[Reader-list] She, Me and Obah Muah!

[gowhar fazli]

SHE: gud one!! The status!! Ha ha!!  (Commenting on my status of OBAH MUAH!)

HE: :)

SHE: actually it was my kind of romance and bollywud magic that day on tv ...drama, suspense, tears, smooches and kisses....wah!!!

HE: and compare the two elections... one in Kashmir n one in US!

SHE: How can there be any comparison.....look at the conduct of political parties in jk, the language and hate for each other....more to blame is also Hurriyat....even in larger mainstream India......in fact in south Asia, the polity is mired with corruption, vote bank and slur....we still have to grow as a democracy...remember we are only 60..as compared to US 200. As far as Kashmir is concerned...Hurriyat is doing what exactly they blame the Indian govt of doing...I was speaking to Gousia Bashir, a young woman contesting from Bandipora...the kind of threats she is receiving... what does the Hurriyat want ...Governor rule....I know of so many of them who have used and subverted democratic institutions for their own interest. U know the major draw back in our part of the world is that we do not have the courage for self correctness, self introspection.....USA did that....they have brought in change...I admire that...
baithey gen tou baat kargengen....

HE: hmmm I have my own take on this though I agree in part with yours
 
SHE: there are always many takes to Kashmir
what was the need for Hurriyat to give a call for Jamia Chalo for killing of 5 lakhs muslims in Jammu in 1947.....

HE: Given the fact that 10 lakh people protested in Kashmir for Azadi and were forced indoors by shooting on the protests... Kashmir is in no mood for election right now... yet it has to be imposed... without any negotiation with the leadership opposed to it. All that the government can offer is to impose a conventional election to meet its deadline to show that all is well in Kashmir. It is not.
  I think the bigger problem is this not the morality of our local politicians.
the conditions we live in can only produce the kind of politicians we presently have.
 USA did tolerate a bastard like Bush for eight years before it was time for Obama to come in... in Kashmir Delhi decides how Kashmiris should behave and who should be in power.
Kashmiri leadership has to suite India’s self-image its foreign policy and morality.

SHE:  you forget that people who are standing for elections ( record number filled in nomination...to counter each other , their party workers shouting anti India slogans )  or people wanting to vote are also Kashmiris. Even Panun Kashmir is boycotting elections, though for different reasons. They are Kashmiris too and many other pandits who want to vote are Kashmiris too...so are the Sikhs and not to forget there are Ladhakis , Poocnhis, etc who want to vote...no one is shying away from resolving the issue...spell out the  agenda and ideology and let people decide, why intimidate them, kill them...why instill so much hatred in them...and when I say they..I mean all those, religious groups, media, separatist so called nationalist.... who want to build their own constituencies … be it valley, Jammu or anywhere else...as I said we need to sit and talk....chatting on these issues is bit difficult...


HE: I didn’t forget them... Ladakhis, Pandits, Jammu-ites, and all those who want to vote for various reasons...  Yet  daily killing to keep people to keep them from demonstrating for Azadi or protesting against elections (peacefully I do not see pelting stones at heavily armed security forces from by lanes as serious violence especially when you are permanently held under section 144) cannot be justified because some people there or elsewhere want to vote.  The context in which elections are happening is pure imposition... more of what has been happening all along.  
 Given the circumstances in Kashmir, spelling out agendas is not possible and largely the establishment which wields power in Kashmir is responsible for maintaining such a situation there.    There is too much intelligence interference... too much security structure to allow people to breathe... let alone have a Democratic process.  Too much of humiliation on the daily basis to let a person feel human enough...   Even those who were alienated from religion or primordial identities are being pushed to adopt these for bare survival.  In wake of this the only articulation that is possible is hate or violence.  You cannot sit on someone’s throat and ask him/her to talk peace.  They might oblige until you get off... but then hate you with all the intensity they can muster soon after that.
 I think the situation is like this... We have beaten Kashmiris to the point of making them into brutes... and now we justify the continuity of violence by saying look they are actually brutes and deserve it!
 Two stints of stooge governments in Kashmir since late nineties should have given a breather to India to bring about a serious dialogue.  But what do they do? Decide that the temporary lull is the solution and squander the chance. 
 We cannot maintain the facade of moral preachers after all that has happened in Kashmir.  We must bow our heads in shame and let the people have their say.  Even though what they decide might not be to our liking and in our opinion disastrous for them.   Too often our personal interests get enmeshed with our moral visions and cloud our judgment such that we cannot see what is actually happening to people.  
At least I for one have stopped passing judgments on the people of Kashmir and demonizing them.  I hope more of the civil society activists who engage with Kashmir will begin to do so.

When you refer to intimidation and killing i am surprised that you miss out the biggest killing machine in motion right now... the CRPF!  You see we percieve different realities because of where each of us is located.  The valley has seen two to five people dead on a daily basis since Amarnath land row.  This seems to be the current policy.  CRPF is communalised.  I have my batchmates within the force and they give horrifying accounts of how the force percieves ordinary Kashmiri's as worthy of being killed or humiliated for no reason but for what they are.