[Reader-list] Kashmir: Discontents of democracy - a parochial view..??..

[Lalit Ambardar]

Ms. Seema Kazi is being selective about the human rights & democratic norms.
 
 What about the rights of the victims of the pan Islamic terrorism in the Kashmir?
 
 Nefarious activities of local & foreign jihadis in Kashmir under the supervision of their Pakistani handlers are to some extent  described by Steve Coll in his article “The Back Channel”  in The New Yorker(March2, 09) that was posted on this forum by one of the members although for different reasons altogether.
 
 Since she is admittedly, following the past two decades of the bloody turmoil in the valley, (….  “For over two decades, India’s extraordinary military presence in the Valley has been synonymous with flagrant violation of the rule of law.”….) she has missed in her study any reference to the Minority Kashmiri Hindu Pandits who have a recorded history of their existence in the valley that goes back to 5000 years much beyond the advent of Islam in Kashmir. There is no mention of the ethnic cleansing of the Kashmiri Hindu Pandits at the hands of jihadis twenty years ago, in her study .
 
Ms. Seema Kazi should know that the ‘gun culture’ was founded in 1989-90 (twenty years ago) by the Kashmiri Islamists at the behest of their Pakistani masters to wage jihad against India for the secession of Muslim majority Kashmir valley.
 
 And how is terrorism fought in any democracy? How do they do it in UK or US or in other European countries or even in the predominantly Muslim countries else where?
 
 Talibanised areas of Pakistan continue to be bombarded by Pakistanis themselves.
 
 Even for hypothetical case no civilised society would have appreciated if Kashmir was surrendered to the proponents of ‘azadi- bara- e- Islam’ (freedom through Islam).
 
Look what is happening in Afghanistan. Pakistan has just surrendered in SWAT & yet you had carnage in Lahore yesterday. It will only be seen whether Rawalpindi or Islamabad is allowed to fall next, to the jihadis????
 
