Kashmir.Diary

it has always been unfortunate on part of the india to remind others fullfill their commitment,but forget their committment of right to self determination which they did to paeople of  kashmir 60 years back.

One of many countless acts of torture caught on tape.

Here is an online petition on Kashmir Resolution.

Please sign it now.
http://www.gopetition.com/online/23336.html

The long unresolved issue of Kashmir between Islamabad and New Delhi, got a stirring on the global map once again after US presidential front-runner Barack Obama drew world attention at the fag end of his campaign to reach the White House when, during an interview, he emphatically stressed the need for the United States to try afresh to resolve the valley dispute for a lasting global peace and to secure America from a potential threat from Muslim militancy. His remarks must be seen more from an American perspective than doing an outright favour to the freedom fighters engaged in a long-drawn struggle against Indian occupation of the valley. Obama’s observation that the Kashmir conflict leads to promote militancy among Muslim of South Asia, and which development usually works against the US, clearly manifests that he wants peace in our region to ensure that by having so, the US would also feel secure. He seems quite determined to carry out his plan. “We should probably try to facilitate a better understanding between Pakistan and India and try to resolve the Kashmir crisis so that they (Pakistan) can stay focussed on militants,” said Mr Obama in an interview to MSNBC.There is hardly anything new in Obama’s analysis as one can conveniently recall that after the Sept 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the Bush administration had adopted a new approach towards South Asia- urging Pakistan to review its traditional defence strategy that sees India as the main threat to its interests in the region. Instead, President Bush wanted Islamabad to modify its attention on fighting out the militants operating along borders between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Senator Obama seems a continuation of the same approach. This was not the first time Mr Obama expressed his views on the issue. “We also have to make the case that the biggest threat to Pakistan now is not India but militants within their borders,” he said in a separate interview with CNN.On the other hand the Kashmir issue has fallen victim to India’s incessant stubbornness which first refused to resolve it under the UN resolution of 1948- asking India and Pakistan to hold a plebiscite to afford an opportunity to the valley people to decide on their future. Later, India declared that the world community had nothing to do with this issue after the 1972 Simla Agreement which, to defuse rising tension between the two bordering states, spoke about resolving the conflict bilaterally as well. From 1972 New Delhi has been dragging its feet on the issue and despite many attempts by Pakistan and various political outfits in the occupied valley to settle terms on Kashmir, India has, instead, now started giving an impression as if the two countries should settle down with whatever part of the valley they possess. Though India agrees that there is a conflict on Kashmir, her leadership openly says the valley is an integral part of India. One wonders why, and what, India has been negotiating on if Kashmir issue is not to be resolved according to her own promises. This Indian attitude is the chief element in giving rise to militancy among freedom fighters which Barack Obama has also pointed to.It will be with some interest to see reaction of Islamabad and New Delhi to Obama’s remarks since both have travelled a long way during the last few years towards taking confidence building measures, which India says are essential before resorting to the lasting solution of the complex Kashmir issue.

I came across this article on Times of India site. Thought of sharing it.

TIMES OF INDIA - October 28, 2008


THE PEACE SERIES

Injustice can produce a Gandhi, a Mandela or a terrorist

By Yogendra Yadav,

Co-director of Lokniti and senior fellow at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, reminds us that a terrorist is someone who at one point believed in the system.
Terrorism is politics by other means. More often that not, a terrorist is a failed or disappointed reformist, someone who at one point believed in the system. Almost every act of mad terrorist violence is shaped by deep passion, not very different from the emotion that shapes any form of creativity. The wounds that a terrorist inflicts on scores of innocent victims are rationalized in the name of justice.
There are no doubt many a mercenaries among the ranks of terrorists, but those who we call terrorists often see themselves as nothing less than heroes, as persons who refuse to take it lying down or follow the conventional and ineffective ways of responding to a perceived injustice. Theirs is often the determination that produces a Gandhi, the quest for justice that creates a Mandela. When this kind of a person takes to terrorism, we lose a vital energy that could have shaped the idea of India.

