Obama'sVisit

Kashmir has a reason to hope as Obama is the man who made his people believe -

“Yes We Can”

Post 9/11, every Muslim has been the victim of harassment and suspicion all around the globe. Either it is terrorism or radical thinking that the Muslim community is being accused of. I am not a fundamentalist and I know that is precisely what Islam is all about-universal brotherhood, tolerance and coexistence. If some obscurantist radicals are misinterpreting Islam by their un-Islamic acts that does not mean that every Muslim is a terrorist. Whatever is happening in the Muslim world should make us sit up and reflect. Globalization has brought new challenges, new concepts and altogether new managerial dimensions. we may not be able to compete in a world where survival of the fittest will be the maxim. The contours of our tomorrow’s dream State shall have to be redrawn and reshaped. It is possible only if the people so desire. Nobody can do it for them.

When the insurgency surfaced in Indian part of Kashmir, nobody could in his wildest dreams imagine that a Kashmiri could pick up a gun and declare to the whole world that he had lost patience and decided to resort to a violent option after having suffered the indignities and subjugation. I will not go in the genesis of the imbroglio, but one thing is clear, that 21 years of tumult has turned our lives into Hell and traumatized us all. It seems as if our spirits have been stretched too far and perhaps we have reached a breaking point. The disregard, apathy, and dispassion that has kept the solution of Kashmir in the cold storage continues to have serious repercussions on the everyday lives of an average citizen of the trouble torn state and as it prolongs so does the hope. Every family has been affected by the happenings in Kashmir. How long do we have to see more bloodshed, more lives being wasted and more graves being dug out?

After four months of total chaos in Kashmir, the people are hoping that the Obama team will be able to understand the problem of the Kashmiris. You’ll find a cross section of people and even from different political shades keeping their fingers crossed. Leaders from the separatist camp and also the mainstream feel that something might come up with regard to Kashmir. It looks like a majority of Indians want something to be done with Kashmir, they would never want their taxes to be wasted this way. While the peaceful Indian also want a settlement once and for all the radicals are working overtime to downplay the uprising someway or the other. I am sure all the experts will be glued to the idiot box for these few days looking for a statement by Obama team on Kashmir.

In Kashmir, there is a high degree of expectation that an out of box solution is carved out during the visit of President Barrak Obama to India. Too many lives have been lost. Its evident that after fifty two years down the road, there has been nothing concrete except for talks and more talks. Allegations and counter allegations , secret formulas and back track diplomacy. Poor Kashmiris are still waiting with a bated breath what the outcome of these talks are. It was never specified then and it has not been specified now and looks quite evident that unless America doesn’t intervene India and Pakistan alone cannot solve this vexed issue. I’m sure US has its own economic reasons to be friendly with India but it also has an inherent obligation to see that this region is peaceful . They have to address the youth , the younger generation and let them know that they have to compete with the rest of the world in terms of progress and development. Its time to give them the slogan of “Yes We Can”. The Obama team should understand that supporting or encouraging bilateral talks will not work anymore, they have to intervene before its too late . America has to understand that there are hawks on both sides of India and Pakistan who have developed an inherent interest in Kashmir. There is the lure of power, there are kickbacks in defense deals, there are millions to be made if the present uncertainty prevails.

Sanity demands that we turn a new leaf in the region of peace and progress. President Obama’s historic visit has provided this region an opportunity when they can and they should leave behind their past and foster a relationship that improves the quality of life of nearly one and a half billion people of the region.

http://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/2010/Nov/7/the-scope-of-hope-19.asp

INTIFADA

A constructive defiance for rights which one day had to happen and it did.

