[Reader-list] ‘saffron revolution’ in Kashmir the offing..???

[Lalit Ambardar]

 Dear all,                     

Fall of  Nicolae Ceausescu’s regime
in Bucharest in 1989 winter saw religious frenzy driven mass mobilization by proponents
of ‘azadi- bara-e- Islam’ in Kashmir. Kashmiri never bloomed again. What began
with the systematic ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Hindu Pandits then, it has been
only ‘death & destruction’ for common Kashmiris ever since. Is long
expected ‘saffron revolution’ in the offing? Junaid Azim Mattu makes an interesting opinion  in GK. Those in race for ‘Emir’ of ‘Kashmir Emirate’ as well as their of / on
ground supporters; their sympathisers in/ outside the valley ; propagandists/’seminarists’
 in India/ abroad & the agent provocateurs
in general who gloat over the misery of Kashmiris may well take note of the
brewing sentiment in the valley………..

Sinecures &
Benefactors of Conflict

CONCERN

IT’S
ULTIMATELY A POOR COMMON MAN’S SON WHO SUFFERS TO FEED AN UGLY POLITICS, WRITES
JUNAID AZIM MATTU/ Greater Kashmir/Feb 23,2011.

 

The
obduracy of the conflict in Kashmir is all too
visible. Albeit the sinecures that sustain and prolong it, are often less
visible – merging and dovetailing into the rhetorical séances of a
status-quo-ist discourse. Our radical-by-convenience leaders tell us that an
amicable, acceptable and pragmatic resolution means a ‘sell-out’. Nothing short
of a plebiscite ‘come what may’ are the charming proclamations that resound
from safe houses and pulpits of righteousness. They speak of morals and
integrity as they unabashedly bask in an accountability-free atmosphere of
sensationalism and polemics, feeling little or no need to answer questions – where
are we headed and how? Desperate cries for realism are subdued by invoking the
imagery of blood and gore, belittling our numerous sacrifices by reducing them
into bargaining chips and discounting equations.

If there are no holy-cows in conventional politics, there can’t be any in
conflict politics either. No single leader is above scrutiny and introspection,
lest he declares himself to be God-sent. Brushing aside geo-political realities
in living rooms, wrapped in the warmth of ideologically reinforced delusions is
hunky dory. However, the teenagers in our graves, the splattered blood on our
pavements – the voluntarily self-imposed economic sanctions – that’s the other
side – a side seen by a different demographic, a demographic that is voiceless,
jobless and without hope. A demographic that experiences the conflict as
opposed to those who talk about the conflict, issues calendars in the summers
and vacations in Delhi
in the winters. The poor man’s demographic. The same poor man whose
bullet-riddled young son is our martyr and the same poor man who becomes our
‘collaborator’ and ‘traitor’ the moment he goes out to cast his vote.

The inherent contradictions between what the ‘sailors’ of the Kashmir movement
preach in seminars and what they selectively experience and endure is, if
nothing else, contemptuous to the very concept of Kashmir’s
collective national dignity. As we present our children as gun-fodder for their
political longetivity and notoriety, our own aspirations become dangerously
malleable in their hands.  We waddle around in the mundane gloom of a
conflict-zone life, to be ordered to trot here one day and shutter our shops
the other day – all in the blind faith that kicking our own bosoms and
sacrificing our kids for the self anointed right honorable dictators of this
movement will give us deliverance from oppression. And in this whole circle of
blind faith begetting a vision-blind leadership, we have ceased to ponder – how
do the sinecures and benefactors of conflict juice us like fructuous pulp, our
miseries their sweet succor? 

And it’s not the separatist leadership alone that is guilty of benefiting from
this conflict. Mainstream politics in Kashmir
has enjoyed an atmosphere of mass impunity and lack of accountability primarily
due to this conflict. Delhi continues to treat Kashmir as a business vertical outsourced to a select few
to ‘heal’ our wounds. Ironically the same faces that have inflicted some of the
deepest darkest wounds on the face of Kashmir’s scarred history have, with Delhi’s occasional
blessings, ordained themselves to be the faces of reconciliation and
redemption. Delhi has consistently stifled and
‘managed’ democracy in Kashmir due to this
self-imposed paranoia, an erroneous belief in the indispensability of some at
the cost of others. Most past elections in Kashmir were strategically rigged so
that the control panel stayed in Delhi, not
entirely with the people of Kashmir – all in
the name of ‘national interest’.  

