[Reader-list] Army retreat from J&K will be suicidal

[Rakesh Iyer]

Dear Anupam

The points mentioned by you are certainly good. Particular in one is the
question of political solutions because all these, whether these be Kashmir
or the North-East, are in turn political problems.

However, there's a small issue here. The way you have asked for debates
among people, requires democratization not of the state (which is done
through elections and legislatures), but infact democratization of the
society. And this is something which has not been achieved anywhere in India
at all, forget the 'conflict' zones of the nation. There can be many reasons
as to why it's not there in India, but the fact is that it's not there.

And one of the primary reasons why it's not there is because vote bank
politics can't change the mentality of centuries. Even if Mayawati becomes
the PM of India, Dalits will continue to be mistreated because our society
is feudal and oppressive, not democratic. Therefore, this would require a
lot of our own time for which all of us would have to make an effort to do
this, and remove the fear which is lurking now in the minds of the people.

Regarding Kashmir, this mistrust is very much there, and now it's among
different sections of people. Kashmiri Pandits certainly don't trust the
local Kashmiri Muslims very much, and certainly not the govt. either as of
now. Equally, it may be true that Kashmiri Muslims also don't like the
Pandits either, and the Indian army or the paramilitary forces or both of
them have committed human right violations.

And in all this hatred and animosity, the first virtue which must be present
for any democratic debate to actually take place is tolerance. We must first
think of building this, otherwise democratic debates will be taking place
only on Sarai reader list or in our dreams, not in Kashmir or New Delhi (or
the rest of India) .

Regards

Rakesh