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| Sonia's Concern: "Anger" in Kashmir is because of Indian presence there | | | RUSTAM
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Sept 16: Addressing the all-party meeting on Kashmir on Wednesday, UPA chairperson and AICC president Sonia Gandhi linked the ongoing violent movement in the Kashmir Valley to "anger and pain among Kashmiri youth who grew up in conflict and brutality" and suggested that "their legitimate aspirations must be respected and a magnanimous approach adopted to give them hope." Besides, she urged the all-party meet to adopt a "spirit of accommodation and reconciliation", saying "ideological and political difference" should not be allowed to dominate the "spirit of accommodation and reconciliation." In fact, she said: "We are facing far too serious a challenge to allow those differences to stand in the way of resolute, sensitive and appropriate actions".
The concerned Sonia Gandhi also said: "The Congress party is 'more than willing' to support a process of 'healing and dialogue in partnership'…We meet today against the backdrop of escalating violence in Kashmir...Together, let us arrive at suitable decisions on which we can all agree to break this vicious cycle of violence and suffering…Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of 'our country and our democracy'…we must ask ourselves why is there so much anger? Why is there so much pain, in particular amongst the youth?…There are some inimical forces within and beyond the state and we understand the extreme pressures and dangerous circumstances our police and security forces face in protecting our sovereignty and territorial integrity…The people of Jammu and Kashmir are our people, they are our citizens. Let us demonstrate in a spirit of accommodation. This alone, I believe, can create space for reconciliation and bring an end to turmoil and conflict."
What Sonia Gandhi said in the crucial all-party meeting clearly indicates her deep concern over the fast-deteriorating situation in Kashmir, as also her strong urge for peace and order in the trouble Kashmir. She is not just the AICC president. She is also UPA chairperson. Hence, it is quite understandable when she expresses her concern over the Kashmir situation and suggests measures that could end the vicious cycle of violence in the Valley and enable people to resume their day-to-day activities so that they could meet their socio-economic needs. All concerned Indians would share her anxiety and concern.
However, it appears that the political advisors to Sonia Gandhi have not presented to her a true picture of facts. They have misinformed and misled Sonia Gandhi. They have betrayed her and not done justice to Sonia Gandhi who trusts them. Had they kept Sonia Gandhi fully informed about the causes responsible for the ongoing turmoil in the Kashmir Valley or had they given her the right feedback, she would not have posed these two questions: "We must ask ourselves why is there so much anger? Why is there so much pain, in particular amongst the youth?" She would not have talked of accommodation and reconciliation. She would have taken Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and Kashmiri separatists, who are squarely responsible for the ongoing turmoil in the Valley.
The political advisors to Sonia Gandhi should have told her that the anger in the Kashmir Valley is not a new phenomenon; it is an old phenomenon. They should have informed her that the Kashmiri Muslim leadership and their supporters, old and young, are angry because they hate India and have contempt for everything Indian; they are angry because of the Indian presence in Kashmir; they are angry because the Indian nation considers Jammu and Kashmir an integral part of India; they are angry because the Congress party has never allowed the Kashmiri leaders, including Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, Farooq Abdullah and Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, to implement their pernicious anti-India and communal agendas; they are angry because the Congress has brought the state under the ambit of hundreds of Central laws; they are angry because the Congress has refused to organize a plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir; they are angry because the Congress knew that the game-plan of the Kashmiri Muslim leadership all along has been to internalize the Kashmir issue under the garb of "human rights" and force New Delhi to accommodate the aggressor Pakistan in the Indian Jammu and Kashmir and that the Congress has not been allowing them to succeed; they are angry because the Congress and the Indian nation have all along dismissed with contempt the idea of Jammu and Kashmir going out of India; they are angry because New Delhi and the Congress-led dispensation in New Delhi have pumped into Kashmir billions and billions of rupees to meet their financial needs; and they are angry because Islamabad wants them to display their anger everyday so that it is able to dismember India and establish its stranglehold over Jammu and Kashmir and its invaluable water.
In other words, the political advisors to Sonia Gandhi should have informed her that there is "so much pain, in particular amongst the youth" because they are the followers of the likes of Geelanis, Mirwaizs, Muftis, Maliks, the Abdullahs and son on; there is so much pain amongst the Kashmiri youth because the Indian nation is opposing what they want to achieve; there is so much pain amongst the Kashmiri youth not because of unemployment problem in Kashmir because it doesn't exist in Kashmir but because New Delhi is not giving them a political package designed to enable them and their motivators and teachers to establish in Kashmir a theocratic government; there is so much pain amongst the Kashmiri youth because they want the Indian Army and security forces to quit Kashmir; and there is so much pain amongst the Kashmiri youth because they are feeling suffocated in secular and democratic India. They do not need employment and financial packages. They need a political package because they consider Kashmir a disputed territory and consider the Indian political system anti-Islamic.
AICC president Sonia Gandhi would do well to appoint new political advisors so that she gets an accurate picture of facts. Her political advisors, whosoever they are, have outlived their utility. They, like Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, are feeding falsehood. The Congress president just cannot afford to have such advisors who are blissfully ignorant about the Kashmir situation and who have been complicating further the already rather complex situation in Kashmir. The Congress needs to be strengthened and she can strengthen her party by discarding those who are feeding her with wrong information. Besides, she should ask the government of Manmohan Singh to act tough and rein in the likes of Omar Abdullah. |
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