BHARAT BHUSHAN - What's happening in Kashmir ought to shame Indians. But it hasn't
The situation in the
Kashmir Valley is exceptionally grim. Not that there haven't been protests
earlier holding security personnel responsible for civilian deaths. Schools
have shut down before. Shops and establishments have also followed a
centralised protest schedule dictated by separatist leaders in the past. The
State has restricted the movement of separatist leaders many times before and
jailed people under the notorious Public Safety Act.
Then why does the
current political atmosphere in Kashmir have an unprecedented sense of
desperation and despair? There is a growing
sense amongst the Kashmiris that no one in the international community has time
for them. The attention of the world is engaged in West Asia where the larger
Islamic world is in turmoil. Any misstep by Russia or the US in Syria can lead
to unforeseen and disastrous developments for the whole world.
India's growing
closeness with the US and its emergence as one of the potential engines of
global economic growth has meant that the world wants New Delhi on its side. It
is keen to woo India rather than reprimand it for any perceived domestic
misdemeanours.
Pakistan on the other
hand has become branded as the nursery of global terrorism, and its
international credibility on India-related issues is severely reduced. In more
proximate terms, the terrorist attack on Uri has damaged Pakistan and Kashmir
more than anything else could have. The indigenous dimension of the Kashmir
protests has been subsumed under a dominant public discourse of Pakistan
inspiring terrorism against India, of which Uri is seen as the latest example.
MODI'S KASHMIR POLICY: Within India, the
ascendancy of Narendra Modi had initially created some hope among the people of
Kashmir as they thought he might take forward the Kashmir legacy of Atal Behari
Vajpayee. That did not happen. The Modi government's
brand of politics has instead resulted in a discernible rightward shift in the
national social and political discourse. Government policies - whether
accidental or deliberate - seem to be moulding India into a national security
state. Everyone is expected to be on the same page as the government on
security issues - and Kashmir has been reduced from a political issue to one of
national security and law and order.
This situation has
been complicated by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-Peoples' Democratic Party
(PDP) government in Jammu and Kashmir. It legitimised the entry of the BJP into
the governance structures of Jammu and Kashmir on the basis of Hindutva
ideology. As a result, the BJP thinks it is all right to see Jammu and Kashmir
as a Hindu-Muslim problem and the state's governance as contest for loaves and
fishes between Hindu-dominated Jammu and Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley…
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