[Reader-list] Hindu Communalists ! and Jammu keeps Burning

[Pawan Durani]

*KASHMIR IMAGES, August 2, 2009*

*Good you talked about Hindu communalists of India, why not about Muslim
fundamentalists of Kashmir?*

*By Vimal Sumbly*

Dear Omar,

please accept my heartiest congratulations for an impassionate speech you
delivered in the parliament on July 22.
It would be remembered as one of the best speeches ever delivered in the
parliament. I have always felt proud about your secular and nationalistic
credentials. Unlike most other politicians in Kashmir, you and your
illustrious father Dr Farooq Abdullah have the distinction of never playing
with the secessionist sentiments of people in Kashmir. As you began your
speech in the parliament that you are a Muslim and you are an Indian and
there was no difference between the two, you were speaking straight from
your heart. In fact you never needed to say that, you have always proved it
indeed.
However I beg to differ with the widespread public opinion generated by your
"extempore speech". For the speech was not at all addressed to the
parliament, nor to the billion Indians who were watching you live on the
television. It was aimed at the select "secular Muslims of Kashmir" whom you
are going to ask for their vote very soon. I salute you for the courage to
call a spade a spade. You rightly criticized the Bharitya Janata Party for
its communal agenda. I believe your regret and apologies were obviously
aimed at the Kashmiri Muslims. You rightly criticized the Communists for
being self proclaimed guardians of the Indian secularism, while not minding
to side with the "communal BJP" in toppling the government.

Dear Omar, I know and you know that you paid a heavy price in 2002 assembly
elections in Kashmir for not having resigned on the Gujarat riots. You and
your party were defeated in the elections, mainly because you were blamed
for sharing power with the "communal BJP" at the centre. That ghost might be
still haunting you. But you showed enough moral courage to apologize to the
Kashmiri Muslims. You berated the BJP to the maximum possible extent. That
is for you and the BJP to decide. Your speech was rated among the best by
various television channels. Taking it on the face value everybody would
like it. Because, it was rhetoric at its best. Particularly when you had
chosen the two best targets, the Communists and the BJP, who were obviously
not liked by many across the country for their opportunistic "understanding"
to topple the government for entirely different reasons.

I wish you gathered the same moral courage, which you showed in the
parliament to denounce the Hindu communalists, to condemn the Muslim
communalists in Kashmir. I feel sorry the way you defended the anti Amarnath
land transfer agitation in the parliament. And hats off to you that you
presented it to be a "secular" agitation for the land. Let you tell me and
the whole of nation who was going to take away the land from you. Had LK
Advani been allotted the land to settle down his "communal brigade" there?
It was just a temporary transfer to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board to
facilitate the pilgrimage of lakhs of pilgrims coming from across the
country. And is the Shrine Board an outside agency? Isn't it just a state
agency controlled by the state government itself? The matter of the fact is
that you joined the course of competitive communalism that was initiated by
your rivals, the People's Democratic Party and hijacked by secessionists
like Sayeed Ali Shah Geelani. And how brilliantly you presented it in
"secular colours". What if the Hindus outside Kashmir rebel in the same way
and seek vacation of Haj houses? That has never been done and it will never
be done.
Not everybody across the country knows that the grave of your grandfather,
Sher-i-Kashmir, Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah still needs a heavy posse of cops
and mostly drawn from central paramilitary forces to be defended against the
same "secular" Muslims of Kashmir. And we all know Sheikh Sahib was a true
secular leader who opted for secular India against an Islamic Pakistan. Had
it not been for him, Kashmir would not have been with India. So, who is
wrong your grandfather or the "secular" Kashmiri Muslims, whom you defended
with such a strong conviction? Like you apologized to the Kashmiri Muslims
for "sleeping with the communal BJP", you should also apologize to the
people of Jammu whom you accused of being communal. This was too hurting.
Let you not forget that you still feel safer in Jammu than in Kashmir and
there has not been a selective communal killing in Jammu despite so much
provocation in Kashmir valley. You certainly owe an apology to the people of
Jammu also and the current phase of violence was provoked by "the best"
speech you delivered in the parliament.

And please don't mislead the county that no Amarnath pilgrim was ever
attacked. There have been scores of attacks resulting in scores of deaths
during the past two decades on the pilgrims. And also let the record be
straightened that the Amarnath cave was not discovered by a Muslim about 150
years ago. Its mention is in Neelamat Puran as well. Besides, when the
Kashmiri Pandits were subjected to atrocities during the regime of
Aurangzeb, they (the Kashmiri Pandits) had gone to Amaranth to seek divine
intervention. It is here that they decided to approach Guru Tegh Bahadur in
Anandpur Sahib and that is over 300 years ago.

I am sure, you are an honest and a well meaning person. I not only see a
bright future for Kashmir in you, but for the entire country. We need
leaders like you, passionate, forthright, honest, brilliant and daring. To
conclude I tell, rather I request you one small thing. This is too personal.
That I am myself a Kashmiri like you. I am thorough Kashmiri in language, in
culture, in life and in everything. I have been thrown out of my Kashmir 18
years ago. Even remaining away, I have maintained my language, my culture
and my lifestyle as a true Kashmir. You will say that, I was not thrown out
as it was Jagmohan who prompted me to move out. Presuming that I went out at
Jagmohan's behest, but can you help me now to return my piece of land, less
than half an acre, no big deal. It has been occupied by one of my "secular
Muslim" classmates with whom I used to go to school for twelve long years.
He knows I cannot do anything. You said, you will fight for the rights of
your land. Will you help me to return my land, like you pleaded the cause of
other fellow Muslim Kashmiris. I am also your fellow Kashmiri who still
cherishes the memories of his home. Don't disappoint me. Because I think you
are not only brave but bold as well. Have courage to speak for me. Whether I
get my land back or not, would not bother me, but I would feel consoled that
a fellow Kashmiri stood for me, like he stood for other fellow Kashmiris.
I understand that writing to you this way is enough to get me pronounced as
communal and an activist of RSS and Shiv Sena. But let me put it on record
that ours was among a few exceptional Pandit families that always voted for
the National Conference and not the Congress. You can verify it from my same
friend who has grabbed my land. We used to participate together in National
Conference processions. And I still believe that the National Conference is
the best bet for the people of Jammu and Kashmir, particularly under the
dynamic leadership of a young, brilliant, brave and daring leader like you.
 My sincere apologies if I have been harsh to you, I never wanted to cloud
the glory of your speech in parliament, I only wanted to set the record
straight. Because truth must be told howsoever bitter it may be.