The general perception after the recent “blockade” is that we must carve out our own destiny and go for the third option as both Jarring and Nimitz had recommended way back in the 40s. We may still be clamouring for secularism but after what we have repeatedly seen and heard the Jammu leaders talking, the chord seems to have broken. I heard many of my friends asking me, “Tanvir, when this problem surfaced, you found Uma Bharti, Rajanath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Praveen Togadia, few ministers from Punjab and host of other leaders swarming to Jammu. The entire Congress leadership endorsed the Sanghursh Samiti’s stand. How come there was NOT even a single voice in the entire country of 120 billion people to condemn the blockade of essential supplies or the whole sale killing of dozens of unarmed innocent Kashmiris”. When you push a person to the wall, give him the impression that his life is at your mercy and his hopes and aspirations are totally subservient to yours, he reacts. This is precisely what Kashmiris did. At the end of the day he was so traumatized, depressed, and disillusioned; He decided that he had to act. All others jumped into the fray later fearing that they would not have a role. In a way an indigenous INTIFADA was born.
One does not have to be a Jennings to tell the world what the history is about. But may be at some point of time, people will agree that the whole issue of SASB transfer of land was cooked up for electoral gains. If the aim was to accrue limited local gains it may instead result in their total; decimation. But in the bargain those villains of peace have reenacted 1947 when every Kashmiri had stood up against bigotry and protected his secular credentials. All those saffron parties who claim to be the saviors of India and its cultural heritage have sown the seeds of another partition. 
For them demolition of Babri Masjid, carnage of Gujrat, selling Ram and now trying to protect Shiva are an easy access to power. Everything else is irrelevant. The Yatra will take place every year, and believe me Kashmiri has been and will always be the Host. I am sure now onwards the arrangements will see an improvement and it will be a smooth yatra again. And the Shrine Board will ensure that the fragile eco system at that altitude stays undamaged. It is the mutual trust that has been damaged and it may never be the same as it was a few months ago.
In Uttranchal the government has limited the Pilgrims visiting the Gangotri for environmental reasons. The Ashram at Sidh Sot in the heart of Shyampur has been removed. Even India has been very selective in allowing pilgrims to Mt. Kailash. What happened recently in Himachal Pradesh has forced the State Govt to restrict the flow to some of the environmentally sensitive areas. Environment is a universal concern and everyone agrees that I it needs to be protected and not vandalized. Should the ecological balance at Baltal and the Cave area be allowed to be destroyed just because they happen to be in Kashmir? There were times when people would go to “Van” to seek peace solitude and enlightenment. It is garbage now and it might be a good idea to emulate some of the States that have imposed Pilgrim Tax on people visiting such places. If I am polluting my environment, I must pay. It does not matter whether I am a tourist or a pilgrim. We can improve the quality of our environment. Let us clean our hearts and minds first. 
And finally '...human rights, human freedoms, and human dignity have their deepest roots somewhere outside the perceptible world. These values are as powerful as they are because, under certain circumstances, people accept them without compulsion and are willing to die for them. 
( I can be mailed also at tanvirsm@hotmail.com or tanvirm123@yahoo.com.)

Greater Kashmir Oct-14th 2008

Time to learn from Mistakes

When it comes to New Delhi all the agreements have been made only to break them.
 

