We used to hear about the happenings behind the “Iron Curtain” during the Communist era in the erstwhile Soviet Union. The May Day Parade, the welcome to foreign dignitaries by bouquet holding children and so on never disclosed the real face of the Communist Regime. It was only with the demolition of the Berlin Wall that the edifice came down. India calls itself the largest democracy in the world. Kashmir has been burning for last so many months. The hype created by the pro-establishment electronic media is about violent clashes often alleged to be instigated by terrorists from across the border. In fact, there are no clashes as such. It is a one way traffic. An all out effort on the part of the authorities to scuttle any peaceful marches by the use of the most brutal force. Once such protest marches are scuttled or forcibly dispersed there is bound to be violence as is the case worldwide.

However, to call these incidents as violent clashes is not really justified. The main purpose is to somehow deny the right of free expression to Kashmiris. The methods used remind one of the classic scenes behind the “Iron Curtain”! After putting the entire population of the Kashmir valley in a virtual prison, what do these members of the All Parties Team expect to asses and know? From the start there has been an attempt to have a choreographed performance. The group is being taken on a conducted tour like prisoners. They cannot freely move about. Nor can the common people see or meet them as they have been locked indoors for last 8 days or so. The only silver lining during the visit has been the initiative taken by some members of the delegation on their own to call on some prominent leaders of the “Azadi” movement including Sayed Ali Shah Geelani. Some of the members also visited hospitals to look up the injured. Even though these members claimed that their decision to call on separatist leaders was part of the plan, the BJP dissociated itself from the initiative and termed it as the individual decision of these members.

The government probably with the blessings of the Ministry of Home Affairs had arranged a selective gathering of tourist traders, fruit growers, mutton dealers, and so on has been arranged to meet and brief these people. Anyone who has lived in a totalitarian country can immediately recognise the methods of organising a “spontaneous” expression of the masses methods for which have been same all over the totalitarian world! The similar procedure used to be adopted in Kashmir during the first tenure of Sheikh Abdullah from 1947 to 1953 and the subsequent rule of Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad. He was a past master at such pre-arranged and doctored briefings. During that period a large number of important foreign observers and journalists would be visiting Kashmir and they were always confronted by such groups of people saying everything was honky dory! However, even this selected gathering did not toe the official line but gave their own view point!

Dr.Josef Korbel in his book, “Danger in Kashmir” relates an interesting anecdote about such made up meetings to brief outsiders about the Kashmir situation those days. “During the visit of the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan to Baramulla they were greeted by crowds of people shouting pro-India and pro-Abdullah slogans. A young man broke the cordon and threw a piece of paper towards the commission members. He was whisked away by police while he was shouting, “I want to tell you that these people oppress us.” They could still hear him shouting among the crowd, “Long live Pakistan!” This was a disturbing scene for the commission, which had been assured that the people enjoyed political freedom in Kashmir. The Commission asked the district commissioner, to send for the man and bring him before the commission. A few minutes later a man appeared, but it was quite obviously not the young man who had spoken to us. When this fact was brought to the commissioner’s attention, he insisted that it was the same person, but the substitute himself disrupted the attempted deception. “Yes,” he said, “I am somebody else. My friend is in prison, but it does not matter; I can also tell you that we want to join Pakistan.” The same story may have been repeated now!

The moot point is what can this All Party Team achieve? If they were here to assess the ground situation, well only thing they saw was the entire valley under the toughest siege. This fact has already been thoroughly highlighted by the print and the electronic media for quite sometime now. The situation in Kashmir is better known outside India than within India. There are no two opinions that the massive crowds which come on the roads to face the bullets have a very strong sentiment of “Azadi” or Independence! As in the case of Dr.Korbel’s experience if these people are honest and sincere and wanted to know the real situation, they should have asked for immediate lifting of curfew all over the valley. This was the least they could do, not only to know the sentiments of the common people but it would also have been the initiation of the first confidence building measure from their side. Differences which have already cropped up among the members of the delegation regarding their initiative of meeting the separatist leaders may not allow a consensus in the report of the team? The only good turn the team can do to the country is to bring out the real suffering of the people of Kashmir in order to start an unconditional dialogue to address the aspirations of Kashmiris. In the absence of such an initiative, the entire process would be nothing but a cruel joke on Kashmiris.