DIALOG THE ONLY SOLUTION

This write up of mine was published in one of the prestigious newpaper

The Greater Kashmir

Nobody wants a war or rather, no one in his senses ought to do so, without being clear in our minds we intend to achieve something but eventually lose every thing. It is a principle that has often been seen never more so than in the conflict of Kashmir for the last 18 years. But it is clear that the response to such challenges has not exhibited the clarity of aim. Muddle and hesitation, misguided compromise with the perpetrators of atrocities and the initiators of conflicts, seesaws of public opinion, and dissent among various political parties have marked the down fall of many nations and in our case the state of Jammu and Kashmir. It can be argued that those who win wars do so because they have a better understanding of both the past and the future than their opponents. To draw out the threads that connect the struggles of recent years is thus not only interesting, but may be vital. After Kargil war, one of the most important lessons to be learned that in 21st century wars are never a solution. Kashmir is a debatable subject which can only be addressed by a dialogue. Kashmir has all along seen people taking about Peace and in this context a debate or a dialogue has a lot of relevance.
Dialogue or a debate There are many human needs that people have and these needs are often the cause of unnecessary conflict or the escalation of a small dispute because one of the two parties does not realize that they are not meeting the others needs. During interpersonal communication, the other person has a need for you to listen to their ideas and to acknowledge them. The need to be heard also goes with the need to express one’s inner feelings without the fear of evaluation, judgment, or reprisal for making it known. Had the issue of Kashmir been discussed in its inception may be the hundred thousand lives we lost would have been saved.
Independence of Expression Autonomy is a basic human need. We hate to be forced to do anything without a say or choice in the matter and many of us will resist or defy just based on not having a say in the matter. Parents are the best experts on this need. When we tell our child to go to bed or to brush their teeth, or to eat their vegetables, or take their medicine, what is the response? “No” It’s not so much that they don’t disagree with the decision, but merely that they want to exert their own independence and free-will into the process. As adults, we are no different; we’ve just found more creative ways to articulate “No.” In this part of the world killings of political activists are very unfortunate, You tend to forget that we are discouraging the future policy makers of our nations therefore we fail to attract people with impeccable charter to join politics for the fear of being labeled or killed.
Accountably and free will Realize that everyone has a curious nature. It is programmed in us. Once our interest is sparked by something, we usually can’t leave it alone until we get a satisfactory answer on it. Therefore if we shut someone down with a position that offers no explanation or reason, then this will create resistance and resentment. Bureaucrats and authority figures often get into the bad habit of telling people that nothing can be done because “its policy” or “its the law.” This shuts them down without offering an explanation to them that satisfies their need. Their only recourse then is to take it out onto the person by making them the villain. These few reasons will find a lot of merit in the conflict of Jammu and Kashmir. Even in the so called Modern world, the Americans feel that conflicts can be solved by its army. The institutional obstinacy of the armed forces has reinforced by the huge insensitivity of politicians which add to the casualties of Humans. And they are subject to unremitting attention from the media, intensifying the public expectation that the military campaign will bring swift results without serious casualties among the forces employed or among civilians in the area of operations.. The British had found a ‘secret weapon’ in the ‘combination of insistence on the arms embargo with a military presence to protect humanitarian aid’. It was a combination that froze Western policy in IRAQ to the worst possible posture. Two things that gave India the edge, for a while. First, Being the largest Democracy, it played its “Democracy Card” very well. Second, Western policy helped them enormously, helping them politically to showdown the uprising in Kashmir and make it look like “Terrorism “. Both Manmohan and Musharraf, the contributors to The Peace Process should quote the same passage, that points clearly toward the need to understand the nature of the conflicts into which peoples and nations are put first. Misunderstanding the conflict and you will fight the wrong war, fight when you should not fight at all, or fail to fight when that is the only right course. The Indian’s and pakis exhibit all three possibilities, and the conflict that began 50 years back carries the same potential for error, But with a Huge rider that the stakes today are even higher.