[Reader-list] see some meaning in Yasin Malik's choice

[Rakesh Iyer]

Dear Pawan ji

I am sorry to have taken this long to answer, but answer I had to, for there
are certain notions which have to be cleared here.

First of all, in India, for majority of the areas, if a rigged election
takes place, in certain cases people may come out on the streets to demand a
re-election, but certainly they won't come out on the streets to demand that
they be given a separate nation. The reasons are two. For first, no state in
India, by and large, except Kashmir, has witnessed massively rigged
elections on a scale, where any region within the state too has witnessed
rigging to turn the scales in favor of the ruled. Secondly, even if this
were so, people would fight for re-election because the people living there
would have accepted that they are 'Indians'. Kashmiri Muslims haven't
accepted that. The reason is that at the time of independence, they had
supported Sheikh Abdullah, not India or Jawaharlal Nehru.

Secondly. Who says I don't accept that there are some Muslims in this
country who would like this country to become an 'Islamic' republic. But
there are also Hindus in this country who would like India to become a
'Hindu rashtra'. And I am against both. And therefore, I am in a dilemma to
believe that religion is something which is ensuring that people secede away
from India. If what you say about Muslim dominated areas is true, then I
would also add that regions in Gujarat are also seceding from India (which
was supposed to be a secular, democratic and tolerant republic) to 'Hindu
rashtra'. And ironically, there are 'borders' in Gujarat, in the city of
Ahmedabad, where on one side one has multi-storeyed flats where Hindus live,
and on the other side we have Muslims living in slums. What about that?
Isn't that a secession from India and the ideas on which it was supposed to
be built? Is that because of Hinduism?

I won't say religion is responsible for this. But yes, political
instrumentation of religion in a very negative sense to divide people can be
responsible for this. And having again said this, in Kashmir, the problem is
more about human right violations and about life of dignity, which the
Kashmiri Muslim think can be obtained only through independence. Religion
could be used as an instrument to further this objective, but even without
religion, they would have been fighting for it anyway.

Does special status mean that we can do anything with the people of that
state? Suppose, for example, if we give special status to Bihar, does it
mean that the Army and the CRPF have the right to have sex with any woman of
Bihar, as they please, even forcibly? Does it give them the right to have
local thugs take over the responsibility of providing law and order for the
people at large, instead of the police? Is that what special status means?
If it does, please I beg of the Indian nation state not to give special
status to any region in India.

Finally. About referendum. Just because Uttarakhand and Jharkhand, or even
Chhatisgarh didn't face referendum, doesn't mean that Kashmir should not
face referendum. Infact, if I may say so, it was wrong on the part of the
Indian govt to have formed the three provinces without even undertaking
referendum on the ground level. As I see it, the three provinces have been
created only to further the cause of those elites, living in the cities of
the respective states, who couldn't get noticed in the larger states of
which they were a part. And a referendum would have ensured that the right
results were out. I equally feel that therefore these regions also deserve a
referendum even now.

Hence, for me, Kashmir deserves referendum. And also, two wrongs don't make
a right. Have a referendum in all these states. The original states were
created on linguistic basis, only to ensure that riots based on language
didn't take place.Some were created for administrative convenience. Now, to
say that these are not administratively suitable, one should test these
claims.  And what better than going for a referendum.

That's my stand in response to your questions.

Regards

Rakesh