The situation we have witnessed lately is not an emotional outburst as some would make us believe. I think it was volcanic in many respects. Accumulated anger, New Delhi’s continued political blunders, ignoring people’s democratic aspirations and presuming that putting the real issue under carpet, offering occasional doles or telling people that development and good governance were the answers all these and many more decisions taken in the name of restoring normalcy ultimately burst the dams of patience and you had almost a million people on the streets. An average Kashmiri youth felt insulted and humiliated when Azad called every Kashmiri corrupt or declared to a borrowed crowd from New Delhi that Tulip Garden was the ultimate that had brought peace and harmony to the State and that there was nothing like a Kashmir Issue and it was only in the minds of a vested interest! As one Kashmir watcher has said in an article that New Delhi never had a clear Kashmir policy today, yesterday or the day before. But it could not have been so bankrupt politically to send a political novice like Azad to our State who neither understood the sensitivity of the State nor could he govern effectively. There are only two assumptions – either he was too naïve to fall into the trap spread by the PDP or he was an accomplice in creating a situation that has resulted in forty graves, several hundred maimed young and old, brought a divided APHC together once again and created a permanent gulf between Jammu and Kashmir. I think both the PDP and Congress have to answer more questions than they can perhaps answer.
 Universally, it is believed that militancy has a certain age- twenty is the maximum, but this should make New Delhi mandarins sit up and take notice that out of the million people that we saw on the roads chanting “Hum Kya Chahte” more than 90% were from the 18-25 age group which means they must have been between 1-7 when the insurgency started and have been brought up seeing death, destruction, violence, physical abuse continuous oppression, scandals and political chicanery. With information super highway under their finger tips and the whole world opening before their eyes, there is both hate and anger about what they see around themselves. I have argued with many of my friends and many of their opinions have merit. For instance one of my friend asserts that the State had surrendered only Defense, foreign Affairs, transport and Communication to the Union and it has failed in all the three. First, they lost 1/3rd of the State in 1948 and could do nothing. Again when more than 40000 Kms of our territory were given away to China, New Delhi did not tell us sorry we could not defend your territory. Secondly, they gave a pledge in the UN that “The people’s wishes would be determined by an impartial plebiscite” that was never honored, and thirdly, that they could not even take measures all these sixty two years that would keep our supply line free from any obstruction. Tauntingly, he asks me, had there been an alternate route would you be worried today that Kashmir was without essential life saving drugs for one month or poor people had to survive only on the greens. I don’t have an answer.
 With information super highway open to all, it is amazing how news has been filtering through minute by minute. The internet is abuzz with discussions on the issue and people seem so well informed about the problem and its background. A guy from US while reacting to my blog, (http//: kashmirleader.blogspot.com) asks some pertinent questions that will perhaps never be answered. I quote him”Delhi has all along treated Kashmir as its colony or else why would they have toppled Sheikh Abdullah’s elected Government in 1953, killing 30,000 people? Why did they frame him and his associates in a false case for 14 years and then withdraw it only to enter into an Accord in 1975 that was broken within 24 hours? Why did Indira Gandhi dismiss Farooq Abdullah’s Government in 1984? Knowingly that Kashmir has been a very sensitive State, why did they appoint that infamous butcher of Turkman Gate as State’s Governor and facilitate the installation of a puppet regime that imposed curfew for months? And when people reacted to those machinations, much against the saner advice, he was again brought as Governor only to target leaders like Mirwaiz Farooq, Abdul Gani Lone, Moulana Masoodi and massacring thousands of innocent Kashmiris in cold blood. Should we not be asking WHO was behind all those negative decisions right through 1953? I again have no answers.
 Another fellow reminds me about that historical oledge by Jawaharlal Nehru in the Lok Sabha - “...Ultimately, I say this with all deference to this Parliament - the decision will be made in the hearts and minds of the men and women of Kashmir; neither in this Parliament, nor in the United Nations nor by anybody else”. The problem with the Indian rulers is that they have refused to accept the reality that Kashmir continues to be on the UN agenda and they are committed to ascertain the wishes of the people. Yes, an “out of the box solution” was possible had they been a little farsighted encouraged Musharraf and zeroed in on one of his various formulae. The way the ‘democratic Pakistan’ is shaping up now I wonder if any ruler will have time to even discuss Kashmir. There is not a single public man in the State belonging to any political hue who does not understand this reality.
