Yet again an innocent student has been brutally murdered in cold blood! Unfortunately, some of the protectors of the law seem to lose their cool and turn vindictive. Non-violent protestors in Kashmir are treated as “Agitational Terrorists”, the name given to them by the Army Commander General Jaswal. It is the only place where for crowd control tear smoke shells are fired directly into a crowd causing fatal injuries. Normally, these shells are supposed to be fired in a parabolic manner so that these fall into the crowd and not hit people directly. It had earlier been reported that the Police is using wall penetrating shells through multi-barrel launchers straight on the crowds! The story is going on for last three years from the start of the Amarnath land agitation. Many a young men were killed and to pin point the excesses numerous probes were ordered but nothing has come out. Ironically, the lawless central law, the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) has been given the status of a “Holy Book” by the Army Commander! The General has been giving highly charged political statements off and on. Normally, the soldiers are meant to fight and obey orders and not to comment on the political situations. In India unlike Pakistan, the army obeys the orders of the political bosses. Strangely it is the Indian Generals who indulge in politicking through media more than their Pakistani counterparts. It is debatable whether they are themselves the authors of these media briefings which happen from time to time or the strings are pulled from somewhere else?

It is natural for an army General to defend his soldiers for all genuine actions taken in good faith. The actions have to be genuine and not fake encounters for material gain. Would the General answer a simple question? Did the soldiers who perpetrated Kunanposhopra and Pathribal also consult the same Holy Book? If so, then it is no longer a Holy Book but a licence for rape, murder, and torture which I am sure the General will never like to be associated with! It is true a war cannot be fought by soldiers if their hands are tied behind their backs. However, fighting a war against a known and visible enemy is different than tackling an invisible enemy and in the present case almost the entire population of Kashmir. The internal conflict in Kashmir for last two decades is alleged to be a proxy war being fought by Pakistan through local Kashmiris with a sprinkling of outside fighters. No proxy or Guerrilla war can be fought unless it has popular support. As Mao once said, a guerrilla is like a fish which moves in water. As long as it has enough clear water, it will carry on. The total alienation of Kashmiris is providing abundant clear water for the fish to move around and strike at will. All the Sadbhavana measures have failed to deprive the fish of the clear water. This is evident from the security measures which are put in place during the visit of a VIP to Kashmir. Almost the entire population has to be virtually imprisoned to ensure the security of the dignitary. This shows how much trust the authorities have on the local people in general. They are not prepared to take any chances as they are not sure if anyone in Kashmir is sincerely on their side! No one gives a thought to the stark reality that they cannot be on their side as long as their very right to life remains suspended.

From their own assessment there are only 600 to 800 militants active in Kashmir. One does not need half a million troops, seventy thousand paramilitary, over a hundred thousand local cops, and thousands of irregulars to tackle such a small band of insurgents. These figures are from a report in Times of India by Josy Joseph. In fact, the reporter calls it the skewed security personnel to civilian population ratio for J & K and claims it to be worse in Kashmir valley. Joseph says that the Jammu based 16 Corps is bigger than the British Army. This is so in spite of there being two other Corps in the state as well! Joseph quotes an unnamed Lieutenant General who states, “We are trapped in the ‘hold’ part of the ‘shape, clear, hold and build’ strategy. We will be stuck there for the foreseeable future. With so much money being pumped in, vested interests have developed all around. A political solution with economic development is needed.” Some years back the then 15 corps commander General Mukharjee had also stated that the army has done its job and Kashmir needs a political solution. These statements appear contradictory to what the present Army commander has been saying. In fact, for the first time the Prime Minister also conceded during his recent visit that Kashmiris have a political problem! According to Nirupama Rao, Delhi is looking for “creative” solution to Kashmir problem. She also says the road ahead is long and winding and as fellow travellers, India and Pakistan must tackle the challenges together. The greatest challenge for both is Kashmir which has been hanging fire for last 60 years or so. Both have conceded that there is no military solution to Kashmir. In spite of this their Generals keep on talking in military terms!

The General while praising the sanctity of the lawless law failed to point out that there is another “Holy Book” which is used as a text book in the Indian Military Academy and that is the Kautilya’s Arthshastra an equivalent of Machiavelli’s Prince. This book is also followed by a large number of the political leaders. Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru used to have a copy of this book at his bedside! The problem may not entirely lie with the army. They are there under the orders of the political authorities. In fact, Joseph in the above mentioned despatch also states that the army if asked would jump at the chance to leave the valley and return to barracks but only if policy makers delivered their end of the bargain! The problem lies with the political leadership which wants to keep Kashmiris under at all costs. For them keeping Kashmir under the thumb has become an obsession. They are more loyal than the King! Instead of safe guarding the “National” interest they are doing more harm to it. They may have succeeded in temporarily even blind folding the Amnesty International and several other Global Rights Organisations but ultimately one has to concede that the truth has always a tendency to hit one in the face! Even the Human Rights Watch has very recently forcefully demanded the revocation of notorious central legislation AFSPA.

If the new peace process in the sub-continent is genuine and sincere, then as a first step the mayhem in Kashmir must end forthwith. The trust deficit cannot be bridged till the innocent blood letting in Kashmir is not stopped. Everything that can end this bloody trail must be done and done immediately. People responsible for killing innocents should be punished regardless of their rank and position. Kashmir is a simmering cauldron full of angry and totally alienated youth. Keeping a heavy lid on it is not going to help. A simmering cauldron has always a tendency to overthrow the lid unless it is taken off in time! The sooner it is done, the better it would be.