[Reader-list] Seema Mustafa: No Strategy, Just Arrogance

[Aditya Raj Baul]

No Strategy, Just Arrogance

Arrogant governments cannot bring solace to their people and that is
what Kashmir is experiencing at present

GUEST COLUMN – GK EXCLUSIVE
BY SEEMA MUSTAFA
http://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/2010/Jul/12/no-strategy-just-arrogance-18.asp

Every charge being made against the inefficiency of the Jammu and
Kashmir government and the indifference and callousness of the central
government was confirmed with the decision to send in the Army into
Srinagar. The troops rolled into the state capital, sealing the anger
and the hostility in the Valley
.
Reluctant generals had no choice but to obey the political directive,
although they privately fumed against the decision describing it as
dangerous and short sighted. Strangely, the military seemed to have a
better understanding of the situation and the consequences of this
action than the politicians in authority.

The National Conference that now functions like an underground
organization, remained underground with chief minister Omar Abdullah
making panicky phone calls to New Delhi for help as he could not cope
with his own people. As for senior Union Minister and president of the
National Conference Farooq Abdullah, the less said the better. Trouble
in the Valley has made him invisible.

Leaders lead from the front but unfortunately, for the people of
Kashmir there are no leaders left to voice their sentiments, freely
and fairly. The response of New Delhi has been predictable. Instead of
advocating caution, the centre rushed to send in the troops despite
army advice not to push them into the firing line at this stage. The
‘enemy’ is stone pelting youths, what can the army do at this stage
was the view communicated to the political authorities. But it was
decided nevertheless to send the troops in, but after doing so there
was another panic attack. And some one in power directed the army in
New Delhi to deny its presence in Srinagar through careful plants. So
there was this situation where the army ‘sources’ in the national
capital were denying flag marches in Kashmir, while the army officers
in the state capital were spending more time than they wanted to in
denying the New Delhi reports and insisting that the army had taken
over Srinagar.

When this did not work, as obviously it could not, the politicians in
their wisdom hit on another ruse. The army has been told to exercise
restraint, was the new line. The army will maintain a distance from
the people, was the official announcement. It made no sense to anyone,
not even politicians who are now flapping around trying to get out of
the mess they have all together created. The new plant that has
appeared in the newspapers now is that the army is not going to be in
Srinagar for long, and it will be moved out soon.

But there is something far more dangerous going on. And this is
sinister and very disturbing. The government of India, with the
support of the Jammu and Kashmir government, is now releasing dubious
transcripts and tapes of alleged conversation between the angry young
people of the Valley and terrorist groups, in a bid to prove that the
protests were not spontaneous but organized. This is further
alienating the people of the Valley as most know that the young people
were acting on their own, and that these tapes being carried so
willingly by the national media without counter are intended to
justify brutal action against the stone pelters. The audio tapes are
totally pathetic, and appear to have been put together by persons who
have little idea about Kashmir. The Hindi words used in one of the
exchanges are alien to the Valley, and are used only in mainland
states of North India.

Even so these are being lapped up and promoted by the ignorant
national media in its search for sensationalism ---of course always
carefully tilted on the side of the establishment and not the people.
Everyone knows that left unattended, the protests by the youth of
Kashmir will be exploited by vested interests. And that instigators
will move in to organize and give direction to what have been largely
spontaneous protests till now. But the government is not saying that.
It is trying to prove that the protests have been orchestrated, and
organized by the terror groups. This is a complete travesty of the
truth, and everyone in New Delhi and Srinagar knows it.

So why is this being done? For two reasons. One as pointed out
earlier, to justify violence against the unarmed youth. To damn the
Kashmiris and make them appear like a bunch of extremists. And two, to
convince the rest of India which is the constituency of not just the
Congress party but it seems even the National Conference that the
government is acting in the best interests of the security of the
nation. The media was gagged precisely to ensure that only
disinformation was spread, and that the news from the streets of
Kashmir was censored completely.

Instead of reaching out to the people, instead of speaking to the
affected youth, instead of visiting the families whose young people
were killed, instead of working out a strategy where the police and
security forces did not come into confrontation with the youth, the
Omar Abdullah government, aided and abetted by the Centre, has
positioned itself against its own people. The chief minister should
have called an all party meeting at the onset, after having visited
each one of the invitees personally to make them agree. What is the
point of a civilian consultation with the army on the streets? The PDP
has refused as will probably all others groups from the Valley, as
there is little point of a dialogue with a government that needs the
army to keep itself in power.

The UPA government does not have a Kashmir policy. For the Congress
governance has always been---at least for a long time now---a holding
operation to keep itself and its favourites in power. Omar Abdullah is
a favourite with the Nehru-Gandhi family that made sure that he, and
not his father, became the chief minister. He is out of tune with his
people, a fact that New Delhi is cashing in on. Home Minister
P.Chidambaram does not intrinsically believe in the healing touch, and
is always prepared to turn the gun on those who are seen as defiant of
his government’s authority. This is not limited to Kashmir, but
affects other states as well. Today journalists and others are being
killed as Maoist sympathizers. Since when has sympathy become a crime
in India that wanted to, and at least tried till a point, to be more
compassionate in her democracy, than the new masters: US and Israel
.
There is no strategy, no thought. Arrogant governments cannot bring
solace to their people. They can only exacerbate conflict, and bring
grief. As is happening today in Kashmir.