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| Time for Omar Abdullah to act against ‘vested interests’ | | STARK REALITY | |
RUSTAM
JAMMU, FEB 3: Commenting on the killing of teenage Wamiq Farooq last Sunday, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah opined two days later that certain “vested interests” are responsible for the killing of the boy.
He was absolutely right when he indirectly accused the out-on-the-limb, frustrated and desperate APHC of Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Tehrik-e-Hurriyat chief Syed Ali Shah Geelani, the Kashmir Bar Association and similar other outfits.
However, the ruling coalition cannot escape the accusation that it itself has been quite soft towards those whom the Chief Minister described as “vested interests”. It would be no exaggeration to say that the State Government has virtually abdicated its authority in Kashmir, thus enabling these “vested interests” to not only regroup and reorganize themselves but also to motivate the innocent Kashmiri Muslims, including young boys, to come on the streets; raise anti-India and pro-Pakistan and pro-independence slogans; indulge in stone-pelting to provoke the police, the Army and the paramilitary forces; and bring all the activities in the Kashmir Valley to a grinding halt.
The comprehensive story filed by the Kashmir-based Resident Editor of Early Times Ahmed Ali Fayyaz on what happened during the Tuesday shutdown across the Valley is an additional proof that those running the government have a very soft corner for those seeking to put the Kashmir Valley on fire in the manner they did it in 2008 and 2009 (on the Shopian episode to further their vested interests and remain in limelight.
There was no need for JKPCC chief Prof Saif-ud-Din Soz, National Conference general Secretary Sheikh Nazir Ahmed, National Conference MLA and uncle of the Chief Minister Mustafa Kamaal and chairperson of State Commission for Women Shameema Firdaus to ask Omar Abdullah to “restrain police and paramilitary forces” at a time when the security forces were discharging their lawful duties in order to keep everything under control. What they did it and complicated further the situation for the State Government by making such unwarranted statements, plus the statement that inquiry should be heal to find out the culprits.
The statements these leaders of the ruling coalition made have only emboldened the “vested interests” and lowered the position of the Chief Minister and the government he has been heading in his own style in the eyes of the people, thus strengthening the hands of all those out to blacken the face of India using one pretext or the other.
The fact of the matter is that those controlling the state’s political and administrative machinery have never acted in the fashion they should taking into consideration the fact that there are elements in the Kashmir Valley who first foment trouble and ensure firing and then fish in the troubled waters. The 20-year history of the violent struggle in Kashmir is replete with such innumerable instances. The history of the 20-year-old secessionist movement in the Kashmir Valley leaves no one in any doubt that those stoking fire in the Valley have nothing to do with the well-being of the common people and that all or nearly all the separatist leaders survive and thrive on the blood of gullible and emotional Kashmiri Muslims, including young men and women. These “vested interests” have at no point of time during all these 20 years of turmoil and bloodshed ever realized the magnitude of the adverse impact of their subversive activities on the Kashmiri society and economy.
The most negative aspect of the whole situation has been the attitude of the political establishment towards what these “vested interests” have been consistently doing to ruin the Kashmir’s economy and harm the common Kashmiri Muslims, who only want peace and normalcy so that they could carry on their social and economic activities in a peaceful environment and regenerate their life in order to survive in this period of cut-throat competition. Had the authorities recognized this stark reality together with another reality that the people are fed up with the gun-culture and politics of shutdown and nipped the “vested interests” in the bud, things today would have been somewhat different and the Chief Minister would not have in a precarious situation as he is in today.
It is time for the Chief Minister and his government, whatever be its nature, to adopt a right approach towards the “vested interests”. The best thing for him to do would be to announce enough is enough and tell everyone that violence and protests engineered by the “vested interests” shall not be tolerated and that if the “vested interests” wish to escape the official wrath, they have no other option but to work for the welfare of the state as well as the liberal Indian nation as a whole. To continue to pursue the old line would be only to add to its own woes.
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