PDP's Melodrama

The recent melodramatic moves of the PDP in which they disrupted procedures in the Assembly and rued over human rights violations by the RR makes me wonder whether they are better suited for Bihar politics. Before, while they were in power, and while they had every opportunity to rectify whichever draconian laws they are thumping their chests against, they instead chose to just pay lip service at that time. Now that the Omar Abdullah administration is actually practicing the doctrine of "actions speak louder than words", the PDP is sadly assuming the role of a disruptor.  I believe there is no harm in them trying to don the mantle of messiahs by seeking revocation of the AFSPA or tabling the Self-Rule document (if it does exist), but I would suggest they work together with the NC and cooperate with them to alleviate the miseries of common people instead of resorting to hollow sloganeering in the Assembly. Even the devil can quote the scripture. But will we and must we believe them? 

Justice will prevail !

My heart goes out to the two youths killed , you cannot justify killing of two youth in unprovoked firing by the some black sheep in the army.I am sure they will be nailed very soon. 

When a newspaper covers certain stories, it's almost impossible to learn enough about them to offer a thoroughly informed opinion on what the real position is .What emerges from the magisterial inquiry remains to be seen. But i am sure it will reflect the best interest of Kashmiris. 

This is not the time to find faults in others but to see that such incidents do not happen again. In this small note of mine i wll not count dayz and hours but will sincerely hope that the culprits are behind bars very soon. 

I am sure justice will prevail !

The Other Side....

This one on my friends Request...

Lately there has been a lot of hue and cry about the dog menace because of a recent surge in the number of attacks on people. The question is then, if a street dogs violent nature is derived from human intervention, then wouldn't it be safe to say that the responsibility lies solely with us. There is no question that infected or rabid dogs are dangerous. In fact, most breeds have the potential to be very aggressive, which can usually be determined by the way the dog is brought up during the early stages of its life. Whether or not street dogs have ever attacked a person or another animal is not the issue, it's more about the dog's capacity to do so. For instance, all the breeds or individual animals have the potential to be aggressive and vicious. If a “poodle” felt the urge to attack a person, it is most likely that the person would be capable of successfully defending him or herself. Yet if a, Rotweiller, Doberman pinscher or pit bull is to attack a person; it is unlikely that an average person would come out of the attack unharmed. The primary reason dog attacks are so prominent and dangerous in modern society is because people who as a matter of right throw stones or scare them even if the  poor animal does not intend to harm them .In Kashmir we have a very unique feature of treating a dog either as very dangerous or as a filthy animal. This mindset has crept in our society so much that even educated people feel very uncomfortable, should they see a dog any where .Then a very important aspect in our Muslim dominated society is to consider dogs as very unhygienic and religiously highly untouchable. While the majorities outside Kashmir are animal lovers who look after their dogs with so that it is gentle, faithful and kind, here we have a different line to go on.

 

I do agree if any animal including dogs pose a threat to humans then it’s quite understandable to think of killing them but you cannot massacre all others for the fault of few. This is definitely a problem to be addressed but we have to be humane .After all we all are humans and we ought to be different from animals and poisoning is simply no solution. You agree or you don’t?

 

Srinagar and its adjoining areas has been a victim of Dog Menace for all these years .Its a known fact that the paramilitary forces breed the street dogs and feed them well in return for staying vigilant and barking on strangers, its evident everywhere one see’s a security picket. As an animal lover, I am not against the idea of feeding them but the violent nature they possess by this behavior is grave. An animal will only attack when it feels at risk from someone .Then the question is why animals especially dog’s attack humans? I still feel that the poor animal should not be poisoned if it does not pose any danger to any one. That is both religiously and humanly wrong. We really need environmentalists to find a better solution. If the government's goal is to stop the number of dog attacks on people, then they need a comprehensive program.

 

If a solution is in the offing then I think this is the one, I really feel would have a great effect and control the dog menace in and around Srinagar. “We are in for a solution to this problem and the program will stretch for 5 years”, was the first comment of Elizabeth Evans a South African veterinarian who happened to be a member of the British Union for Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV) who I incidentally met in the office of the health officer SMC two years back . She sounded optimistic and quite adamant to help curb this menace that has hit Srinagar and the adjoining districts. In an informal Chat with me she told me that it’s very important to treat these animals with compassion and love, this was so unheard because in this part of the world we usually don’t hear such words for even humans-Animals are far away!. But honestly I could see that urge she had in her to help. She said she is in for a solution but no doubt it is a lengthy process stretching to 5 years but sooner or later I will prove to be successful. Her experiment could have succeeded had the then government taken a little interest. The latest I hear that she had left Srinagar dejected the same month she had met me.

 

It is every citizen’s inherent obligation to dream and secure our city from all ills .If we are unable to do so, we have no right to claim our civic rights? 

Bad faith

I would like to summarize in brief the salient points of my article that I recently wrote for Greater Kashmir. (Disparate views should not be a hinderance)

• There are people thinking that there is a grand conspiracy being hatched in Delhi to keep Kashmir under-developed.
• That we should trust Omar in steering us away from the rut that we have been stuck in for the past two decades. We can benefit from his very excellent relations with the central government.
• That in cooperating with Omar for the development of the state, people who chose to stay away from the polls will not be giving up their hopes for the final resolution of the Kashmir issue. I quoted Omar who has repeatedly promised that a vote for the development of the state would not be a vote to shelf the Kashmir issue.
• For the benefit of all Kashmiris, I suggested people stop propagating hartals to hinder development in Kashmir.
• My main ambition in politics is to see Kashmir at par with other beautiful cities in the world.
• My suggestion is that we invite experts from Holland to teach us how to start greenhouses on a large scale. They are world-leaders in greenhouse technology.
• I have experience in getting development works completed with people's participation.
• I respect all views, including those of the separatists. Everyone is entitled to their views
• That we should join hands for the development of Kashmir

As you can see from the summary of my article, my sole focus in the article is on arguing that all Kashmiris regardless of our political beliefs should be working together for the development of our state. Never have I even mentioned anything about the military excesses or human rights violations. In fact I emphasized that cooperating in development projects will not mean that people have to forget about the past.

For the article, I received some excellent feedback, suggestions and encouragement. Without surprises I did receive some negative responses which I had tried to avoid because these sort of arguments do not benefit anyone. In particular the angry response by one Junaid Mattoo, who has written about this on his blog is very disappointing because his response is based on the sole premise that I, in some figment of his immature imagination, condoned the criminal acts committed by RR in Kunan Poshpora.

He goes on to say that he will cooperate in the development of Kashmir - which incidentally my article was primarily about to begin with. That just goes to prove that he wrote that article in bad faith and with nefarious intentions. If his tirade was just aimed at me, I could understand, but he goes on to ridicule my father which goes on to display his lack of character and indecency. He concludes by saying that Mr. Sagar and I are "needling" him in some way, which I do not even want to know what he means by. I will not waste my time anymore than these few paragraphs in debating someone who resorts to insulting, lying, distorting facts and taking words out of context to justify his arguments. Readers can be the judge themselves as my article as well as Mr. Junaid's response are available online on our respective blogs.