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| vHoisting National Flag | | Are Kashmiri Muslims Indians or a race apart? | | NEHA
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Jan 23: Are Kashmiri Muslims Indians? Is the decision of the BJP to hoist national flag at Lal Chowk, Srinagar, is something unholy, unconstitutional, provocative, divisive, communal and politically motivated? Why these questions? Why because even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has cautioned the BJP not to go ahead with its programme, saying parties should desist from scoring "political points" or "promoting divisive agendas" and peace should not be disturbed in the "sensitive" Jammu and Kashmir.
That the Prime Minister has taken such a stand on the BJP's plan to hoist national flag in Srinagar on the Republic Day should establish beyond any shadow of doubt that he, like the Kashmiri separatists, National Conference leaders included, doesn't consider Jammu and Kashmir an integral part of India and believes, like the separatists, that hoisting of national flag by the BJP or by any other political party can disturb peace in what he calls "sensitive" Jammu and Kashmir.
What is sensitive about Kashmir? Is it not part of India or are not the Kashmiri Muslims Indians? How would the hoisting of national flag at Lal Chowk help the BJP score political points or help it politically elsewhere in the country? Every political party, like the BJP, hoists national flag on the Republic Day. What difference would it make if the BJP hoists national flag at Srinagar and someone from the Jammu and Kashmir government at the Bakshi Stadium in Srinagar? Should one conclude that all the Kashmiri Muslims are anti-Indians? And, if the answer is in the affirmative, then what is the rationale behind the Prime Minister's oft-repeated assertion that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India and that the people of Kashmir a part and parcel of the Indian society. Again, if one endorses the Prime Minister's stand, then how can anyone opposes the ongoing separatist movement in the Valley being spearheaded by a handful of Pakistani agents like Geelani, Mirwaiz and others of their ilk?
There is nothing sensitive about Kashmir except the fact that the Valley houses Muslims. If one goes by what the Prime Minister has said, then it can be concluded that the Kashmiri Muslims have little or scant regard for India and that the Kashmiri Muslims hate the national flag or hate all the symbols of the Indian State. It is a dangerous approach and it would surely further widen the already rather wide gulf between the Kashmiri Muslims and the rest of the Indians. The Prime Minister's stand has not enhanced the people's confidence in his leadership. On the contrary, it has led many to believe that he has taken a stand that would cause an irreparable damage to the national cause and make the international community believe that New Delhi regards the Kashmiri Muslims a race apart and, hence, they deserve political emancipation from India.
One can easily understand the reasons behind the communally and politically motivated opposition of the National Conference or the People's Democratic Party or the Kashmiri separatists of all hues to the decision of the BJP to hoist national flag in Srinagar because they have scant regard for India and because their hatred and contempt for the Indian Constitution and everything Indian, minus the Indian taxpayers' money, is not a secret. But why should the Prime Minister take a stand similar to the one taken by the Kashmiri leadership on an issue of national import? By taking the kind of stand he has taken, the Prime Minister has not only walked into the Kashmiri separatists' dangerous trap, but has also simply strengthened the Pakistani stand on Jammu and Kashmir. He has simply, like the Kashmiri separatists, suggested that the bottom line in Kashmir is secession and it is based on the two-nation theory.
The need of the time was to ensure a large-scale participation of the Kashmiri Muslims in the Republic Day celebrations and not to take the kind of the stand the Prime Minister has taken. The need of the time was to bring the Kashmiri Muslims closer to the national mainstream and not to drive them away from it as every Kashmiri leader and New Delhi did in the past by holding them aloof. There is still time to rectify the mistake. The Prime Minister simply has to isolate the marginal anti-India elements, put things in perspective and take concrete measures designed to integrate the Kashmiri Muslims in the national mainstream. To give a communalize colour to the national flag would be simply to polarize the nation on communal lines and ensure balkanization of the country. New Delhi has already committed several blunders. It should desist from complicating further the already rather complex situation in the Valley where an overwhelming majority of Kashmiri Muslims long for peace and the desperate and defeated Kashmiri communalists are waiting for an opportunity to strike and further their sinister agenda. |
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