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| Shutdown to prove their relevance | | |
Kashmir valley observed shutdown on Saturday in response to a call given by the hardliners,led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani.Geelani and other separatists had been peeved over the remarks made by Prime Minister,Manmohan Singh,a week ago in which he had stated that vigorous participation of people in the Assembly and the Lok Sabha elections proved that there was no place for separatist ideology in Jammu and Kashmir.Cosequently,Geelani and his supporters wanted to demonstrate that there was space in kashmir for separatist thought.On Friday groups of demonstrators in various parts of the valley clashed with the police in which 25 protesters were injured.They too were demanding freedom while raising anti-India slogans.Friday's protest rallies,though they received luke-arm support from the people,and Saturday's shutdown were meant to convey to Manmohan Singh that separatists were not yet irrelevant.On Saturday normal life was paralysed with shopping
centres shut and passenger transport services off the roads.Most of the schools were closed and attendence in offices and banks was quite thin.This is one scene.The other is large crowds,that too responsive,attending public meetings addressed by Chief Minister,Omar Abdullah,and his cabinet colleagues.One does not miss the usual rush of people outside the residences and office chambers of the ministers.If one believes in the Government version one is apt to accept that response to the shutdowns and protest rallies in Kashmir has been the outcome of convenience and not conviction.People are fed up with the repeated calls for shutdown and protest rallies.The interest in such activities has started dwindling.But the call for shutdown in protest against the Prime Minister's remarks had thrown up a major challenge to the separatists.The separatists had to work hard for motivating people to respond to the call for the shutdown and that is the reason
that the shutdown had to be observed after one week of the Prime Minster's remarks.It was a challege to the very political survival of the separatists who had a developed a feeling that after dumping them irrelevant the centre may not feel obliged to resume talks with them.Well,whatever may have been the purpose and whatever level of response the call for shutdown received separatists succeeded in demonstrating that their writ continued to run in Kashmir.But those who know the political history of the state of Jammu and Kashmir believe that people in the valley are not only with either the rising sun or with the setting sun.They have been everywhere.They have shown their heart throbbing with one set of people,with one set of idea one day and the other day their hearts beat with another set of people and another set of ideas.When Jawaharlal Nehru asked the then Prime Minister,Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad,who had succeeded sheikh Abdullah in 1953,how many
people were with him(Bakshi) the Kashmir Prime Minister had told him(Nehru) "40 lakhs" When the same Nehru asked him how many were with the Sheikh,who was in jail,the Bakshi informed Nehru "40 lakhs".This indicated that people in Kashmir do not like being discourteous and rude to politicians.When Sheikh Abdullah hammered out an accord with Indira Gandhi which enabled the Sheikh to regain power in February 1975 the then Pakistan Prime Minister,Z.A.Bhutto,had given a call for Kashmir shutdown in protest against the accord.The call evoked unprecedented response.Protesters described the Sheikh as "Gadaar"(traitor).And when Sheikh Abdullah returned to Kashmir from Jammu three days after the shutdown large crowds turned hysterical while greeting him from Banihal tunnel to the state's summer capital."Long live Abdullah" was the main slogan that rocked the valley.How to explain it ?Even political pundits have failed to analyse it.
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