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| Opposition in Kashmir to the cult of hartal | | At the cost of people | |
Rustam
JAMMU, July 7: Even the supporters of anti-India movement in Kashmir have started opposing the politics of hartal being indulged in by separatist leadership in the Valley. They have started saying that they are "at a loss to understand the frequent hartals in Kashmir". "I am not able to figure out who the strike call is intended to hurt. It is hurting no one but the Kashmiris themselves. Let alone neighboring Punjab, even Jammu is not affected much if life comes to a grinding halt in Kashmir. Hospitals, schools, colleges, shops remain open in Jammu. People go about their daily business. Courtesy the hartals in Kashmir which have become a common affair, it is only the Kashmiri who is deprived of a normal day's routine. Leave alone drawing international attention to Kashmir's problems, the frequent hartals here do not affect or concern anybody outside, barring the local Kashmiri who has to suffer it, " wrote a pro-separatist commentator-cum-researcher-cum-NGO the day Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Kashmir to inaugurate hydel power project at Uri and the day Kashmir on the call given by separatists observed hartal. No only this researcher, even former chairman of J&K Bank Haseeb Drabu, who joined the PDP only a few days ago and will be contesting the upcoming assembly election, had, according to this commentator/researcher, have expressed identical views in a seminar. Drabu, according to him, said at a seminar that the "hartal and boycott policy adopted by the separatist leadership was self-defeatist, since it was only hurting the economy of Kashmir and the Kashmiris". The said researcher/commentator claimed that his "attempts to study this pattern of hartals in Kashmir have led me to highly thought-provoking write-ups by leading Kashmiri thinkers" and said: "In one such article published in June 2009, a Kashmiri social analyst noted that Kashmir was the land of hartals - hartal yesterday, hartal today, hartal tomorrow. He rightly emphasized that a weak nation goes weaker without enough working days, and the Kashmiris had to devise a peaceful method of protest beyond strikes. 'Is strike the only weapon with us? Whom are we punishing by calling strikes on every small and big issue,' he questioned". The researcher further said : "Over the years, highly respected Kashmiri thinkers have observed that there is no evidence of strikes in Muslim history. A leading Kashmiri scholar made the significant point that there was no significant correlation between strikes and successful liberation movements across the world. 'Who are we punishing here and how does India get affected if we boycott economic activity and work,' he noted. It was only the Kashmiri children who could not go to school, the sick who could not go to the doctor, the daily wagers who lost their daily wages, he said. The article by this Kashmiri thinker, written in June 2009, was so overpowering in its simple, straightforward appeal that I quote straight from it: No nation can achieve freedom when it is feeble, and strikes makes Kashmiri nation even feebler.
Nobody can deny that troops commit human rights violations in Kashmir. An alternative strategy needs to be evolved to protest and counter the human rights violations. If we would provide a conducive atmosphere to our students for studies, they would thrive at national and international level where they can project the plight of Kashmiris at bigger forums. Blackout in the night, pen down strikes in offices for an hour and other ways can be devised to protest against the atrocities committed by the troops. Students, lawyers, doctors wearing black badges during work is a better way to protest and can be sustained for long. Strikes have never been able to attract international attention towards Kashmir. How many times due to strikes international human rights organizations have taken cognizance of any human rights violation and pressurized New Delhi to be cautious? Strikes remain localized to a few localities of Srinagar and other towns. They miserably fail to achieve their objective which is to internationalize human rights violations in Kashmir".
Those who oppose the politics of hartal saying it has failed to help the separatists' cause and that it has only been hurting the common people of Kashmir do make a valid point. But the question is: Will the out-on-the-limb and unscrupulous separatists, who have been surviving and thriving on the blood and sweat of the poor, will pay any heed to such counsels? This is the question only they can answer.
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