One can not but agree that in any conflict area in spite of the utmost care there are going to be violations. Therefore, let us also condemn those responsible for initiating the very conflict in Kashmir.
Regards all
LA
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> Date: Tue, 3 Mar 2009 17:29:08 +0530
> From: waliarifi3 at gmail.com
> To: reader-list at sarai.net
> Subject: [Reader-list] Kashmir: Discontents of democracy
> 
> http://www.risingkashmir.com/?option=com_content&task=view&id=11036
> 
> 
> Kashmir: Discontents of democracy
> 
> 
> 
> In Kashmir claims of democracy are different than the contents of democracy
> 
> 
> 
> Seema Kazi
> 
> 
> 
> The unexpectedly high voter turnout in the Valley during Kashmir’s assembly
> elections has evoked considerable debate and analysis. A number of
> commentators both in Kashmir and elsewhere noted, the elections reflect
> citizens’ expectation and demand for good governance and development; they
> are not a mandate for maintenance of the political status quo in the Valley.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> For the establishment, however, the installation of a duly elected
> government in Kashmir is perceived as an end in itself. The prime minister
> hailed the election as a “victory for democracy”. Important and significant
> as the election is, Manmohan Singh’s statement symbolises the deep and
> disturbing disconnect between New Delhi and the Kashmir Valley.
> 
> 
> 
> If the holding of assembly elections in Kashmir and the participation of
> Kashmiri Muslims in them are considered markers of the triumph of
> ‘democracy’, then the establishment’s definition and understanding of
> democracy is exceedingly limited, if not dangerously flawed. The success of
> democracy is not to be assessed merely in terms of its formal dimensions,
> namely, the holding of regular and fair elections at the local, state and
> national level. Rather, it is the availability and protection of democracy’s
> substantive provisions that validate and authenticate its success. More
> specifically, the success of local-level democracy is based on the
> fundamental provisions of a democratic state, namely, the supremacy of civil
> authority, implementation of the rule of law, the existence of an
> independent judiciary, the protection of citizens’ right to speech, assembly
> and travel, and the freedom of citizens from violence, harassment and
> unlawful detention. It is precisely on these very counts that democracy in
> the Valley falls well short of the attributes that, in principle, affirm its
> legitimacy.
> 
> 
> 
> There is a great contradiction between state claims to democracy in Kashmir
> and the subversion of civil authority by the military – exemplified by
> legislative measures such as the Armed Forces Special Powers Act and the
> Disturbed Areas Act. That a non-elected institution of the state meant for
> the protection of citizens is ‘legally’ empowered by India’s Parliament and
> courts to deprive Kashmir’s citizens of the inalienable right to life is
> disturbing testimony to the state of democracy in Kashmir, and indeed, in
> India. For citizens in the Kashmir Valley, this contradiction epitomises the
> experience and memory of a bitter, two-decade-old policy of authoritarian,
> militarily-backed ‘democracy’ that has generated and exacerbated Kashmir’s
> great human rights tragedy. The Bomai killings and the state’s response
> centred on stifling public protest by crude authoritarianism, curfew and
> preventive detention destroy, on a daily basis, any shred of hope Kashmiris
> may still have vis-à-vis ‘democracy’ in India. Indeed, this is precisely why
> the Valley’s Muslims aspire to, and dream of, a future sans New Delhi’s
> repressive hegemony and control. The latter’s attempt to use the elections
> in Kashmir as a means to advance its ‘democratic’ claims is, therefore, at
> best short-sighted and at worst, disingenuous. If India is a democracy, it
> cannot endorse a policy that violates three crucial foundations of a
> democratic state, namely, maintenance of the distinction between civil
> authority and the role of the military, citizens’ right to liberty, the duty
> of the state to protect citizens. There can be no role for the military or
> for the coercive suppression of civil rights in a truly democratic Kashmir.
> 
> 
> 
> For over two decades, India’s extraordinary military presence in the Valley
> has been synonymous with flagrant violation of the rule of law. If the
> underlying principle of the rule of law is that no one is above the law, the
> impunity accorded to security forces in Kashmir is a grave violation of the
> legal basis of government and, by extension, the legality of the state.
> Since 1989, not a single member of the military has been prosecuted or
> convicted for a criminal offence in Kashmir. In 2005, the J&K government
> made almost three hundred requests for permission to prosecute public
> servants, including members of the military; none were granted. The
> Disturbed Areas Act and the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) permit
> the military and paramilitary forces to operate their own network of
> detention and interrogation centres that are beyond judicial scrutiny.
> Persistent disregard by state authorities for the writ of habeas corpus – an
> important legal provision meant to protect citizens from institutional abuse
> and one of the cornerstones of a democratic state – and the concomitant
> paralysis of Kashmir’s judiciary underscore India’s shaky claims to
> ‘democracy’ in the Valley. In 2006, there were 60,000 habeas corpus
> petitions filed by individuals since 1990, and 8,000 cases of enforced
> disappearance.
> 
> 
> 
> Even by the congealed yardstick of the establishment line that Kashmir is an
> ‘integral’ part of India, the denial of citizenship rights to Kashmiri
> Muslims underscores the great paradox between rhetoric and reality. India’s
> Constitution guarantees judicially enforceable fundamental rights, including
> the right to freedom of speech, political affiliation and the right to be
> free from arbitrary arrest or detention. In the Valley however, the ban on
> public gatherings, free speech, the right to be free from unlawful detention
> and the right to a fair trial remain suspended; no judicial reviews of such
> suspensions are allowed. The Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act (1978), the
> Jammu and Kashmir Criminal Law Amendment Act (1983), the Terrorism and
> Disruptive Activities Act (1987) – in force in Kashmir till 1995 – together
> with the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (Jammu and Kashmir), contravene,
> respectively, the right to be free from arbitrary detention, the right to
> political affiliation and opinion, the right to freedom of speech, and the
> right to life.
> 
> 
> 
> Democracy in Kashmir is also ill-served by the fear and paranoia of
> successive regimes at potential independent scrutiny of India’s democratic
> and human rights record in Kashmir. The mandate of the International
> Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to detention centres in Kashmir is
> restricted, while repeated requests by the United Nations Special Rapporteur
> on Torture and by Amnesty International to visit Kashmir have met with
> official refusal. A number of human rights defenders in the Valley have been
> murdered by the military and there are several cases of non-Indians whose
> interest in, or engagement with, Kashmir’s civil society and humanitarian
> tragedy prompted aggressive surveillance by state authorities and/or the
> revocation of their visa to India.
> 
> 
> 
> The establishment’s denial of festering Kashmiri grievance may buy time for
> New Delhi and postpone its inevitable reckoning with the truth in the
> Valley: that assembly elections (held in the shadow of a coercive military
> presence, undeclared curfew and the arbitrary arrest of the Valley’s
> political leadership) cannot erase the anger and discontent of a people
> wronged. This election is not, and can never be, a substitute for a just
> resolution to the two-decade-old festering dispute between Kashmiri Muslims
> and the Indian state; nor can it erase India’s appalling record of
> governance in the Valley. Elections in Kashmir merely affirm India as a
> formal, rather than substantive democracy. That India is on the wrong side
> of history in the Valley was evident on 18 August 2008 when a million
> Kashmiri Muslims took part in an extraordinary peaceful demonstration
> against the status quo, symbolising, in Mikhail Bakhtin’s memorable words,
> “the thousand-year-old language of fearlessness, a language with no
> reservations and omissions, about the world and about power”.
> 
> 
> 
> If India wishes to showcase democracy in Kashmir, it must extend to Kashmiri
> Muslims those rights and freedoms denied them for two long decades.
> Democracy in Kashmir would mean that its formal, participatory dimensions –
> involving elections at the local and state level are complemented and
> augmented by its substantive dimensions. It would be synonymous with the
> restoration of full citizenship rights for Kashmiris, namely, freeing
> Kashmiri civilians from violence and harassment from the police and the
> military, the revocation of repressive legislation, the end of unlawful
> killings, arbitrary searches and detentions, the restoration of Kashmir’s
> judiciary, the protection of civil rights including the right to freedom of
> speech and assembly, freedom for Kashmir’s citizens to travel within and
> beyond state borders, and last, but certainly not the least, the initiation
> of a process of public accountability for Kashmir’s human rights tragedy.
> 
> 
> 
> Writer is the author of ‘Between Democracy and Nation: Gender and
> militarization In Kashmir’ and can be mailed at skazi at vsnl.comThis e-mail
> address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to
> view it
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