"If the elephants fight, the grass gets trampled and if the elephants make love, the grass still gets trampled!" The saying aptly describes the status of Kashmiris in the context of Indo-Pak relations. It is always the Kashmiris who face the brunt of the exchanges whether verbal or physical between the two antagonistic neighbours of the sub-continent. The worst sufferers of the love-hate relationship between these countries have been the people of this unfortunate land which the poets have likened to “Paradise on Earth”. During the span of last 62 years these countries have indulged in three major wars. There have been many occurrences of border clashes sometimes almost leading to full fledged wars. Kashmir has been used by both as a handle to show down each other. The basic problem has been the mistrust between the two countries. The extent of this deep mistrust was evident with the recent Jaswant Singh episode. The staunch Hindutva lobby is not still prepared to reconcile to the partition of the sub-continent. They still dream of Akhand Bharat and have all along been blaming Mohammad Ali Jinnah for the partition. During the five year BJP rule there has been massive infiltration of RSS elements into different spheres of Government including the administrative and security apparatus. The intransigent stand of the Congress leaders is formulated by these elements that have an upper hand in all activities. They always scuttle any move for détente or reconciliation. In addition, all moves for reconciliation get derailed by local political considerations such as impending elections. The recent deadlock at the meeting held on the sidelines of UN General Assembly session is a stark example of this. The main reason for the unprecedented attitude even of the most gentle and polite Prime Minister is the Maharashtra Elections which have the events of 26/11 as the core issue! Similarly, on the other side in spite of a fragile democratic set up, the command is in the hands of what are called the “Rogue Elements” in ISI and Army. While some of the Indians dream of restoring the country to pre-partition days, the people across want its disintegration. Their thinking is that they are safe as long as India is on the boil bleeding from a thousand cuts. The partition generation on both sides refuses to forget the scars of 1947 even though intellectuals among them keep on lighting the candles at the border off and on! With frequent wars and frequent skirmishes there have been an equal number of attempts at reconciliation but every time something happens which brings them back to square one.

This love hate relationship has completely depleted the precious resources of these two poorest countries of South Asia. At the cost of the welfare of common people they have been stock piling deadly arsenal including a large number of nuclear warheads. One fails to understand how the rulers on two sides can even imagine a nuclear exchange. There cannot be anything more crazy or mad than to think about such a preposition. Nuclear strikes even though of a small magnitude on one side will not leave the other side unscathed. They will sink together. This madness about nuclear deterrence is forcing both the countries to virtually starve their teeming millions and build huge and monstrous war machines. The only beneficiaries are the western countries selling them armaments of all types. The world armaments market exceeds $ 950 billion with American share of $ 450 billion and the two of the major buyers after Saudi Arabia are India and Pakistan. West has excelled in commercialising conflicts all over the world. Americans made a good profit in the first Gulf war. They collected about $ 70 billion from various stake holders in the war and spent only $ 55 billion. In addition, after getting the entire infrastructure of Kuwait destroyed in the war they grabbed all the reconstruction contracts. However, the second Gulf war and Afghanistan have cost them dearly and their economy is going round in circles. History also has strange ways of taking revenge! One sometimes feels frustrated as to why can’t the leaders of the sub-continent on the two sides of the divide understand these stark realities? Then one realises that after all they too are puppets in the hands of these merchants of death!

With all these global machinations making these elephants dance to their tunes, the poor grass seems to have no chance. It seems to be in the fate of the soft grass to get always trampled. Sometimes one wishes that Kashmiris were not like the soft grass but like the bamboo shoots so that at least the two elephants in spite of their thick hides would not be so comfortable over it! They could become bamboo shoots only if they had a unity of purpose and a sincere and honest leadership with convictions. Both these things are lacking. There are umpteen parties purportedly aiming at the common goal of “Azadi” without knowing what “Azadi” signifies for a common Kashmiri. There are more leaders than the number of parties. Each party has a leadership tussle going on which goes on splitting the parties off and on. Had Kashmiris been represented by one voice with common goal, the two countries would not have taken them for granted.

The events of last one year amply demonstrate how Kashmiris are getting trampled for no fault of theirs. Some Pakistanis came all the way from Karachi and blasted Mumbai and in the resulting clash of words between the two countries, Kashmiris got the ultimate blame. After having realised that the violence has not helped them Kashmiris switched over to a peaceful non-violent movement because it is more effective as well as acceptable globally. However, brutal suppression of peaceful expression is once again making violence relevant and recently there have been quite a few violent incidents. Some years back hopes were raised that there may be a solution to the vexed problem thereby relieving Kashmiris of endless suffering. However, as usual the mutual mistrust between the two countries which comes to the fore after every such incident derailed the entire process and we are back to square one. The diplomatic match between these two players continues through words and sometimes through such unfortunate deeds as the events of 26/11 or even the border skirmishes. At the present moment the match is entering a crucial phase and every day there is an odd statement rapidly destroying the détente which had been achieved with great difficulty. Even the meeting in the shadow of the global organisation (UN) set up to ensure peace in the world has failed to break the freeze which has come over the composite dialogue process. India is repeating the story of the wolf and the lamb while as the Pakistanis are totally mired in an internecine warfare threatening the very existence of their country. Nevertheless, in the final analysis, the two antagonists have no choice but to sit down and talk. In the meantime, the Kashmiris, the proverbial grass keeps on getting trampled endlessly! Unfortunately, there seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel and no one is certain how long the suffering will continue!