THE killing of 26 tourists and injuries to many more in South Kashmir’s Pahalgam is a tragedy beyond words. The terrorists claimed to be part of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba’s offshoot, ‘The Resistance Front’. They reportedly identified people by religion and brutally fired upon them. One of those killed was Syed Adil Shah, the one who used to take the tourists on a pony.
Muslims were mainly involved in the rescue operation till the helicopters arrived and the injured were treated by a team of Muslim doctors. The whole of Kashmir observed a bandh amid slogans of ‘Hindu Muslim Bhai Bhai’ (Hindus and Muslims are brothers). Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in Saudi Arabia, from where he returned and instead of visiting the site of terror, he went to attend an election rally in Bihar. Modi did not chair the all-party meeting on the Pahalgam attack as he chose to share a joke with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on the stage. This Modi-Nitish bonhomie notwithstanding, all opposition parties, very correctly, pledged their support to the ruling coalition in countering the after-effects of the terror attack.
This Modi strategy was in contrast to his visiting Godhra in Gujarat when he rushed to the site of the coach burning within half an hour of the disaster and directed that the burned bodies be taken to Ahmedabad, where a procession was taken out with the bodies.
The social media was abuzz with messages demonising the terrorists as Muslims. “They asked the religion first” was the central point of spreading hate against Muslims. This trend is so prevalent here already, where Muslims are killed on the pretext of beef and love jihad. They are denied (sale or rent) after asking for their names. They are denied jobs because of their religion. The government and the Godi media over-projected the Muslim angle of the terror attack. They totally blanked out the failure of security and the absent role of intelligence in the incident. This is quite akin to the Pulwama case, where a mass hysteria was created about the terror attack, but everyone failed to take up the issue of how RDX came in despite the heavy security in place. This time, there is news that there was some indication of an impending attack. What was the government doing to prevent it? One has to cross so many military barricades to reach Baisaran, where the attack took place. How did the terrorists do it?
After the tragedy, the local Muslims, the pony handlers, the auto rickshaw pullers and hotel owners (all Muslims) helped the travellers and decided not to charge any money. The airlines, on the contrary, made hay by increasing the fares, taking advantage of the situation. Many Kashmiri students faced harassment in their hostels (were asked to leave) and Kashmiris in different parts of the country faced targeted attacks.
The Indian government decided to put the Indo-Pak water treaty in abeyance. Pakistan’s leadership stated that the decision was like an act of war. The clouds of confrontation are uncomfortably very much there in the sky.
Terrorism is Kashmir’s bane. Its genesis has been a complex phenomenon. The dissatisfaction among the Kashmiris began with the dilution of the Treaty of Accession, when Sheikh Abdullah, the lion of Kashmir, started feeling uncomfortable. He started thinking aloud whether it was a mistake to accede to India. This dissatisfaction had a total Kashmiriyat colour. Kashmiriyat is a culture which synthesises Vedanta Tradition, Buddhist values and Sufi teachings.
This got complicated with Pakistan’s promotion of dissatisfaction and giving it a violent form. In the 1990s, as Al-Qaeda terrorists became stronger, similar elements turned the purely Kashmiriyat resistance into a communal issue. Kashmiri Pundits were harassed and they emigrated from the valley when the VP Singh government, supported by the BJP, was in power at the Centre. Jagmohan, a staunch BJP man, continued to oversee the operations in Kashmir when the Pundit exodus took place. He provided facilities to them to emigrate. The move of locals to ensure security and protection for Pundits was thwarted.
Atal Bihari Vajpayee coined ‘Insaniyat, Kashmiriyat and Jamhiruyat’ (Humanism, Kashmiriyat and democracy) and termed it as the best formula to ensure peace in the region. The democratic process in Kashmir has been thwarted most of the time. Instead, the measures to suppress the popular will have been the main hallmark of the last many decades. Earlier also elections in Kashmir were not so fair, that is true.
Modi put forward demonetisation as a panacea for controlling terrorism. Demonetisation was an all-around failure. Then came the abolition of Article 370. This, along with demoting Kashmir’s status from statehood to a Union Territory, was touted as the solution to the problem of terror. Claims were made by Home Minister Amit Shah that there is peace and terrorism has been curtailed, which encouraged tourists from all over the country to travel to Kashmir.
Sporadic acts of terror against Kashmiri Pundits and others kept occurring and tormenting the spirit of Kashmir. Now a Union Territory, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah is not a part of the security cover. Last time, when Amit Shah called a high-level security meeting, Abdullah was kept out of the process. The Centre is totally in control of the law and order!
How can terrorism be eliminated? The high-handed approach to diverting the locals from managing the affairs of the state is a big obstacle to countering terror. The repeated failure of security earlier in Pulwama and now in Pahalgam is a matter of deep concern. Kashmir, as part of India, deserves full support from all over the country to walk on the path of peace, where Vajpayee’s Jamhuriyat has to play a big role. The statehood of Kashmir and the strengthening of the democratic process are the need of the hour. Our fellow citizens in Kashmir need an atmosphere where due security is provided and tourists can keep flocking there fearlessly. Tourism, being the lifeline for the survival of the locals, deserves utmost consideration in the Centre’s Kashmir policy.
As the nation stands solidly with the ruling dispensation, the government, in turn, needs to take the suggestions of the opposition seriously. As the saying goes: War is no solution, war itself is a problem.
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Ram Puniyani is an eminent author, activist and a former professor at IIT Mumbai. The views expressed here are personal and Clarion India does not necessarily share or subscribe to them.
