Kashmir: Abdullah’s Belated Realization

OF Late India has maintained a discrete silence over the question of granting independence to Kashmiris. India has successfully divided the freedom seeking Kashmiris along various lines and even made the movement look like “terrorism. Like Indian Muslims, the Kashmiris also have either refused to speak with one single voice or have been denied that privilege by the rulers in New Delhi through various strategies.

Geelani, one of foremost leaders spearheading the movement for Kashmir independence is being targeted by the state for constant harassment and arrests, etc. His criticism of the Indian military policy in Kashmir has not appeased Indian authorities, but unfortunately, even the rulers in Sri Nagar resent his statements. The heavily militarized Kashmir has become a dangerous place for Kashmiris, as they are being at the receiving end for their reclaim of Kashmir form New Delhi. Killing, torturing, rapes are regular feature in the state which once was an independent country but was handed over to India by the then Hindu rulers. With a view to keeping Kashmir under its full control, India harbored tactical coalitions with Kashmir leaders. Farooq Abdullah is one of such leaders whom India used maximum to keep Kashmir within its military fold.  Terrorism, including cross-border, was engineered by India so as threaten the freedom seeking Kashmiris. As a result, the Kashmir valley has been fully converted into an upgraded military station.

Though very late, former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and National Conference (NC) party leader Dr. Farooq Abdullah's recent statement questioning the state's accession to India has raised eyebrows in India but not the kind of reaction that would have been expected. Speaking to party activists on the 102nd birth anniversary of his father and NC founder, late Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah, Farooq said, "The continuation of rights abuses by the security forces have forced us to rethink whether the accession to India in 1947 had been a mistake."

It is unfortunate Abdullah, one of the few Kashmiri leaders who have reached the national level and even joined the coalition ministry at the centre, but neither he nor his party has used the national platform to raise the Kashmir issue to the people at large. In stead, he like other leaders form the region, was happy to rule the JK state and played second fiddle to the leaders of New Delhi, only was seeking cooperation from New Delhi. That way he also sold the genuine interests of freedom seeking Kashmiris to India. Not only he had no courage to slam the Indian authorities for the onslaught on Kashmiris when he was the CM in Sri Nagar, he also never supported those who sought independence and let them have a minority voice, thereby diluting the ardent resolve of his people for freedom.

As a result, India began militarizing Kashmir valley. Killing of innocent Kashmiris have been going for decades and he was also the chief minister when things started taking an ugly shape, but still he declined to seek independent decide the fate of Kashmiris by themselves. A couple of days earlier, talking to reporters at a book-launching function in Jammu, Farooq Abdullah made a similar statement, "The human rights excesses by the Indian Army weaken the parties that believe in the accession. If these atrocities do not stop, then even I would have to think twice whether the accession with India by Maharaja Hari Singh and my father (Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah) was a right decision or not." He said the Indian defense ministry and the state government should ensure punishments to troops involved in killing innocent people. His statement came after a baker, Reyaz Ahmad Sofi, was killed by Indian army in Damhal Hanjipora village of south Kashmir recently. While army said Sofi was killed in crossfire, the civil administration hinted that he may have been used as a human shield by the troops.

Irked by the statement of Farooq Abdullah, the aggressive, anti-Islamic BJP youth wing thriving in India on anti-Islamic moorings, held protest demonstrations at Jammu. They said Abdullah's statement regarding human rights violation by the army was an attempt to tarnish the image of the forces. Earlier he had also raised an objection to singing Vande Mataram.  And they demanded Abdullah's arrest. Of course those who destroyed the Babri Mosque with full protection of the central and state governments can talk only like this.

However, it is a pity that Dr Farooq Abdullah's realization regarding the accession of Jammu and Kashmir has come rather late in the day after more than 80,000 precious human lives have been lost to Indian security agencies although he claims that he had warned in 1989 that the use of the gun would only cause bloodshed in Jammu and Kashmir, besides creating conditions in which women would be subject to rape and molestation, infrastructure destroyed and the economic situation only worsen.

It is a naked truth that Indian military forces kill Kashmiris with impunity and the law of the jungle prevails. Reports of molesting and rape are regular in militarized Kashmir. It is a fact only Kashmiris criticize the nefarious acts of India in Kashmir; while Indian media keep a mum and harp on “cross-border-terrorism” which itself has been a hidden act of India to discredit Kashmiris. None in India has so far condemned the killings Individual terrorism is as bad as state terrorism. Kashmiri leaders attack the latter, not the former. Moreover, individual terrorism has come to be associated with fundamentalism all over the world and condemned unequivocally. Kashmiri leaders would get heard if they were to denounce it."

Indian state terrorism is being perpetrated because the Kashmiri people want an end to the military occupation of their land by India and demand the fulfillment of the pledge given by India's first Prime Minister Nehru and guaranteed by the United Nations Security Council (vide Resolution 47 adopted by the Security Council on 21 April 1948) that the people of Kashmir will determine their future through a Plebiscite organized impartially. Indian state terrorism against Kashmiris justly fighting fight for their basic human rights is rather appreciated by Indian media, debasing their struggle and labeling it as 'individual terrorism'. Nehru stated in the Prime Minister's Broadcast to the nation on All India Radio on November 2, 1947: "We have declared that the fate of Kashmir is ultimately to be decided by the people. That pledge we have given not only to the people of Kashmir but to the world. We will not and cannot back out of it."

Kashmir has witnessed 60 years of long struggle, but India has tactfully delayed the resolution for too long. Now, despite the 'composite dialogue' and the CBMs adopted by Pakistan, Kashmiris have to listen to such humiliating terms for the just strife by the Kashmiris, and it is indeed a shame. Farooq Abdullah is justified in saying: "Time and again we've been reminding New Delhi about the prime minister's zero-tolerance pledge on human rights. If innocents continue to be killed and women are raped, the sadbhavana (goodwill) campaign will be of zero effect."

Kashmiri leader Geelani has said that India is shying away from holding a result-oriented discourse aimed at resolving the Kashmir dispute: "Had the Indian government understood the importance of our open doors and hearts, they would have engaged us in a meaningful dialogue intended at resolving the long pending Kashmir issue in coherence with the wishes and aspirations of people of Jammu and Kashmir," said Gilani, while speaking at an Eid-Milan function hosted by him in Jammu. He said, he had never been averse to a consequential discourse on Jammu and Kashmir, which he regretted, Indian establishment never acknowledged. He said that Kashmir issue could be resolved only by granting right to self-determination to the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

AN OBSERVATION

Kashmiris should whole-heartedly welcome even this belated realization from NC leader Abdullah, the former ruler of JK, if he is sincere at least now and does not play politics again to sell the Kashmiris once to India through secret deals. Better late than never, so goes a saying that fits the Kashmir situation. He said things that are correct and explosive in Kashmir. Now that he has taken a bold step forward, Dr.Farooq should not revert back to pro-Indianism if he gets back to power in Sri Nagar again by defeating the present ministry headed by Congress-PDP. Rather he should lead the peaceful struggle of the Kashmiris until they achieve full independence from India. That is what the Kashmiris eagerly want and look forward.

(Dr. Abdul Ruff Colachal is a Freelance analyst & Columnist based in New Delhi, India)