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| "Muslims of Kashmir branded as terrorists," says Farooq Abdullah | | | RUSTAM
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Feb 21: Emphasizing the need of improved relations between India and Pakistan on Sunday at Patna, NC president and Union Minister for Renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah expressed the view that friendly relations between the two countries would be "in the interest of people" and warned that "a strained relations with the neighbour" would bring more "miseries to the masses, especially of J&K and those living in close range across the border." He did make a point and made it while addressing Shah Mustaq Memorial Urdu Conference. India and Pakistan need to live as good neighbours, but it is Pakistan that wants India to clap with one hand. It wants a settlement that promotes its geo-political interests in the region and that hands over the Indian J&K to Islamabad on a platter - something not acceptable to the Indians, notwithstanding the New Delhi's week kneed policies towards Pakistan.
However, what should move every citizen in the country was what he said about the Muslims of J&K. He bemoaned and said: ''Muslims of Jammu and Kashmir are being branded 'terrorists' by some vested elements across the country and abroad…Such distortion of the image has caused such level of difficulties that Muslims of the Valley are finding it hard to get a rented house in New Delhi…'We failed to create society as father of the nation Mahatma Gandhi had dreamt of which could provide equal opportunity to all, irrespective of caste and creed…There is no way except moving ahead with strong commitment for secularism and all of us should strive for the same."
One can really feel the pain and anxiety of Farooq Abdullah. No one should be treated like this. There should be no discrimination on the basis of caste and creed. All are Indians and Kashmir belongs to India as much as India belongs to Kashmir. However, one would have appreciated Farooq Abdullah, had he thrown some light on what he and other Kashmiri leaders have done to bring the Muslims of Kashmir into the national mainstream and promote secularism in the state.
There appears nothing on the ground that could even remotely suggest that they have ever done anything worthwhile that could bridge the gulf between the Muslims of Kashmir and the rest of the Indians. On the contrary, they have consistently sought to hold the Muslims of Kashmir aloof and watched the situation as mute spectators under which the minorities in the Valley were persecuted and forced to quit their homes and hearts and questions were raised about the political status of the state vis-à-vis India. They never did anything whatever to take on those who cleansed the Valley of all the non-believers in order to give a particular type of orientation to the Kashmiri politics and society. As a matter of fact, they also contributed directly and indirectly to the process of religious cleansing and process of giving a particular type of orientation to the state's administrative apparatus and social and economic institutions. It would be no exaggeration to say that those in Kashmir who call them mainstream leaders are more responsible for than those who call them separatists.
Farooq Abdullah and other "mainstream" Kashmiri leaders have to intervene and create a situation across the country that makes the rest of the Indians believe that Kashmiri Muslims and their fellow Indians are one as far the issue of the national unity, territorial integrity and sovereignty is concerned and that the fellow Indians would be allowed to exercise all rights in Kashmir in the manner the Kashmiri Muslims exercise in the rest of the country. Law Minister and Chairman of the Constitution Drafting Committee Dr B R Ambedakar was right when he told in 1949 told Sheikh Abdullah: "You want India and Indians to defend Kashmir. You want Kashmir and Kashmiris to exercise all rights all over India, but you do not want India and Indians to exercise all rights in Kashmir. I am Law Minister of the country and I cannot be a party to such an act of betrayal of the national interest."
It's time for Farooq Abdullah and other "mainstream" Kashmiri leaders to go by the sane counsel of Dr Ambedakar. If they do so, things would change dramatically. He can do so. It is his party that is ruling the state. It can change the situation by its words and actions on the ground. He would not then bemoan in the manner he bemoaned at Patna. Blaming the rest of the Indians would not help change the situation. |
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