India under Siege

India under Siege – from within

By Nancy Kaul

November 2010

Islamic terrorism and terrorists, separatists and secessionists, and soft-peddling politicians, are outdoing each other to prove they share the same mindset and agenda in Jammu & Kashmir. They have another equally committed partner in the quest for disengaging J&K from India, the ultimate political objective for which Islam has been waging Jihad in the State.

This partner is neither willing to accept facts nor recognize the ground reality, but is making all-out efforts to trample the Indian constitution under their feet. This ‘partner’ is a class of intellectuals, politicians, journalists and ‘secular’ liberals who are aiding and abetting the separatists and secessionists to move inch by inch towards Balkanizing the Indian nation.

Muslims of Kashmir Valley have long been portraying themselves as the sole inhabitants not only of the Valley, but the entire Jammu and Kashmir. It is almost as if the Hindus of the Kashmir Valley who were forcibly driven out of their homes had never existed, and as if the Hindus of Jammu and Buddhists of Ladakh also do not exist. Such is the stranglehold of Muslims in the State that they have succeeded in propagating the myth that the only people who live in the State of J&K are Muslims. This is the success of Islamic terrorism and its methods.

Secessionist Seminar at Teen Murti Bhavan 

This was only the premise the whole day Saturday, 7 November 2009, in a seminar devoted to J&K. The whole issue was only about the Valley and only about Muslims. Every speaker made his case as if there is no Jammu and Ladakh and there are no Hindus and Buddhists. The whole seminar was Valley-centric.

What about the Kashmiri Pandits? The people who know more than anybody else about the impact and consequences of the terror unleashed on them in the Kashmir Valley. And what about the people of Ladakh and Jammu?  Does the Indian Constitution guarantee freedom of life and speech only to terrorists, separatists and politicians who take the Oath of Office in its name and then proceed to do everything to erode the very sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country of which the state of Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part?

In the name of democracy and dialogue, only this viewpoint is propagated in seminar circuits. This seminar was no different. Panun Kashmir suspects that these debates have a design and a pattern. Certainly this was discernible in this seminar organized by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies at Nehru Memorial Museum & Library, Teen Murti Bhavan, New Delhi: “Multi Party Dialogue on the Political Future of Jammu and Kashmir.” 

Initially organiser Madhu Kishwar gave the impression that all regions of Jammu & Kashmir had been invited to participate in the seminar and that all participants (speakers) would get an opportunity to present their viewpoints. The organisers made out that the views expressed at the seminar would not be confined to those of the separatists or Valley politicians.

But the seminar proved to be a platform for a vicious campaign to de- link Jammu & Kashmir from India. This was the only theme; it was neither a seminar nor a dialogue and certainly it was not represented by all regions or religions.

In the chair was Ram Jethamalani, a senior advocate who often himself led the attack against the Indian nation. Jethamalani was bravado personified when he made common cause with the terrorist Yasin Malik, and actually looked pleased with himself as speaker after speaker hit out at the edifice of constitutional polity and the territorial integrity of India.

Mohammed Shafi Uri of the National Conference took the first dig while suggesting that the Pandora’s Box of autonomy was the only solution. He said that in 1953 the Kashmiris were betrayed by the Indian Union.  The stage thus set to their advantage, separatist Hurriyat leader Abdul Gani Bhat wanted the army and all security forces withdrawn from the Valley. He wanted ‘self governance’ in Kashmir, and made the preposterous suggestion that Jammu & Kashmir should be a buffer zone between India and Pakistan instead of a State within the Indian Union.

He announced that he would like to sit with National Conference and PDP to chalk out a new strategy to achieve this. [Interestingly, only two days previously, Dr Farooq Abdullah had said in Srinagar that the Muslims of the State were proud to be Muslims and proud to be the majority populace].

The speeches continued. PDP’s Muzaffar Beg wanted Article 1 of the Indian Constitution amended; he ranted about how self-rule was the only solution.

All speakers spoke in tandem and in a well orchestrated manner. The only casualty that day was the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India.

Mehbooba Mufti and her loud and aggressive ways need no introduction. Last year the nation saw her hysterical anti-Amarnath campaign and political rhetoric. She said she wanted to see Kashmir closer to Muzaffarabad; it should not wilt in the presence of India but bloom in proximity to Islamabad!  Spitting and spewing venom, Mehbooba said the final solution will have the rubber stamp of Syed Ali Shah Gilani (rabid separatist and vehement campaigner for J&K as a Pakistani entity on the basis of religion).

Neither the Chair nor Madhu Kishwar reacted to the day-long anti-India and separatist tirade. Indeed, they encouraged and prodded the speakers in their anti-India tirade. Jethamalani comically announced:

“I am 90% Pakistani and only10% Indian.”  The ‘dialogue’ was only a series of unchallenged and uncontested monologues of speakers wanting secession from India. Nationalist views censored   Yet when it was the turn for a contrary view, Madhu Kishwar and Ram Jethamalani did not allow the paper to be read till the end. Fist- thumping Jethamalani said he would not allow anything to be said except what was being said. He rose threateningly. Madhu Kishwar declared that unless the speaker made changes to her paper, the Kashmiri Hindu point of view would not be allowed to be aired: “No, No, I will not allow you to speak. You cannot speak this,” they both declared in unison.

What does a person or speaker at any conference, intellectual debate, or multi-party dialogue expect? To be able to place his or her opinion and point of view. Nothing more and nothing less. Why did she not stop the Kashmiri Muslims who spoke hour after hour hitting out at the sovereignty of the country?

I state unambiguously that all the proposals discussed and endorsed by these people will never be agreed to by the Kashmiri Pandits or Hindus of Jammu and Buddhists of Ladakh.

Why were they all so agitated when the issue of Hindus and Buddhists, Jammu and Ladakh being equal stakeholders in the State was raised?   The truth is and remains that whether it is the self rule proposal or the autonomy report or the greater autonomy report or the separatist proposal, all are aimed at severing the State from the Indian Union.

Why do all debates, conferences, seminars and discussions on J&K feature only the secessionists and separatists and their partners in the Indian polity? Why are the other stakeholders marginalised and even ignored? I can only assume that this is an evil design to balkanize India and talibanise Kashmir. The Hindus and Buddhists of J&K have to be kept invisible and voiceless for this iabolic agenda to succeed. Madhu Kishwar’s seminar was no different and served only the anti-India agenda.