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| Common Kashmiri not the problem | | Will Army also teach Hindu literature, Dogriyat? | | NEHA | 5/19/2012 11:58:21 AM |
| JAMMU, May 18: "Killing militants alone will never win us the battle; we have to win the hearts and confidence of the people of Jammu and Kashmir" (read Kashmir)," GOC, Lt. Gen. Syed Atta Hasnain on Thursday told people during a public meet Awami Sunwai at Vilgam, Kupwara, North Kashmir, and added that "I, on the basis of my own experience, while being posted in Kashmir for a long time, can firmly say that we can't uproot militancy by killing militants alone, instead we have to win the hearts of people."
Lt. Gen. Hasnain said many other things to win over the hearts and minds of those who attended the Awami Sunwai function. Two of them needed to be referred to here. One was that he assured that "army men and the tourists would convey the message to the country that Kashmiris are peace loving". The other was that "the army men were being taught Islamic literature and Kashmiriyat in order to build a stronger relationship with common Kashmiri". Fair enough. Lt. Gen. Hasnain is a man on the spot and he knows what to say and what not to say.
However, one cannot completely agree with him when he talks about the common Kashmiri. Why? Why because the common Kashmiri doesn't pose any serious problem to the country. The common Kashmiri wants peace in the Valley so that he is able to do what he wants to do to take care of his family and cater to their basic needs. He is, in fact, fed up with what has been happening in the Valley, particularly since 1989, when the secessionist and sectarian violence engulfed the Kashmir Valley. He wants good governance and yearns for peaceful environment. If at all the common Kashmiri sometimes conduct himself differently, he does so out of fear.
It is Kashmiri leaders, "mainstream" or otherwise, who are responsible for the dance of death and destruction in the state in general and the Kashmir Valley in particular. They mislead the common Kashmiri by playing with his religious sensitivities and by preaching falsehood or distorting history. It is the Kashmiri leadership that has never allowed the common Kashmiri to join the mainstream. It would be too much to say that Lt. Gen. Hasnain doesn't know all this. He knows everything. It is indeed shocking that he has, like certain vested interests in the establishment, not hit the nail on the head by exposing those actually responsible for the rise of extremism and separatism in the Kashmir Valley. He has not done justice by suppressing the truth.
Lt. Gen. Hasnain revealed that the "army men are being taught Islamic literature and Kashmiriyat in order to build a stronger relationship with common Kashmiri". No one is opposed to what he said, notwithstanding the fact that "Kashmiriyat" got exposed the day the miniscule minority of Kashmiri Hindus vacated their original habitat to become refugees in their own country; the day Kashmir got converted into a one community region. But this is not the issue of discussion as it has become part of the history of persecution of minorities in the Kashmir Valley.
The issue to be raked up and discussed in minute details is whether or not the army men should be imparted instructions in one particular religion. The Indian army is a secular institution and it should be held aloof from mullas, maulvis, pandits, priests and granthis and so on. The Indian army has been operating in Kashmir since October 1947 and no one can really refer to any case indicating harassment of any Kashmiri Muslim on the ground of his/her being a Muslim. In Kashmir only those paid the price who challenged the institution of the state and this is what the state does to preserve its territorial integrity and defend its borders and frontiers.
Now that Lt. Gen. Hasnain and others like him in the army have decided to train the army men in Islamic theology, it is time for them to include in the proposed curriculum tenets of Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism and Christianity and also teach Dogriyat and Ladakhiyat which stand for genuine secular and democratic values and peace; respect and accommodation of The Other; preach national unity; seek empowerment of all, without any exception; and hate and despise those seeking separation from India on purely religious ground. Not to do so would be only to create an impression that the likes of Lt. Gen. Hasnain in the army are trying to give a particular type of orientation to those involved in anti-insurgency operations. Will he ensure that the army men are taught the basic tenets of all the religions as well as the chief features of Dogriyat and Ladakhiyat, along with Kashmiriyat? However, one would appreciate if the army men are allowed to conduct themselves in the fashion they conducted themselves before the likes of Lt. Gen. Hasnain toyed with the idea of imparting religious instructions to them |
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