 The erosion of autonomy has been a systematic process that was consciously started from August 1953 when Sheikh Abdullah was dismissed and arrested, Bakshi Ghulam Mohammed was installed and the trampling process started. When he resisted, he was fired and dumped and another willing incumbent G. M. Sadiq put on the saddle and “start the process of integration”. Some of the documents that have been made public lately suggest that New Delhi never meant what it said and at every level cheated on the people, cheated the leaders and in the process cheated themselves. Nehru’s several pronouncements in the Parliament, Sir B.N. Rao’s declaration in the UN, joint declarations between Nehru-Bogra, Nehro Choudhry, Nehru-Ayub, Shastri-Ayub, Indira Bhutto, Rajiv-Benazir,Musharaf Bajpai or Musharaf Manmohan have all been exercises in futility. The bottom line being - “Just drag it”. Yes, after the 1971 War people felt that Pakistan was disintegrating and the Indira Abdullah Accord gave some hope that New Delhi might relent and adopt a pro-federation policy. But the villains of peace acted swiftly to sabotage even that effort. The rest is history. We seem to have reached a stage where a Kashmiri wants India to hear what the truth is and not what suites her fancies. It is not the first time that people have reacted the way they have. We have come a long way from Advani dumping the Autonomy Report even without a cursory glance. Kashmiris have suddenly started digging up the archives and have too many arguments in their favour now than before. One should not be surprised if a large section insists on the grant of self-determination and on as promised on 24 January 1957 or another UN Resolution stating that any prior action by GOI would not constitute a final disposition of the State. Wasn’t it around that time that Govind Ballabh Pant paid a hurried visit to Srinagar and declared that the State of Jammu and Kashmir was an integral part of India and there could be no question of a plebiscite. This infuriated the Kashmiris to the large extent, and clashes started in Kashmir. It was the time India and China went to war on account of a border dispute in the Ladakh region. At the end of the war China occupied almost 40,000 kms of our land in the Aksai-chin and Demochok region. In December of the same year, another 5180 sq. kms were taken over by China at Shaksgam in the Northern Areas. It’s an irony that the country our Maharaja had surrendered our defense to under the Instrument of Accession did not blink even an eye lid- the territory they were supposed to defend! Another uprising we witnessed in 1965 when Sheikh Sahib was arrested on his return from Mecca. Enroute he had met with the Chinese Prime Minister, Mr Chou En Lai and the Algerian President Mr. Ben Bella. The arrest had angered people violently and the widespread protests erupted in the entire valley. The Plebiscite Front observed a sit-in for Sheikh Sahib’s release and many workers were arrested. New Delhi could not resist the international pressure and it culminated in the Kashmir Accord signed by G.Parthasarathy and Mirza Mohammad Afzal Beg on behalf of Indira Gandhi and Sheikh Sahib respectively. The Accord had unequivocally committed GOI for restoring autonomy. When it comes to New Delhi all the agreements have been made only to break them. 
 The next step India took was to alter the appointment of the Sadar-e-Riyasat, who till then was elected by the legislature. After 1965, the head of the J&K State became the appointee of the President of India; this was the time when the office of the Sadar-e-Riyasat was transformed to that of the Governor. Karan Singh was elected Sadar-e-Riyasat for the first time in 1951 , the reason that was put forth was that Karan Singh at that time was already the incumbent sovereign as his father, the King had left the State in mid-’49.. Although protest were held in Kashmir against Articles 356 and 357 of the Indian Constitution which was extended to the state, by virtue of this act Centre could assume the government of the State and exercise its legislative powers or giving emergency powers to the President in the event of the failure of the Constitutional machinery. This power has been exercised more than once since the application of Article 356—in 1986 and in 1990. This according to observers has been the basis of distrust of people of Kashmir towards Indian government. 
 The erosion continued, and in 1958 the jurisdiction of the Controller and Auditor General was applied in J&K when Articles 149 and 150 and Entry 76 of List 1 of Schedule Seven of the Indian constitution were extended to the State. After that the amalgamation of the State Customs Departments with Central Excise and Customs, the sharing of proceeds of taxes and other levies as laid down in Part Twelve of the Indian Constitution. As for officers of All-India services like the IAS and the IPS, who started getting inducted into J&K in the early sixties, no great benefit accrues to the state with their induction because officers from J&K were being side lined.
 And now finally, Kashmir is tense, the coming few days will make a lot of difference to an average Kashmiri. It can go either ways. Like they say, “A man’s country is not a certain area of land, of mountains, rivers, and woods, but it is a principle; and patriotism is loyalty to that principle. If you want to win the hearts and minds of the people than autonomy has to be granted, it is not something that we are begging for; it is something that has been stolen.
Daily Greater Kashmir . 

