This is with reference to your cover story on the two faces of Kashmir’s politics today (Political Islam or Islamic State, May 29). Dr Farooq Abdullah says Kashmiri struggle is neither communal nor Islamist but for the rights of the people. I wonder what these rights exactly are! The right to pelt stones at gun-wielding security forces, rob weapons and police stations, smuggle contraband goods including fake Indian currency; in brief, the right to criminal activities. Sometimes, the State needs to use force in dealing with these problems, something India is doing in Kashmir for decades. Farooq Abdullah, it appears, is jostling for space fearing annihilation in the maelstrom of lucrative politics. If other groups also start pelting stones in other parts of the country stating that they are doing so only to demand rights, what will happen?
J.N. Bhartiya, Hyderabad
In understanding the current Azadi sentiment in Kashmir, we have to revisit why Kashmiri Pandits, the religious minority in Kashmir, were forced to leave their homes in the late 1980s. It was a blunder on part of the Kashmiri leadership of the time to oust the Pandits from the Valley. During the year 1989, a campaign was launched to make the Kashmiri Pandits leave the state. Vicious sermons and songs were broadcast in the streets with people chanting slogans threatening the Pandits with dire consequences, which forced them to flee from Kashmir. Warnings in the form of pamphlets were pasted on Hindu doors. Had Kashmiri Pandits been left untouched, things would have been different politically for the Kashmiri peoples’ movement. No movement has ever been successful on pure communal basis. If the Pandits had not been forced to leave Kashmir, the movement today would not have had a communal colour to it. After all, culturally, Kashmiri Pandits and Kashmiri Muslims have a lot it common.
Ravi Raina, On E-Mail
This is on the Narendra Modi government completing three years in office. Modi has been the most visible prime minister this country has ever seen (of course the reach of social media has to do a lot with this, but let’s face it, in terms of news time, TV time, even radio time, Modi has outdone everyone). Not only that, his tireless and frequent visits to foreign countries have also made him and India noticeable all over the world like never before. He seems to have brought India on the global map in an unprecedented way and all the talk of development and progress has created a lot of optimism among the people of India, myself included. But his career in office has been tarnished by his government’s failure to control Kashmir, which has been in a state of utter unrest since a year. My heart bleeds when like-minded people and I see people dying in the Valley almost on a daily basis. The safety and control strategies of the security forces are in question here. Are they so inefficient that they cannot tackle the problem effectively? Now, even girls and women attack the forces. Should not the separatists, who continue to prolong a situation of unrest in Kashmir, be taken to task? They are instead being maintained by the government. But amidst all this, it was heartening to see the government working hard on the release of Kulbhushan Jadhav, who has been arrested by the Pakistani government. Such efforts were not made by the UPA government for Sarabjit Singh or the previous BJP government for the release of Saurabh Kalia in 1999. In the Jadhav case, we have at least managed to restore some dignity which was in cold storage for a long time. The irony is that though Pakistan is an enemy state which loses no chance in creating trouble at the border, it is still a preferred trading partner for India. If at all the Indian government wishes to send a strong message to Pakistan, it should sever all trade ties with the country.
S.P. Sharma, Mumbai
In a public address at Bathinda East, Punjab, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi threatened to render Pakistan barren by stopping the waters of the three rivers flowing to it through India. Whether it was just a vote fetching gimmick for the ensuing elections there or the sceptre of his innate RSS “hate-Pakistan” ideology raising its head once again is anybody’s guess. In any case, Pakistan mustn’t dismiss it lightly or look towards the UNO, irrespective of the fact whether the World Bank is a party or no party to the Indus Basin Water Treaty. It is a clear clarion call for the war of waters on Pakistan, which according to his scheme of affairs is a sequel to the so-called ‘surgical strike’. If India is bent upon on presenting Pakistan with a water crisis, it is bound to make us think of retaliation. This in turn would compel India to step up the attack on Pakistan and the situation will go from bad to worse.
Col. Riaz Jafri (Retd), Rawalpindi, Pakistan
ISIS is the biggest manufacturer of fear in the world, wonder which company is funding it?
