our Martyrs as colonial mercenaries and berate India for making such a wasteful expenditure over a piece of land which never gave us revenue but gave us hatred, refugees and dead bodies. Has it ever come to the proponent’s thoughts that Joint Management is a chimera and a mere façade for de facto secession of the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir. Has joint management ever worked, anywhere? And before that, what is the need for Joint Management. What is mine remains should remain with me and what is thine, you take care of. I am very sure that if any of these proponent’s neighbors start claiming their property, these worthies would not decide to own that plot of land together. They would fight tooth and nail to preserve what is theirs. So, why such contempt for a land and people who historically, legally and morally belong to us? Or is it that that these worthies are now tired and want peace at any cost? However great that price might be?
Had I attended this seminar even two years back, I would not have been worried much but I am worried today. My cause of concern the vaccum in the opposition space in India today. If this Government goes ahead with the joint management proposal, the feeble voice of the Kashmiri Pandits would be completely drowned and no party would take up the cause of National and territorial integration of the country. With the BJP being in the state which it is, it is inconceivable that they will do anything other than sending their Generals to Television Studios to offer token protest and then go back to their intrigue camps. The General Public has become too disinterested now and country wide protests by a leaderless mass are not even a distant possibility. As regards the media, the lesser said about these Corporatized profit making front entities, the better. Who will then take up the mantle of stopping these steps towards the eventual dismemberment of our Nation? Who will ensure that the Kashmiri Pandit race is not extinguished from the face of this Earth? Who will lead the struggle to ensure that there remains One Nation with One Flag and One Head of State?
Note: Kashmir here denotes only the Kashmir Valley.
PS:
This seminar was attended by a few Kashmiri Pandit youth who were kids when they were expelled from their homelands. Away from their land of birth, they have grown up and are now seeking justice by organizing in various forms. A learned community reduced to the status of refugees in their own land, eyes and words of these youth denote a mix of pain, anger, desire for justice and longing for their own hearth. Unfortunately, they don’t seem to be on the radar of any of those who claim to speak for the oppressed and the weak. Are they destined to be sometimes greeted with condescending words but most of the times contemptuously ignored? Will there be any end to the tribulations of this community which constantly reminds us that we have failed as a Nation in protecting them?
