[Reader-list] "leaderless protest"

[Jeebesh]

I was signposting the line about "leaderless protest". Not about  
individuals etc.

On 09-Aug-10, at 12:34 PM, rashneek kher wrote:

> Dear Jeebesh,
>
> The media has been so critical of Omar and rightly so.Now can we  
> beleive a
> man who seems completely at his wits ends.
> Maybe it is leaderless as it happens in many cases that first a man  
> leads a
> movement and then a movement leads a man.
>
> best regrds
>
> rashneek
>
> On Mon, Aug 9, 2010 at 12:19 PM, Jeebesh <jeebesh at sarai.net> wrote:
>
>> dear Aditya,
>>
>> Recently Siddharth Varadarajan wrote an edit piece in Hindu. He  
>> writes -
>> "Whatever his other failings, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah deserves  
>> praise
>> for acknowledging that the protests which have rocked the Kashmir  
>> valley
>> these past few weeks are ‘leaderless' and not the product of  
>> manipulation by
>> some hidden individual or group."
>>
>> What do you have to say about this?
>>
>> warmly
>> jeebesh
>>
>> http://www.hindu.com/2010/08/05/stories/2010080555331200.htm
>>
>> The only package Kashmir needs is justice
>>
>>
>> Siddharth Varadarajan
>>
>> Whatever his other failings, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah deserves  
>> praise
>> for acknowledging that the protests which have rocked the Kashmir  
>> valley
>> these past few weeks are ‘leaderless' and not the product of  
>> manipulation by
>> some hidden individual or group.
>>
>> This admission has been difficult for the authorities to make  
>> because its
>> implications are unpleasant, perhaps even frightening. In security  
>> terms,
>> the absence of a central nervous system means the expanding body of  
>> protest
>> cannot be controlled by arresting individual leaders. And in  
>> political
>> terms, the spectre of leaderless revolt makes the offer of  
>> ‘dialogue' or the
>> naming of a ‘special envoy' for Kashmir — proposals which might  
>> have made
>> sense last year or even last month — seem completely and utterly  
>> pointless
>> today.
>>
>> Ever since the current phase of disturbances began, intelligence  
>> officials
>> have been wasting precious time convincing the leadership and  
>> public of
>> India that the protests are solely or mostly the handiwork of agent
>> provocateurs. So we have been told of the role of the Lashkar-e- 
>> Taiba and
>> ISI, of the ‘daily wage of Rs. 200' — and even narcotics — being  
>> given to
>> stone pelters. A few weeks back, an audio recording of a supposedly
>> incriminating telephone call was leaked to the media along with a  
>> misleading
>> transcript suggesting the Geelani faction of the Hurriyat was  
>> behind the
>> upsurge. Now, our TV channels have “learned” from their “sources”  
>> that the
>> protests will continue till President Obama's visit in November.
>>
>> Central to this delusional narrative of manipulated protest is the  
>> idea
>> that the disturbances are confined to just a few pockets in the  
>> valley. Last
>> week, Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram told reporters the problem  
>> was
>> limited to Srinagar and two other towns. No doubt, some areas like  
>> downtown
>> Srinagar, Sopore and Baramulla were in the ‘vanguard' but one of  
>> the reasons
>> the protests spread was popular frustration over the way in which the
>> authenticity of mass sentiment was being dismissed by the  
>> government. For
>> the women who came on to the streets with their pots and pans and  
>> even
>> stones, or the youths who set up spontaneous blood donation camps  
>> to help
>> those injured in the demonstrations, this attempt to strip their  
>> protest of
>> both legitimacy and agency was yet another provocation.
>>
>> In the face of this mass upsurge, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has  
>> two
>> options. He can declare, like the party apparatchiks in Brecht's  
>> poem, that
>> since the people have thrown away the confidence of the government,  
>> it is
>> time for the government to dissolve the people and elect another.  
>> Or he can
>> admit, without prevarication or equivocation, that his government  
>> has thrown
>> away the confidence of the ordinary Kashmiri.
>>
>> This was not the way things looked in January 2009, when Omar  
>> Abdullah
>> became chief minister. Assembly elections had gone off well. And  
>> though
>> turnout in Srinagar and other towns was low, there was goodwill for  
>> the
>> young leader. Of course, those who knew the state well had warned  
>> the Centre
>> not to treat the election as an end in itself. The ‘masla-e-Kashmir'
>> remained on the table and the people wanted it resolved.  
>> Unfortunately, the
>> Centre failed to recognise this.
>>
>> It is too early to gauge the reaction to Mr. Abdullah's promise of a
>> “political package” once normalcy is restored. But the people have  
>> thronged
>> the streets are likely to ask why this package — which the chief  
>> minister
>> himself admitted was “long in the pipeline” — was never delivered  
>> for all
>> the months normalcy prevailed. What came in the way of amending the  
>> Armed
>> Forces (Special Powers) Act? Of ensuring there was zero tolerance  
>> for human
>> rights violations? Of strengthening the “ongoing peace process both
>> internally and externally”, as the all-party meeting in Srinagar  
>> earlier
>> this month reminded the Centre to do?
>>
>> At the heart of this missing package is the Centre's failure to  
>> craft a new
>> security and political strategy for a situation where militancy no  
>> longer
>> poses the threat it once did. The security forces in the valley  
>> continue to
>> operate with an expansive mandate that is not commensurate with  
>> military
>> necessity. Even if civilian deaths are less than before, the public's