Time for a real Hero.

Geelani's Stand is Bewildering

I been studying the stand of various leaders from past few days, and it looks like every one has his own opinion. Yesterdays statement by Syed Ali shah Geelani proved that he wants to take the credit, when he asked the audience “who was their leader, he excluded everyone from the conglomerate. That abundantly proves that deep in his sub-conscious mind he thinks he is the one who has resurrected the movement. Although he did clear some of the misgivings that the statement had created, but it looks like the damage has already been done. Now the latest situation brings it to ground zero. It will be interesting to watch how others react to this statement.

Remember Omar Abdullah also has a great following not only in Kashmir valley but Jammu and Ladakh also. In the recent past even he has addressed unprecedented gatherings through out the entire state. You cannot have a solution to kashmir without the active participation of the National Conference, it is the only party which has grass root workers all over the state.

Another point that Geelani made yesterday was about Pakistan, that he would want Kashmir to be merged with that country. I spoke with some many people who totally disapproved this, even Hurriyat leaders. Let me clear one thing and very loudly
PEOPLE ARE NOT WITH PAKISTAN and they dont want to be with Pakistan.

THE REAL STORY BEHIND THE SASB LAND TRANSFER!

This Write up of mine appeared in the Daily Greater Kashmir on the 28th June, 2008.

The coalition government and the SASB has created an atmosphere of total anarchy, bloodshed and turmoil to benefit few Indian politicians in Delhi, is it worth, Lets find out ,
The other day in one of the local newspaper I read that a union minister who was on a visit to the valley was pained to see the plight of Dal lake, and so he wanted to save it. I wonder did he really mean it or was it just to feed the media with lofty thoughts. Every time these Indian ministers come to visit Kashmir on a leisure trip, they either name it as an official visit to develop Kashmir or to facilitate the dialog process, its so comical to see people taking what they really don’t mean, or in other words hoodwink the gullible .lets find out the latest controversy created by the coalition government about the much hyped land transfer to the Shrine board, Lets not forget a young man lost his life for this.
The Fact File
The origin of Amarnath Yatra dates back to the year 1850 A.D, when a Muslim shepherd from Batakot, named Botta Malik first discovered the cave with shivling made of ice. According to tale, Buta Malik was given a sack of coal by a Sadhu. Upon reaching his home he discovered that the sack, in fact, contained gold. Overjoyed and overcome, Buta Malik rushed back to look for the Sadhu and thank him, but on the spot of their meeting discovered the cave and eventually this became a place of pilgrimage for all believers. So pleased was the Dogra king Maharaja Gulab Singh by this discovery that he decreed that a representative of the Malik family would always be present at the holy shrine, along with the Hindu priest and Pundits of Ganeshpora, during the period of the pilgrimage each year. Also the family of the muslim shepherd was granted a large estate near Pahalgam and exempted from paying land revenue to the state. Further one third of all the offerings made at the shrine each year were to be given to the Malik family as reward until…..