Raju Chanda, On E-mail
This is in response to the news item about Haji Kalimullah’s famous mangoes in Uttar Pradesh (In & Around, May 22). In UP, everything is getting saffronised, except mangoes and cows. The latest to take this hue, according to the media, is the frame of the clock in the state assembly, leave alone the all-saffron upholstery. The same has happened with green vis-a-vis MMI in Hyderabad, as well as pink in the state of Telangana (there, they have pink sheets in hospitals too). What a colour fetish! And apparently, bureaucrats are rung up to check if they are sleeping, while some schools want to have ‘Yogi-cuts’ for students, and check tiffin boxes for eggs. Is this the governance that Modi promised for Uttar Pradesh?
Raja Krishnaiah, Hyderabad
Apropos How To Court The Personal (May 29), your story on the triple talaq issue. It seems some good sense has prevailed upon the All India Muslim Personal Law Board as it said that if something is not done about triple talaq, it will enforce social boycott. Talaq, which means an oath in Arabic, has been rendered undesirable by maulvis. Ignorance is bliss for majority of people though, they just follow the clerics blindly as they have not read the Quran in full to understand that the idea of triple talaq has no validity in the Quran. There are provisions for three waiting periods in between the utterance of Talaq thrice, so that there is a chance for reconciliation between husband and wife. Also, if required, family and friends can intervene to save the marriage by counselling. But when people like Congress leader Kapil Sibal, arguing for the Muslim Personal Law Board, equate triple talaq with the Ram Mandir issue and call it a matter of faith, the whole debate gets twisted. By this yardstick, the evil practice of Sati, child marriages and polygamy can also be restored in the name of faith. Instead of making it a battle between majority and minority, triple talaq should be treated as a gender issue. A uniform civil code for all, not only for Muslims, needs to be implemented. Triple talaq, as practicsed in India, is fundamentally wrong, whoever has picked it as a political issue, and for whatever reasons, has chosen a winner.
P.S.Kaur, On E-Mail
This is an open letter of sorts to the youngsters of Kashmir and I am one among them. I can’t start by writing “hope you are doing well”, because I know you are not. At the outset, I also want to state that I feel I am a proud Indian. Some of you must already be terming me as a ‘gaddar’, ‘Indian agent’ and so on, but, I am not concerned with these labels and just want to speak my mind. In the nineties, one generation that took to armed uprising has already suffered the consequences. There are thousands of unmarked graves of people from that generation across Kashmir and many more are in prison. Looking at the situation in Kashmir today, it feels that an entire generation has again been put at risk. And if things keep escalating the way they have been in all these years, there will be no Kashmiri youth left behind! Let us try not to think of India, Pakistan or Kashmir for a while and instead look at the number of deaths caused due to Indian army, militants, Ikhwans and Pakistan. How many intelligent minds have we lost! Lt Ummer Fayaz or Burhan Wani could have been two fine minds. What have we achieved in the last 20 years of the armed struggle? Half widows, orphaned children, hopeless parents and lone siblings. From Mirwaiz Maulvi Farooq, Adv. Prem Nath Butt, Justice Neel Kant Ganjoo, to the last killing in the valley, we have only lost intelligent minds. When it comes to some things, a practical approach has to be taken. We need to think hard about these questions that are perpetually haunting us: Where are the kith and kin of these so called freedom loving leaders? Why are schools being burned in Kashmir? Why do only students, activist, workers and small-medium traders die in clashes? Who is responsible for Kashmir’s drug problem?
I know that most of the educated youth from Kashmir realise that an independent Kashmir lying between India, Pakistan and China doesn’t stand a chance. All three of these nation-states possess atomic weapons, have a history of occupation and are arch rivals. So, in the purely practical sense, Kashmir is better off with India. But most youngsters in the Valley are forced by the situation to follow, rather blindly, wherever their instincts are taking them.
