For over a decade and a half, the Kashmir Valley had been in turmoil with the arrival of militants' gun culture and separatist groups' demand for “azadi” which, for India, is nothing but a design to merge with Pakistan.
In recent years, the situation had definitely improved, however.
New Delhi has always calculated ‘normalcy’ with reduced infiltration from across the border, decrease in militant attacks and increase in the arrival of tourists from across the country and abroad. Till June this year, over five lakh tourists had visited Kashmir. Shikara wallahs in the Dal Lake were feeling happy, and so were the hotels and resorts here and in Gulmarg and Pahalgam. So were those who live on selling pashmina shawls and the carpets, Kashmir is known for.
The militancy was indeed at low ebb for quite some time, and the separatists were feeling demoralized. But this changed overnight with the beginning of the Amarnath Yatra land controversy, which pitted Jammu and Srinagar against each other, sharpening the communal divide. The Valley people also were agitated when the Jammu-Srinagar highway got temporarily blocked because of the Jammu agitation.
The separatist movement leaders are back on their feet — thanks to the unprecedented tension between Jammu and the Kashmir Valley caused by the Amarnath Yatra land agitation. They are now busy in converting their “azadi” agitation into a “civil disobedience” movement.
The people here thought that Jammu was trying to choke their lifeline through "economic blockade." With this began a high-scale propaganda war against Jammu. While the authorities continued to claim that the army had kept the highway open, their voice was lost in the din created by the separatist movement leaders.
Pent up feelings in Jammu and Srinagar were out on the streets, both regions decided to boycott each other's trade. This suited the Hurriyat (freedom) groups. To complicate the issue, the 'Coordination Committee' — an umbrella of separatist organizations — roped in the Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry to demand that Srinagar-Muzzaffrabad (Pakistan Occupied Kashmir) road should be opened for trade also "as we do not want to deal with Jammu at all, and, at least, we are in a position to get essential items from across the border."
The ground reality is that the State is dealing with a "war within" situation - between the sister regions, Jammu and Srinagar. While the Amarnath Yatra land issue stands resolved and forgotten, the Valley people are being kept busy by the separatist leaders, who believe that 'it is
Allah sent opportunity' which must be exploited or otherwise with time they might be back to where they were two months ago — down and out.
Back in frame, the separatist leaders' game-plan is very simple. They want the “azadi” movement to now become totally people's movement. They have prepared a calendar of events comprising of agitations, demonstrations, rallies and dharnas. In nut-shell, it is a well-calculated plan of disobedience — to keep the Governor's rule on tenterhooks.
After Id, the separatists have designed this plan to pick up momentum on October 6 — the day when they want people to “Chalo Lal Chowk” — a historical and central point of the city, where some people recently hoisted Pakistani flags. They have also asked people to boycott the assembly polls which in normal course should be held before the end of the Governor's rule in coming January.
While the BJP and Hindu organizations in Jammu are excited about the elections, no one in the Valley except for the National Conference and the CPM are keen to participate in them. The PDP, which formed the previous government with the help of Congress in the first term, is also against the elections on the plea that the atmosphere is not conducive for the ballot exercise. Unsure of its fate, the Congress has no option but to contest elections.
For the Governor, Mr. N.N. Vohra, it is a very challenging time. His vast experience earlier as a bureaucrat is surely going to help him. He has been trying his best to engage all the parties to make them see things in the right perspective, not as the separatists' leaders are busy in painting.
No doubt, the Valley is on the boil. What Pakistan could not achieve over the decades, the “fight” between Jammu and Srinagar regions has done it. The militants, who were lying low, are assisting the separatist groups indirectly by creating ‘mischief’ during the demonstrations against the authorities. It is alleged that they mingle with the crowd and open fire to kill or injure some people. And the blame goes to the security forces, as happened recently when a senior Hurriyat leader was ‘killed’ during the ‘Muzzaffrabad Chalo’ march.
While the separatist groups have alleged that he died in the police firing, the authorities have claimed that he died of a pistol shot in his back “and, you know, the police do not carry pistols while controlling the mob.”
“Both Jammu and Srinagar have misbehaved with each other and their political and religious leaders have acted in an irresponsible manner to bring the situation back to the square one,” said a Dal Lake boatman adding that “we poor people suffer in their game…till July, we had so many tourists that I did not have time to even eat lunch, and today at four you are my first customer.”
Like him, the common man is worried that if the Valley continued to boycott the trade with Jammu, the commodities procured from other parts of the country would spoil the dynamics of trade economics, making them more expensive. “How much fruit and other things we can sell or buy from Muzzaffrabad — as the territory across the border also produce more or less the same things?” asked a school teacher.
For the man on the street, uncertainty is growing. Regular closure of educational institutions is worrying students and their parents. To make up with syllabus, schools have started opening on Sundays and other holidays. “I do not want to hear the sound of guns in the Valley again,” commented a taxi driver.
Like the Dal Lake boat man, the school teacher and the taxi driver, no one wants to be quoted by his or her name as they do not know how influential political and religious groups would react. And, of course, the fear of militants is always in the air.
Balraj Puri, a well-known Jammu-based expert on the Kashmir affairs, in a letter to the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, has cautioned that “the way situation in J&K is deteriorating rapidly, it might neutralize your achievements in other fields, like the India-US nuclear deal.”
“Some months back, separatists' parties had almost collapsed, isolated from Pakistan and local support. Now they have acquired so much strength that they never had. They have not only been completely united but for the first time have extended their influence in Muslim majority areas of Jammu,” said Puri commenting that “Hindus and Muslims are more divided today than they ever were.”
The most visible face of “azadi” — the 78-year-old Syed Ali Shah Geelani (Chairman, of hardliner Hurriyat Conference and Tehreek-e-Hurriyat) - told this correspondent that “India is suffering from blind power which cannot bring the entire 'kaum' on its knees.”
And the young Hurriyat leader, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq (32), who once drifted away from Geelani, is back on the dais with him. As the chairman of the moderate Hurriyat Conference (comprising of other “azadi” groups) and the Awami People's Action Committee, Mirwaiz is, however, still one of those few leaders who believe in solving the Kashmir issue step-by-step.
Most of the Valley leadership does not believe in the concept of logic. But Mirwaiz says, “First, the common Kashmiri man should feel the change…at present, he has no say in what is going round him — he is being pushed to a point of no return by both New Delhi and certain forces here. The people of Kashmir do not want anything but an independent identity.”
Asked where the current situation would lead to, Mirwaiz said that India should first stop looking at Kashmir from the Pakistan prism. And he summed up by quoting America's late President John F. Kennedy — “When you make a peaceful revolution impossible, you are making a violent revolution inevitable.”
This is where the Kashmir Valley today stands, adamant to take it to a 'conclusion' this time. The authorities are, however, confident that the separatists resurge will peter off soon and “it is high time that New Delhi stops pampering them and tolerating their tantrums as enough is enough.”
While the authorities are capable of dealing with the militancy, a 'civil disobedience' agitation will give a tough twist to the Kashmir situation. The common man's suggestion is — engage Kashmir, instead of putting it under the carpet.
A top official says that Kashmir today requires the advice that the Chinese thinker and social philosopher, Confucius, once gave: “Repay evil neither with goodness, nor with evil but with justice.” Many people here believe that this line of action is the most appropriate, especially at a time when the democratic process of assembly elections is due. “Follow Confucius,” they suggest, “as only then the common man will not cross the line to disobey.”
To be continued
