KASHMIR PROTESTS

The recent incidents have left a very unusual scar on me and my friends and have made us reflect upon our point of view. I was meeting some elderly people the other day and this is the first time in a decade that I found all of them grim faced. Hardly connected with international politics, their point of view had more weight than the experts sitting in the news rooms of New Delhi and sermonizing. Honestly, it became difficult for me to have a discussion with them. I have yet to find someone who disagrees with majority of people who demand solution but not peace, anyone I have come across in recent days is of the same opinion.

The killings in Kashmir have to be condemned in all possible ways, irrespective of religion or political ideology. I don’t think any leader of the mainstream or separatist disagrees that they are irrelevant today when people have taken the initiate themselves. The recent killings have left many things wide open; the peace process that was given maximum hype has been razed to ground. If you ask me I do not trust the present leadership of any political party be it the mainstream or the separatist. They have no vision, no clear cut policy and are not sure what to demand if they are asked. No wonder one of the FB update states that, if situation gets back to normal like it happened during the Amaranth land row or the Shopian incident then he will be the first person to raise an Indian flag over his roof top. This is the amount of anger right now in an average citizen.

Every things has to be dealt with experience, a person doesn’t become an expert overnight but its takes ages to make one. My question to the experts in New Delhi is how many paramilitary personnel have been killed by the so called “Frenzy Mob”? You learn by your experiences and you decide your future course of action by what you have seen before. Ironically not even a single paramilitary official or Jawan has been ever killed by a stone pelter but in “retaliation” you have killed almost 15 young kids, how do you justify this? Having said that I do not approve stone pelting personally and I think none of us should. By implying that youth are dumb and can be used by anybody tantamount to insulting the aspiration of the youth and then they have all the reasons to justify their retaliation. Can’t you see this that they are giving this news more space then the genuine problems faced by an average Kashmir? Let people know that we demand our rights peacefully. If we condemn all forms of violence by the security forces then how can we approve stone pelting which is again a form of violence? Even the United States said that it regretted the loss of lives in Kashmir and asked “protestors to conduct agitations in a peaceful manner.

I was looking for the definition of stooping too low and couldn’t get a better answer than the Indian media repeating a tapped conversation between two people who according to them have orchestrated the whole series of killings in Kashmir. I guess this is their way of justifying the killings of young people? I don’t know how authentic the tapes are but for heaven’s sake 15 people have been mercilessly killed, have some remorse, the majority of them were school going kids . You can’t treat kids in the rest of the country with empathy and compassion but when it comes to Kashmir, bullet is your only answer. If this is not absurd I wonder what is.

The internet is abuzz with protests all over the world. Kashmiris for once have been seen united in an effort to send out a very strong message to the rest of the world that Kashmir needs a solution. I guess that’s the only way people can vent their anger. I had a very healthy discussion with my friends on the internet about changing their profile pictures with a black background “iprotest” one . Unexpectedly it has spread like wild fire and every second person has done so. Similarly some of my friends have started a group with the same name which swelled to around 1900 members in 4 days, the group’s main page reads “iProtest is a campaign for international awareness against human rights abuse in J&K India” it strikes you attention with it initial line that it’s an A-political group. Amazingly it has members from all across the world and from different faiths. Internet has become a strong medium for arguments and counter arguments on the recent happenings in Kashmir, while I kick started a discussion as to how would changing of a profile picture help the families of the persons killed. I must admit that I received some very articulate and thought provoking answers. I will use some of them that made sense to me and I am sure it will for the readers as well. While the discussion started with reasons to believe that this is a sudden emotional outburst and everything will be as normal as before because for a nation to be independent one needs to sacrifice. If nothing happened when Amarnath land row cost us 22 young people in one day and a total of 62, and again Shopian, there are all the reasons that same thing will happen now also.

More talks, more speeches and more FB accounts don’t get you Independence but Unity and Intifada does. In response to these arguments, my friend Mehnaz wrote “Do u think that there is a way of recuperation for those who lost their young ones? No power on earth can heal their wounds!! As far as changing of display picture is concerned atleast all of us who have done it are doing their bit by registering their protest. Similarly, Ishfaq wrote, “By changing our picture back to normal would only mean that somewhere deep down we feel that our protest has made a mark, however small. Raja adds, “Tanvir i wish we could take out a candle march but we would be shot as well. It's being sensitive and showing concern. Nobody can bring back the dead but at least we can mourn and show concern this way”.

Babar in his counter argument says “Don't talk about hollow protests if you're not willing to make the sacrifices yourself. If you are willing to boycott Indian culture, give up watching their TV, boycott their movies and songs, then that is sacrifice worth being proud about. Otherwise pontificating others about your profile picture just displays your hypocrisy”. Humayun adds to the comment saying that it’s fruitless and futile. Want your voice heard? Using media (especially international) is your best bet. Changing a Facebook picture is just plain feckless, he personally believes it will take a lot more than changing a Facebook profile picture to make a difference”. There are many more comments but my space doesn’t allow me to write all of them. One thing is clear that young educated people have taken the initiate in their own hands. They believe that leadership should be among them and not among people who sit in their palatial houses and sermonize while young people lose their lives. If you ask an average citizen about the happening they would blame first the leadership than anything else.

I hope better sense prevails on our separatist leaders when they decide their future course of action and similarly with mainstream ones. For a lasting solution, we need convergence of views and consensus on a possible solution otherwise everybody will be toeing their own way. As someone rightly said, the need of the hour is a solution not peace but at the same time we should avoid any form of violence. The youth of the contemporary world denounce any form of violence unless drawn to it because as justifiably suggested by Supriya Soni a member of i protest team that “people who live by guns die by guns”.