Zeshan Anjum, Jammu
This refers to the story Morals And The Major (June 5). What about law and order? This nagging question naturally comes to the mind of the people whenever they see untoward incidents taking place in Kashmir. The present turmoil in the Valley is disturbing, moving fellow citizens to tears. Sadly, the continuous scenes of stone-pelting on the streets of Kashmir are the lowest points of the current turmoil. During my school days in the early 1990s, a family from Jammu and Kashmir came to live in my hometown Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu for a short period of time. As a schoolboy, I had met by chance a few members of that family my age. And one schoolgirl among them was often seen talking proudly about Kashmir. In fact the talk had made me develop love and respect for Kashmir. It was indeed an admirable place in my mind with admirable people living in it. But unfortunately, Kashmir today is not what I had made of it during my school days. It is a paradise lost due to the conflict. The unfortunate fact is that factors like strong strategies and great diplomacy are totally missing on the subject of Kashmir. As the first step, law and order should be maintained across the Valley at all costs. Secondly, the Indian government must wake up to the reality in Jammu and Kashmir and take steps to open the doors of education, growth, employment and business development to the youth and the public in Kashmir. Finally, the countries riding the waves of technology have the natural tendency of ‘acting rough and tough’ at the drop of a hat. They should check themselves. Maintaining good rapport with Pakistan and opening up a communication route for strengthening bilateral tie-ups should be the immediate tasks to be looked into by India without hesitation. Otherwise, things will only get worse.
P. Senthil Saravana Durai, Mumbai
The Indian Army awarding Major Gogoi for tying a Kashmiri voter to the bonnet of his jeep for supposedly saving the lives of election officials from stone-pelters is acceptable. It is distressing to note that the Opposition, instead of hailing the major for his presence of mind, has been critical of him even after his appeal to stone-pelters to give a safe passage went unheeded. Had this Opposition been in power, would they have given the same response? I seriously doubt it. Although the major was unmindful of an individual’s safety and dignity, he was acting in a larger interest. Although it sent a cruel message to the people of Kashmir, I’m sure it would have been instrumental in boosting the morale of the forces in the Valley for whom the Kashmiri youth have slowly become enemies owing to the agitation. Sometimes, these things have to be done for the larger good.
K.R.Srinivasan, Secunderabad
While Outlook has appreciated the Lankan army for dealing firmly in eliminating terrorism without caring for human casualty, it has been highly critical of Major Gogoi’s action. All those who sympathise with overtly critical intellectuals and secular thinking people, who always seem to find some fault with the security establishment, can take a trip to Pakistan and see the truth for themselves. If the Major has used the gun to come out of this situation, he would have still been criticised. Dragging Jadhav’s case in this debate, as some have done, is uncalled for because both are totally incomparable. In my opinion, this officer deserves a pat on the back for saving the lives of many by taking a bold step on the spur of the moment.
S. Sreenivas, Bangalore
This refers to Dilip Simeon’s opinion piece (Remember Your Humanity, Rebel, May 15) in your ‘50 Years of Naxalbari’ series. The author spins his role with clinical precision, but is nebulous about why the movement was started and what its pioneers wanted to achieve. Revolution—just like the British philosopher and broadcaster C.E.M. Joad had said about socialism—is “like a hat that has lost its shape because everyone wears it”, and so is the moribund Marxism the Left still embraces. Maybe that’s why the Maoists, who claim to believe in revolution and Marxism, are so deeply entrenched in certain parts of central India that more than 691 battalions (as of 2015-16; the deployment has increased since then) of the central paramilitary forces (Central Reserve Police Force, Border Security Force, Central Industrial Security Force and others)—including 259 battalions in the Maoist-affected areas of Chhattisgarh alone—have failed to stop the periodic massacres by the guerrillas. The government seems keener to go after cow-killers rather than pursue these cop-killers. In the latest massacre in Sukma on April 24, in which more than two dozen CRPF personnel were killed, a local adivasi was said to have informed the guerrillas of the presence of the paramilitary force’s road-opening party, helping them plan the ambush with killer precision. Later, there were media reports on an audio clip in which a CPI (Maoist) leader is allegedly heard claiming that the attack was in retaliation against “the innumerable attacks, murders, sexual violence and gang-rapes by paramilitary personnel and the police, and to protect the honour of adivasi women”. The April 24 massacre is now old hat for the TRP-seeking media. But why is PM Narendra Modi silent? Why isn’t he carpet-bombing the areas where the Maoists find local support to carry out their dastardly acts? Who is Modi afraid of?
Shiv Kumar, Hyderabad
