As I said in my last column that we are a nation that seems to be living reality as lived on the 'Truman Show'. If it is not IPL, it is Aarushi. If it is not Aarushi, it is the no-trust vote. If it's not the trust vote it is the cash for votes. And very sadly if it’s not the cash for votes it is Kashmir. We want our reality to be played out real time in front of our eyes and we want it now.
For last two months Jammu and Kashmir is burning – jammu with religiously grinded patriotic fever and Kashmir with separatist fervor. Things have gone out of hand long ago. I won’t blame government as I anyway believe this is the weakest and most useless government India ever had. They are pathetic with all their approach and can only be sympathized. If you believe that this government is going to come up with some concrete plan and action you are just fooling yourself. As a nation what we are doing that should be questioned? After so many blasts all over the country, high upsurge in naxalite movement and now Kashmir (which was calm for last 7-8 years), we can not even make our shameless home minister resign. That’s why I say that we are nation that enjoy living into fictitious reality shows.
Yesterday, when Arundhati Roy said that India needs azadi from Kashmir and likewise, she was shunted off and called as a biggest villain of the country. I personally don’t think that she was wrong. Kashmir is a kind of stigma we have been living with for last 60 years. Today when Indian Tricolor is being burned, Pakistani flags are being hoisted everywhere in the valley, Indian military is being treated as a force of occupation,slogan of ‘hindustan murdabad’ and ‘kafiron Kashmir chhodo’ is being chanted in Kashmir, every second day one political party threatens to march to line of control, we in Delhi are busy proclaiming that Kashmir is integral part of India. Cann’t we see that a second rate country like Pakistan whipping all the time that Kashmir is in their blood. And they will fight for it. Everybody knows what a mess they made to Pakistan itself…forget about the Pakistan occupied Kashmir.
It’s not as though the Indian state has no experience of dealing with secessionist movements. Almost from the time we became independent 61 years ago, we have been faced with calls for secession from nearly every corner of India: from Nagaland, Assam and Mizoram, from Tamil Nadu, from Punjab etc. In every single case, democracy has provided the solution. We have followed a three-pronged approach: strong, almost brutal, police or army action against those engaging in violence, a call to the secessionist leaders to join the democratic process and then, generous central assistance for the rebuilding of the state. It is an approach that has worked brilliantly. Even in, say, Mizoram, where alienation was at its height in the 1970s, the new generation sees itself as Indian. The Nagas now concentrate their demands on a redrawing of state boundaries (to take in part of Manipur), not on a threat to the integrity of India. In Tamil Nadu, the Hindi agitation is forgotten and in Punjab, Khalistan is a distant memory.
The exception to this trend has been Kashmir. Contrary to what many Kashmiris claim, we have tried everything. Even today, the state enjoys a special status. Under Article 370 of our Constitution, with the exception of defence, foreign policy, and communication, no law enacted by parliament has any legitimacy in Kashmir unless the state government gives its consent. The state is the only one in India to have its own Constitution and the President of India cannot issue directions to the state government in exercise of the executive power of the Union as he can in every other state. Kashmiri are Indian citizens but Indians are not necessarily Kashmiri citizens. We cannot vote for elections to their assembly or own any property in Kashmir.
Then, there is the money from centre. Other states get per capita central assistance of Rs 876 per year. Kashmir gets over ten times more: Rs 9,754 per year. While other states, this assistance is mainly in the forms of loans to the state, in Kashmir 90 per cent is an outright grant. We the taxpayers meet the Kashmir's entire five year plan. In addition, New Delhi keeps showing it's genrocity by throwing more and more money at the state: in 2004, the Prime Minister gave Kashmir another $ 5 billion for development.
Kashmiris are happy to take the money and the special rights but they argue that India has been unfair to them because no free political process has developed. shame on them.Given that Kashmir has the best deal of any Indian state, is there anything more we can do? Kashmiris talk about more autonomy. But what more can be given??? what does the Centre get in return for the special favours and the billions of dollars?
The short answer is: damn all.
The other cost of Kashmir is military. Many terrorist acts, from the hijacking of IC 814 to the attack on parliament have Kashmir links. Our response to the parliament attack was Operation Parakram, which cost, in ten months, Rs 6,500 crore and 800 army lives? (Kargil cost us 474 lives.) Each day, our troops and paramilitary forces are subjected to terrorists’s attacks, stress, and ridicule.
The short answer again is: damn all.
This is 21st century India. We are one of the fastest growing economy of the world. Now this is high time when we leave Kashmir behind and proceed ahead. If they are happy with the ‘Azadi’, which they won’t even be able to save for 10 minutes…give them. We cann't let one kashmir to rule entire India...there are much more serious things to be addressed.