Election boycotts in Kashmir have voluntarily
disempowered the people, benefiting power brokers and traders of religious
vote-banks – benefactors of conflict in their own right. There are religious
institutions that vote en-block to claim their pound of flesh in Kashmir’s power politics. Then there is this enormously
disempowering, exploitative existence of religious constituencies in some of
our most impoverished and backward areas. Religious constituencies that breed
on conflict and the deafening invective of a people’s indifference in their own
governance. Vote-banks in Kashmir, unlike most states in India, aren’t
as much based on caste politics as they are on this marriage of profit between
religious constituencies and conflict politics – and all the opportunism and
chicanery that comes with it. 

What happened last summer was most unfortunate, barbaric and suppressive and I
personally spoke and wrote unequivocally against the atrocities and killings by
the State and the security apparatus. But does our commitment to our nation
have to stop at mere condemnations, annual chest thumping and slogans? A quick,
superficial analysis of the summer fatalities discloses a bitter fact – most
people who died in Kashmir were young children
and teenagers from modest backgrounds and most often than not, with very grim
career prospects. Since it’s fashionable to compare even egg hatchings with the
uprising in Egypt
– let us draw a fair comparison there as well. In Egypt, those who lost their lives
included Doctoral Fellows, Researchers, Teachers, Business Executives and
individuals from sound professional and economic backgrounds. Back here in Kashmir, our educated lot chooses to sit wrapped in
shawls and quilts to watch the revolution on TV – analyzing it to threads and
knots, claiming it with shrill living-room and seminar patriotism. Their own
children are not allowed to so much so look at a stone with the intention of
hurling it – but the poor man’s son is a glorified soldier of resistance and
dissent – his death a mere statistic for their post-dinner darbars. 

Then there are conflict benefactors spread across the globe – perhaps one of
the biggest chain of retail stores and sinecures in the world – selling the
sentiment and sacrifices on glossy brochures of statistics and sonnets. The
number of expatriate ‘think-tanks’ and four-men ‘councils’ in Western lands
ironically far exceeds the number of political parties and groups within
Kashmir. I have lived in the West for enough years to notice the absolutely
comical nature of clueless interactions – both actual and perceived – that take
place between these self-anointed ambassadors of our movement. The role played
by diaspora and expatriate communities in the Cuban movement, the Kosovar
movement or for that matter my interactions with French-Algerian Muslims is
absolutely inspiring. So my grouse is not with those who choose a better life
for their families and still have an urge to support a political movement back
home. My grouse is with those individuals who pontificate from afar, assume the
right to judge, demean and disparage those in Kashmir they disagree with and
morbidly draw argumentative succor out of gruesome miseries in Kashmir –
miseries that they can read about on weekends and weeknights – miseries their
own children are safely protected from. Flipside - Any leader in Kashmir who feels the need to seek suggestions from
across oceans and continents from a motley crew of understandably disconnected
gentlemen should relinquish the privilege to lead even a Mohalla, not to speak
of a nation in quest of dignity.  

There is a joke that goes around in Kashmir – that Pakistan will fight till the last
Kashmiri. Our misplaced and misinformed romanticism of a socio-religious
affinity with Pakistan – a nation perpetually struggling to be a State - has
given wanton freedom to conflict benefactors who sell their souls at the drop
of a dime, issue statements of Azadi in Kashmir and statements of merger with
Pakistan while in Islamabad – or while talking to Pakistani publications. Our
ignorance and malleability as a people has made us vulnerable to be juiced and
minced for personal political gains and agendas. 

Our Conflict Economy has burgeoned into a black-money sector without any
parallels in recent global history. Business Empires have sprung up from
nowhere – irrigated by an apparently never-drying stream of
conflict-remunerations. More journalists find employment in Kashmir than any
other State in India
as new newspapers and magazines hit the stands every other week. Police
suppliers revel and prosper in conflict. Tax evasion continues unabated and
unrestricted. On the graves and miseries of our people, we have built our lives
– dreamt of safe and prosperous futures for our own children. Our conflict
benefactors are in plain sight – exploiting every drop of warm blood in our
veins – feeding on our emotions and sensitivities. If there are Hosni Mubaraks,
Ben Alis and Gaddafis in Kashmir – it is them,
it is them, it is them. 



(Feedback at junaid.msu at gmail.com)

 
…… http://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/2011/Feb/23/sinecures-benefactors-of-conflict-30.asp

Rgds all    

LA