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| Is militancy in Kashmir sustained by elements in the South and North Blocks? | | | RUSTAM
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, July 25: There is a feeling that there are certain elements in the New Delhi's South and North Blocks whose weak-kneed policies towards the handful of Kashmiri separatists are helping them regroup themselves and sustain their anti-India violent movement. There is also a feeling that the political leadership in Kashmir is persuading the authorities in New Delhi to go soft and not do anything that has the potential of further "alienating the already alienated people of Kashmir." In other words, there is a feeling that the political leadership in Kashmir doesn't want New Delhi to interfere even if the separatists and militants are on a killing spree or that it wants a freehand for the Kashmiri separatists and others who have been blooding the Kashmir's political scene almost everyday.
The manner in which the authorities in New Delhi and Srinagar are behaving does make one endorse both the views and conclude that there are certain vested interests in both the places who want the otherwise highly disorganized, divided, and even ever-feuding separatists to keep the pot boiling in Kashmir so that New Delhi is able drive Jammu and Kashmir away from the country's national mainstream or the Kashmiri leadership is able to extract major, major concessions from New Delhi. How else should one interpret the freedom with which these handful Kashmiri militants and separatists are carrying on their anti-India activities or carrying on the "quit Jammu and Kashmir movement? These handful separatists have vitiated the whole atmosphere in Kashmir and meticulously created an environment that poses a very live challenge to the very unity and integrity of India and what we also call democratic and secular ethos.
Everyone can count very easily the number of separatists and extremists in Kashmir. Their number is not more than twelve in any case, leave alone those little known and self-styled freedom fighters who have been aligning themselves with one recognized separatist leader or another for reasons not difficult to comprehend. It's trade. It is also too well-known that none of the recognized separatist leaders has his separatist constituency spread across the whole of Kashmir Valley. The area of influence of these separatists is rather limited. It is basically confined to a few localities. It is also not a secret that these handful separatists live under the very tight security cover, which has been provided by none other than the State, and that they cannot survive and sustain even for a day if the authorities withdraw their hand or withdraw official patronage. The people, who are feeling cheated, blackmailed and misled, would lynch them as the angry people of Punjab did to the Khalistanis in the 1980s, and even later on.
That these handful separatists, who are no more popular and who have become multi-millionaire overnight, have been allowed to operate both beneath the surface and over the surface, conduct their anti-India operations without any check and play havoc with the social and economic life of the people is a statement of fact and no one can deny it. It must remain a matter of shame for those who have, instead of discharging their obligations towards the state, have been actually directly or indirectly supporting those responsible for the breakdown of the law and order machinery and political anarchy and instability. The situation is such that even those ruling the state have been asking the authorities to start negotiations with the separatists overlooking the fact that any settlement that they would reach with the authorities would be at the cost of the Kashmir's political elite, which has been in command since October 1947. They should have acted against the separatist leaders and shown them their rightful place, but, no, they want New Delhi to talk to those who have contempt for India and everything Indian and whose sole objective is separation of the state from India and establishment of a system that is strictly in accordance with the Shari laws.
Can anyone in any other country of the world operate in the manner the handful Kashmiri separatists have been operating with impunity and going scot-free? No one can. And, in case anyone dares to indulge in the kind of activities the Kashmiri separatists have been indulging in, he will be immediately neutralized. Take into consideration what the Americans, the Britons, the Chinese and the Pakistani Government, to mention only a few, do in case anyone indulges in subversive and anti-state activities and you will get the right answer.
But here in India the attitude is altogether different. The authorities here, instead of eliminating the menace of separatism, extremism and terrorism, treat the subversives, communalists and separatists with kid-gloves. The latest development is the report that the "Central Government is contemplating an offer to separatist parties a dilution of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA); that "New Delhi is also understood to have decided to a hold a full-fledged inquiry into deaths of 17 civilians in various incidents of police and CRPF firing on protestors since June 11"; and that "an employment package is also contemplated."
This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but with whimper. The need of the time was to go in for some stringent anti-terror laws; the needs was to strengthen the law and order machinery; the need of the time was to defeat the separatists comprehensively; and the need of the time was to tell the state government to act or quit, but the authorities in New Delhi, obviously at the behest of the ruling class, came out with an agenda which, if given effect to, would further help the Kashmiri separatists to sustain their anti-India struggle. So at a time when tough action was needed to send a right signal across the Kashmir Valley, New Delhi has acted otherwise. It has sent a signal that will only lower the morale of the security forces and weaken our security grid and embolden the separatists to further heighten their anti-India activities. Who, then, is sustaining militancy in Kashmir? It is a very straight and simple question. Even a lay man would take no time in answering this question.
When will the authorities in New Delhi muster courage and act?
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