Lives of common Kashmiris torn apart

31 December, 2010

What Kashmir needs at present is the ushering in of the cycle of peace. Towards that end, more than any thing else, there is a pressing need of the return of the good times of Bakshi sahab and Sadikh sahib.

THE YEAR 2010 saw Kashmir again on boil with separatists getting a new lease of life after their popularity had touched a rock-bottom over the years.

With the advantage point, all the separatists plunged into violence full throttle, utilising all resources at their disposal as if it were their last chance. All brought into the Kashmir their share of violence. As the stone pelting went on, police responded, the net result was an unfortunate death of over a hundred people including stone-pelters and violent protesters. Ultimately the existence of common Kashmiris suffered a severe beating and was virtually torn apart through the frequent curfews, lock-outs, calendars and counter-calendars.

Even though, earlier this year, Kashmiri businessmen had kind of gone into a tacit understanding with the Hurriyat to enable them to work by refraining from frequent hartals (strikes) in order to cash the summer tourism so as to make-up for what they had lost over the years of turmoil. As all seemed set for a new beginning but the nature had other plans for kashmiris and the whole turmoil recoiled once again on to them and boomeranged in a never ending saga for them.

Now, Kashmir has become a free-for-all-no-barred game and with no respite in view the plight of all those directly involved seems destined to get badly hit over the course of time. With Separatists pulling it on one side, on the other Pakistan is interested to tear it apart as India tries to put it back in array while as the successive so called mainstream political parties of J&K want to take home a piece of the slash. After all where will it all end is a million-dollar question and everybody, however much an expert he may be the subject, is in a dilemma about the final answer towards ushering in of normalcy.

While interlocutors are doing the rounds of J&K holding developmental concerns responsible for the unrest, they are best advised to rather talk about the developmental concerns of the other states where even the blocks are a hundred times bigger than the districts of Kashmir as they must have noted for themselves that in Kashmir a new district sets in after every furlough and you cross all of them in a matter of four hours while in other states, even the two districts are as far apart as hundreds of miles.

It is another thing that funds do not reach fully where they are directed even though they do come from the Central Government. But then the same is the case with the other states of India. While for that Kashmiris have to hold responsible their own bureaucracy manned by their fellow Kashmiris for it is they who siphon-off the Muh-ka-Niwala of their own ‘brethren’.

What, however, Kashmir needs at present is the ushering in of the cycle of peace. Towards that end, more than any thing else, there is a pressing need of the return of the good times of Bakshi sahab and Sadikh sahib. And for that a selfless leadership is required which has been lacking ever since the departing of the duo from the Kashmir’s political scene.