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| Now look at wider issues | | | | There is a deep sense of victory in Jammu and it is not misplaced. People are celebrating the restoration of land to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board. However, the larger issues still remains to be addressed. People in Kashmir are protesting the agreement reached at between the Government and the Shri Amarnath Yatra Sangharsh Samiti. The wisdom at this juncture suggests that our victory should be actually “our victory”. The meaning “our victory” as someone else’s defeat is no victory as long as we have a pledge to stay together. During this course of agitation and also protests in Kashmir Valley over past few weeks, a dominant voice from all sections of society had said that whatever has happened now is a manifestation of the anger pent up for last 60 years. This is true. Then people asked that the Government of India has always indulged in a policy of appeasement and adhocism. This is also true. In this perspective, if one looks at the victory which people are celebrating, it is still the halfway around. We, the people in Jammu and in rest of country, need to be clear with our own selves about what we want to do with Kashmir. Traditionally we have always wanted not only keeping Kashmir as an integral part of India but also reclaiming the part of our state which is under illegal occupation of Pakistan. If this sense of our nationalism and patriotism still holds good then we must understand that the agreement has not been able to address the basic issue that lay at the root of the trouble that erupted in both the regions of the state and engulfed them in a conflagration. The unwise decision of the Ghulam Nabi Azad government to transfer the land to the shrine board had set off the chain of events that led to a consolidation of discriminated sentiments in the Jammu region and strengthening of the movement for “azadi” in the Kashmir Valley. The organisations in Jammu and the political elements who supported them may feel that they have gained but the state has actually lost because the gulf between the two regions has widened more than ever. Instead of having complementary interests they now seem to be moving in different directions, we need to understand this with a sense of logic and reasoning. The most unwelcome consequence of the land transfer issue was the increase in the sense of alienation in the Valley which has compounded problems for India. The sentiments and attitudes in the Valley have reached a higher level of defiance and even the methods of defiance are more difficult to handle now. Both the state administration and the Central government are handicapped and lack ideas about how to handle the situation that has emerged in the Valley. In the vicious cycle of action and reaction, the situation can only become more and more intractable. All those people who call themselves as true nationalists and patriots should draw out a strategy which fights for the rights of Jammu but not at the cost of Kashmir’s integration with India. |
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