In Kashmir, it’s Farooq vs Abdullah

Kashmir is a 50-year-old dispute. While we seem to have given up the idea of reclaiming the part of Kashmir occupied by Pakistan, as we have virtually given up our land occupied by China, Pakistan would have loved to create trouble any time since Partition. Pakistan army has been particularly motivated to avenge its humiliating defeat since we intervened in theircivil war in 1971. But we are a major world-level military power. If a third-rate enemy that we trounced repeatedly suddenly starts bleeding us profusely both in terms of lives lost and financial costs, then we must ask our rulers a few questions. Perhaps we won’t be bleeding in Kashmir today if we had not allowed the ruling dynasty of Delhi to get away with their responsibility for what happened in Punjab by simply putting the blame on this same third-rate enemy.

When Indira Gandhi sacked your first government, Farooq Abdullah, and called you anti-national, she apparently had very good reasons. The first thing you had done after coming to power was break up the link the Kashmir administration had with the tribes living near the line of control. These people were the eyes and ears of the government. These links had been assiduously built up by your father himself.

How come when you came to power a second time with the blessings of Rajiv Gandhi, armies of terrorists started crossing our border? How comethese people not only cross the LoC but also reach Srinagar when there are no dense forests in most of the valley? Kashmir valley is no Chambal Valley or no Veerappan countryside. Ordinary Kashmiri commuters have to get off their vehicles and undergo searches at six places between Baramulla and Srinagar. But obviously terrorists, mostly Afghans and other foreign nationals, have no problem roaming around the valley and even coming up to Srinagar including its most protected areas.

You have not only given up Sheikh Abdullah’s ideas on how to run a good administration, but also alienated most of his senior colleagues. Where is Abdur Rashid Shaheen today? Where are Meer Ghulam Qadir, Mohammad Dilawar Meer, Sanaullah Dar and Mohammad Yasin? Also alienated from you are leaders like Abdur Rahman Barana, Mohammad Aslam Masala, Hafizullah Shah, Ghulamuddin Shah, A.R. Wani, Ghulam Mohiuddin Wakeel, Abdul Ghani, Ghulam Rasool Kochak, Ghulam Nabi Dar, Meer Abdul Ghani, Sheikh Mohammad Ashraf and a host of others.

Hadthese people been with you, they would not have let you commit blunders like your promises on autonomy and talks of going back to pre-1952 position. They would have apprised you of Sheikh Abdullah’s considered views on these questions. They would have told you that the Sheikh wanted to build more bridges, rail and road links between the valley and the rest of the country. He did not want to build any more walls, as you have been seeking to do through your promises to deliver full autonomy. You have in fact been playing in the hands of militancy by making promises you know you cannot deliver.

Having spent 13 years in Indian prisons, Sheikh Abdullah was not really enamoured of the New Delhi establishment, specially the one run by the Nehru dynasty. But he knew what was good for his people. He knew that the enemy would love to fight its own war with India putting its guns on Kashmiri shoulders. If only you go to your father’s colleagues in humility, minus the arrogance of political dynasty, they would tell youthese and many other things. They will tell you that the one thing that Kashmiris want most of all is to see your back, once and for all.