The Cunning policies of politicians

The coalition cabinet decided to allot 800 kanals of land to the SASB at Baltal in Sonmarg and Domail at Pahalgam without even thinking about the consequences of devastating the whole forest land. People opposing the project alleged that it would harm the greenery in the tourist spots. Every one is just guessing why now, The reason is that the assembly elections are just four months away. The latest controversy was triggered by outgoing Governor S.K. Sinha’s letter to the state government demanding the establishment of an independent development authority controlled by the Amarnath Shrine Board. Subsequently, the Azad-PDP government decided to transfer forestland to the Board .Surprisingly, now the same PDP, PDF , etc the coalition constituents have started exploiting this situation, and PDP, has openly accused the Congress of blackmailing their ministers and forcing them to accept the controversial land transfer. Although Chief Minister Azad is silent over the issue.
The Amarnath Shrine Board, meanwhile, has become an emotive issue in the Hindu-dominated districts of Jammu where both the Congress and the BJP, are trying to exhibit their Jammu-centric credentials by supporting the Shrine Board as well as Raj Bhawan. While as the PDP for their face saving have reversed their stand, Look what the chief parton of the PDP had to say in his statement “I am pained at the turn of events and would advise caution to all the stakeholders in the State’s ecology, environment and cultural identity as also the government and the SASB. What the PDP doesn’t say is that the party’s own ministers — Forest Minister Qazi Afzal and Deputy Chief Minister Muzaffar Hussain Beig didn’t have a problem with the land transfer when forest officials first objected. I read it in one of the news papers and I quote “memorandum for submission to the cabinet” was tabled in May revealed that senior Forest ministry officials rejected the report of the D F O, Sindh and Wildlife Warden, who warned that construction of the shrine board complex on forest land would have an adverse impact on the adjacent Thajwas wildlife sanctuary. Another senior Forests official had said that “the uncontrolled flow of yatris will cause pollution which will have some impact on the wildlife if no mitigating measures are initiated by the shrine board authorities” and the area is a “habitat of the endangered brown bear, leopard and panther”. The case was referred to Advisory Committee where the Chief Wildlife Warden rejected the observations, calling it “overcautious and environmentally conservative approach”. Even then Qazi Afzal, a senior PDP leader, did not object to the Chief Wildlife Warden’s decision( may be that’s why graduation should be the minimum qualification for a politicians ). What’s more, the General Administration Department had thrice returned the Forest Ministry proposal for land diversion to the shrine board, seeking clarifications. Each time, the Forest ministry argued that the land diversion should go through. The cabinet, in fact, had deferred a decision on the land diversion proposal last February. After getting clearance from the Advisory Committee, the forest land diversion rain into another hurdle: a recent Supreme Court order had made it mandatory for such forest land diversion to go through the apex court before clearance. The forests in J&K are not governed by Central laws and the state has its own conservation laws. The Forest department decided to seek the opinion of the Law department, the Central Empowered Committee and the Advocate General. The Law department advised the Forest department “to move an application before the Supreme Court and await clarification in the matter”. The empowered committee, however, said that the J&K government did not need to seek clarification from the Supreme Court. The issue was again sent for an opinion to the Law department which advised that the apex court be approached.
Now read this
“Finally, the case was sent to Deputy Chief Minister Muzaffar Hussain Beig — he is also the Law Minister for a final decision. Beig cleared the proposal, terming the Law department view of approaching the apex court “abundant caution” and agreed with the view that there was no need to approach the apex court. Now the same Hon. Minster, in a local channel warns the congress of withdrawing support if they do not revoke the order. Mr. Beig who are u fooling sir or May be you are trying to score points over your humiliating ouster from the cabinet in 2006 by mufti sayeed, but unfortunately it’s too late to fool people anymore. Likewise the Indian media is flaring up the issue, with such cheap headlines “Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) received huge land parcel from the Jammu and Kashmir State Government – Islamic terrorists launch massive anti-hindu campaign” and they claim to be from the largest democracy.
And finally
I appreciate Omar Abdullaha when asked on NDTV about the issue, He demanded to handover the shrine to kashmiri pundits, with a argument that the two communities have lived in total harmony and facilitated the yatra with much fervor all these years, even in bad times when a few years back a massive storm took many lives of yatris ,the first people to come to their rescue was a local Muslim . We should take a cue from that, Like Kenneth Woodward said “The human species has no doubt sinned against the environment, but it has also sinned against itself - and God - which is why stories of redemption still possess power, even in an ecological age”. God save Kashmir!

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.