>> capacity to tolerate ‘collateral damage' when it is officially said  
>> that
>> militancy has ended and normalcy has returned is also much less  
>> than before.
>>
>> The immediate trigger for the current phase of protests was the  
>> death of
>> 17-year-old Tufail Mattoo, who was killed by a tear gas canister  
>> which
>> struck his head during a protest in Srinagar in June against the  
>> Machhil
>> fake encounter of April 30. Many observers have blamed his death —  
>> and the
>> deaths of other young men since then — on the security forces  
>> lacking the
>> training and means for non-lethal crowd control. Tear gas, rubber  
>> bullets
>> and water cannon are used all over the world in situations where  
>> protests
>> turn violent but in India, live ammunition seems to be the first  
>> and only
>> line of defence. Even tear gas canisters are so poorly designed  
>> here that
>> they lead to fatalities.
>>
>> Whatever the immediate cause, however, it is also safe to say that  
>> young
>> Tufail died as a direct result of Machhil. Though the Army has  
>> arrested the
>> soldiers responsible for the fake encounter, the only reason they  
>> had the
>> nerve to commit such a heinous crime was because they were  
>> confident they
>> would get away with it. And at the root of that confidence is  
>> Pathribal, the
>> notorious fake encounter of 2000. The army officers involved in the
>> kidnapping and murder of five Kashmiri civilians there continue to  
>> be at
>> liberty despite being charge-sheeted by the CBI. The Ministry of  
>> Defence has
>> refused to grant sanction for their prosecution and has taken the  
>> matter all
>> the way to the Supreme Court in an effort to ensure its men do not  
>> face
>> trial. What was the message that went out as a result?
>>
>> Had the Centre made an example of the rotten apples that have  
>> spoiled the
>> reputation of the Army instead of protecting them all these years,  
>> the
>> Machhil encounter might never have happened. Tufail would not be  
>> dead and
>> angry mobs would not be attacking police stations and government  
>> buildings.
>> Impunity for the few has directly endangered the lives of all  
>> policemen and
>> paramilitary personnel stationed in Kashmir. There is a lesson in  
>> this,
>> surely, for those who say punishing the guilty will lower the  
>> morale of the
>> security forces.
>>
>> Mr. Abdullah may not be the best administrator but his biggest  
>> handicap as
>> chief minister has been the Centre's refusal to address the ordinary
>> Kashmiri's concerns about the over-securitsation of the state.  
>> Today, when
>> he is being forced to induct an even greater number of troops into  
>> the
>> valley, the Chief Minister's ability to push for a political  
>> package built
>> around demilitarisation is close to zero.
>>
>> At the Centre's urging, Mr. Abdullah made a televised speech to his  
>> people.
>> His words do not appear to have made any difference. Nor could  
>> they, when
>> the crisis staring us in the face is of national and international
>> proportions. Today, the burden of our past sins in Kashmir has come  
>> crashing
>> down like hailstones. Precious time is being frittered in thinking  
>> of ways
>> to turn the clock back. Sending in more forces to shoot more  
>> protesters,
>> changing the chief minister, imposing Governor's Rule — all of  
>> these are
>> part of the reliquary of failed statecraft. We are where we are  
>> because
>> these policies never worked.
>>
>> The Prime Minister can forget about the Commonwealth Games, AfPak  
>> and other
>> issues. Kashmir is where his leadership is urgently required. The  
>> Indian
>> state successfully overcame the challenge posed by terrorism and  
>> militancy.
>> But a people in ferment cannot be dealt with the same way. Manmohan  
>> Singh
>> must take bold steps to demonstrate his willingness to address the
>> grievances of ordinary Kashmiris. He should not insult their  
>> sentiments by
>> talking of economic packages, roundtable conferences and all-party  
>> talks. He
>> should unreservedly express regret for the deaths that have  
>> occurred these
>> past few weeks. He should admit, in frankness and humility, the  
>> Indian
>> state's failure to deliver justice all these years. And he should  
>> ask the
>> people of Kashmir for a chance to make amends. There is still no  
>> guarantee
>> the lava of public anger which is flowing will cool. But if he  
>> doesn't make
>> an all-out effort to create some political space today, there is no  
>> telling
>> where the next eruption in the valley will take us.
>>
>> Corrections and Clarifications
>>
>> Safi A. Rizvi, Officer on Special Duty to the Union Home Minister P.
>> Chidambaram, writes in response to Siddharth Varadarajan's article  
>> “The only
>> package Kashmir needs is justice” (Editorial page, August 5, 2010)  
>> that a
>> sentence in the fourth paragraph, “Last week, Union Home Minister P.
>> Chidambaram told reporters the problem was limited to Srinagar and  
>> two other
>> towns,” is inaccurate. The transcript of the media briefing on July  
>> 30, 2010
>> reads as follows: “I do not agree with you that the writ of the  
>> separatists
>> is running. Yes, in Srinagar and perhaps in some other towns they  
>> are able
>> to mobilise support, urge people to indulge in stone pelting and  
>> are able to
>> call bandhs. According to the J&K Government, there are many parts  
>> of the
>> valley which are quite normal … The most aggressive activity is in  
>> Srinagar
>> and few other towns.”
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>
>
>
>
> -- 
> Rashneek Kher
> http://www.kashmiris-in-exile.blogspot.com
> http://www.nietzschereborn.blogspot.com
> _________________________________________
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