[Reader-list] Kashmir dispute: Theory of five police stations

[Aditya Raj Baul]

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Kashmir dispute: Theory of five police stations
Naseer A Ganai
http://kashmirreporter.blogspot.com/2010/07/kashmir-dispute-theory-of-five-police.html

They are all talking. They are all talking about Kashmir. They are all
coming out with solutions. ‘Experts’ like Praveen Swami say it is the
problem of five police stations of old-city and it could have been
tackled with Lathis easily. He even went on to say that in 2008 it was
solved with Lathis.
Someone should inform him that in 2008 it was dealt with bullets and
tear smoke shells, fired above legs. Over 60 youngsters fell to
bullets that summer and over a thousand received injuries. Sixty
people don’t die due to Lathis. Last year, when valley rose on Shopian
incident, he attributed uprising to Jamaat Islami and confined it to
Shopian only. These are Kashmir experts whose advice is taken by the
policy makers in New Delhi seriously. So you can imagine the policy
which is framed after taking advice from such opinion makers. There is
more.

An embedded journalist compared the pain of tooth-break of a solider
with that of killing of 16 children. This is the liberal class in New
Delhi. This is the class which talks of democracy and democratic
rights. It happens always. Whenever Indian State faces crises in
Kashmir, it brings these ‘experts’ on media to manage the crises. If
they fail, then asks them to shut up and advices media to shift focus
somewhere else other than Kashmir. We saw it in 2008. And they crawl
when asked to bend. The present crisis is not the crisis of Omar
Abdullah as media tries to project it. It is not the crisis which
could be managed by Mufti, Farooq, Azad or Soz. It is the crisis of
legitimacy of the Indian State in Jammu and Kashmir and they have been
facing this crisis for past 60 years. Mirwaiz Umar and Sajjad Lone
have been more than right when they say Indian State over the years
has always tried to manage Kashmir dispute instead of trying to
resolve it.

Sajjad deconstructed “five police stations theory” of Swami in front
of him. Lies after lies are being dished out by these experts on TV
debates. They are being rebutted not only by Mirwaiz who rightly
laughed at the confident ignorance of the debaters but by the
pro-Indian politicians like Mehbooba Mufti, Muzaffer Baig, Mehboob Beg
etc. Confining debates in and around Omar Abdullah, misgovernance,
Pakistan, stone pelters and angry protesters has a design. The design
is to pin down Kashmiris, to buy time and to sleep over things and
prolong the resolution. It has been seen in recent debates on Delhi
based channels that whenever politicians of Jammu and Kashmir, cutting
across party lines and ideologies, succeeded in forcing the so-called
experts to acknowledge that Kashmir is a political problem, they come
up with the rider “whom to talk to”. New Delhi need not to talk to
anyone. First let’s listen to those who passed the resolution of
autonomy in Jammu Kashmir Assembly seeking 1953 position for the
State. First let’s listen to those who are seeking self-rule for the
State.

There is no talking to be done on the issue. The Assembly has passed
the resolution. The resolution belongs to those who believe in
Assembly. So why don’t you accept it and implement it. No need to talk
to PDP. They have self-rule document. They have handed it over to none
other the prime minister. Implement it. There are recommendations of
five working groups constituted by the Prime Minister himself.
Implement them. The pro-Indian politicians have talked enough. They
have given you enough time. But when New Delhi is not taking seriously
even those whom it and its experts sell every day in the name of
democracy, free and fair elections, what can it offer to those who
seek Azadi. Let someone tell these experts that instead of talking
about the real issues, you are trying to create the division within
the State which is more or less cohesive. Confining the problem to
five police stations is fundamentally a flawed theory. When 2008
happened, Jammu was vertically divided with Rajouri, Poonch, Doda,
Kishtwar, Ramban, Banihal and half of Udhampur siding with Kashmir
after being economically blockaded by Jammu district. There was strike
in Doda and Kishtwar against the transfer of land to SASB. There was
rally in Kargil in support of Kashmir. Tell these experts, had it been
the problem of five police stations, there would not have been 1953.
Had it been the issue of just five police stations, Sheikh would not
have been in jail on charges of being a Pakistani agent.

Had it been the problem of five police stations, there would not have
been 1990. There would have been no 2008. Had it been the law and
order problem of police stations, Mughal road would have been opened
by New Delhi four decades ago when Sheikh wanted it. Had it been of
five police stations the Simthan Road would have linked us with Chenab
valley long ago. Had it been of five districts, the State Government
would not have to beg to Delhi to seek permission for using our own
water resources. The problem pertains to the whole state of Jammu and
Kashmir, whether Swamis accepts it or not. Problem is that of Kashmir
dispute and it needs resolution according to the singular explicit
aspiration of the majority of the people living in Jammu and Kashmir.
And New Delhi knows it well. Both the aspiration and the solution
still it gives impression of listening to ‘experts’ to delay the
resolution.