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| Beware of interlocutors on Jammu and Kashmir | | STARK REALITY | |
RUSTAM
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Dec 16: Interlocutors for Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) Dilip Padgaonkar, M M Ansari and Radha Kumar would be in Jammu for four days from tomorrow. They would visit different districts of the province and interact with people to find out what could meet their needs and resolve the so-called Kashmir problem. This would be their third visit to state. Earlier, they visited the state in October and November. The Government of India appointed them on December 13, 2010. Those who think that these interlocutors would adopt a holistic approach and take into consideration the aspirations of different people inhabiting different regions of the state are living in a fool’s paradise. The manner in which they conducted themselves during their earlier visits did establish that they are biased and that their single-point agenda is to appease those in Kashmir who have no love lost for India and who want the state to have a separate dispensation. The recommendations they made to the Union Government after their earlier visits is a proof that they are sympathetic towards the extremists and separatists in Kashmir.
What have they done so far? They have only given legitimacy to the kind of politics the Kashmiri separatists and Maoist terrorists have been indulging in to wreck the Indian State. And, it was altogether unexpected. It was not altogether unexpected that the newly-appointed interlocutors on J&K, Dileep Padgaonkar and Radha Kumar, would come to the rescue of the radical Islamist Syed Ali Shah Geelani and rabid Maoist Arundhati Roy, who openly preached and instigated sedition in the heart of the Indian capital, Delhi, on October 21.
It was expected that they would try to browbeat the chicken-hearted and ambivalent custodians of the Indian State and urge them to let the secessionists go scot-free in the name of freedom to speech, saying India is a ‘mature democracy’ (whatever that means), and hence it should not feel concerned if freedom is (mis)used to preach treason and instigate open secession.
It was expected that they, like J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, protagonist of autonomous status for the state and division of Jammu province and Ladakh region on communal lines; former Chief Information Commissioner and J&K-cadre IAS officer Wajahat Habibullah; and well-known supporter of Maoists/Naxalites and Islamic zealots Prashant Bhushan; would defend to the hilt the rank separatists and communalists.
Yet it should alarm the Indian nation and make it sit up and decide whether the views propagated by Padgaonkar and Kumar are conducive to the survival of the Indian State . If New Delhi comes to the conclusion, as it surely must, that these views are contrary to the integrity of the nation, it must consider whether they conform to Wajahat Habibullah’s anti-India lobby (about which much has been written in the past, as readers of The Early Times would be aware).
The Prime Minister, Home Minister, and the entire union cabinet must demand that the Padgaonkar-Kumar duo publicly condemn the views expressed by Geelani, Roy, Varavara Rao and others of their ilk in Delhi that day, or quit. Their continuation as interlocutors even for a day will cause grievous injury to the Indian nation – an injury that may be incurable for a long, long time.
Padgaonkar and Kumar seem to subscribe to a school of thought that dismisses the Indian State as a banana republic and subverts the Indian State in the name of “justice” and under the guise of freedom to speech, with the help of elements within the establishment. The specious arguments they advanced to defend Geelani, Roy, Rao et al, who spewed venom on the Indian State and advocated independence for J&K under the very nose of the Union Government and its police force, to influence authorities in South and North Blocks, echoed the whines of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, Wajahat Habibullah, Prashant Bhushan and Nidhi Razdan (NDTV).
First, the views of Habibullah and Bhushan in defence of Geelani-Roy & Co. Habibullah shamelessly told a leading national daily (The Times of India): “We should not be afraid of the term azadi, especially if somebody is demanding greater azadiwithin India. But if somebody demands azadi from India, we should engage in a debate with them rather than take draconian action. Legalities apart, I would think that any attempt to take criminal action against Geelani and Roy for their speeches would be counterproductive as it would give the impression that we are afraid or vulnerable.’’ (To be continued)
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