If we agree that terror is failed politics, then the solution lies in firmly closing the back door of politics of terror and making sure that the front door of democratic negotiation, protest and contestation is kept open.

We have to think, in other words, about what the terrorists wish to say, about how they could have said it without taking this route. The trouble with so much talk about terrorism and ways of eliminating it is that it discusses only one half of the solution. Security experts talk only about how to close the back door of terror. But you cannot close all the doors for someone. You have to think equally hard about how to keep the front door of democratic politics firmly open for those who see no hope in the system.

This is not as simple as it looks. Following this simple formula requires complex negotiation with the orthodoxies that we have surrounded ourselves with. It requires not just confronting the bundle of lies perpetrated by communal politics, we also need to face some of the orthodoxies, silences and half-truths of the secular discourse.

How, for instance, do you firmly close the door of terror? This is not just a question for security agencies and terror experts, but also a question for human rights activists and secular politics. Left to themselves, the security experts will come up with solutions that are worse than the problem itself. Laws like POTA or AFSPA may occasionally succeed in nabbing a terrorist who escapes the net of ordinary laws, but the real-life implementation of such laws is bound to create many more terrorists than it nabs. Encounters like Jamia Nagar strike at the public trust in the police force. Reports like the Nanawati Report on Gujarat strike at the public confidence in judges as custodians of truth. The recent violence in Orissa strikes at the idea of rule of law. But those of us who rightly oppose these have a positive duty too. We must come up with an alternative, democratic way of dealing with the terrorists – Jehadis, Bajrang Dalis or whatever variety – that is at once effective and can respect the rights of every citizen.

The more important question in the long run is how do you keep open the doors for democratic negotiations? This brings us face to face with the delicate question of the involvement of some Indian Muslims in the recent acts of terror. Unfortunately one section of opinion in our country does not wish to acknowledge this fact while the other section does not want to look at the reasons why they may have taken to terror. It is only when we acknowledge that a tiny section of the Indian Muslim youth may be involved in it that we can begin to address some of the underlying reasons.

The way to keep doors for democratic politics open for this section of the Muslim youth is to create a space for open discussion about the condition of the Indian Muslims. The Sachar Committee report has done a great service to the country by making it possible to talk about some of these questions. Now we need to take the next step by debating the ways of addressing the disadvantage and discrimination that the Muslims face in every walk of life. We need to discuss modalities of affirmative action for the Muslims. We need to find ways of improving the political representation of the Muslims. Above all, the public arena needs to open itself to hear the voice of the Indian Muslims, their aspiration for dignity, identity and justice.

Secular politics has to evolve a language to speak about these issues to the public at large. In order to do so, it has to begin to address some difficult questions: How do we address some of the legitimate fears of the Hindus about large-scale institutionalized conversions? What are the rights of the Hindu minorities in J&K or in the North East? How do we react to the patently anti-democratic edicts of the Sikh Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee? Politics of secularism must not be seen to be weak on minority communalism.

If terror is politics in a distorted mirror, it follows that peace has to be politically crafted. This requires nothing short of renewing the idea of India for a new generation. This requires steadfast commitment to truth and the courage to question our own orthodoxies. We could do worse on a day to remember the maryadapurushottam.

Sanjay Kak, a Kashmiri "Pandit" film maker recently made a movie called Jashn-e-Azadi: How we celebrate freedom. The movie is about the freedom struggle of Kashmiries, who have sacrificed 70,000 of their brother in the movement.

Click here to Know more about the movie.

Click here to read an interview of Sanjay Kak with Kashmir Observer.

Greater Kashmir today reported that, government imposed an undeclared curfew to prevent people from staging protests against the landing of Indian troops on this day in 1947.

Read Here

A very well know Columnists, Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar who writes for The Times of India, penned down an article titled "Independence Day for Kashmir" on 15th of August this year. The author is also Consulting Editor, Economic Times. I wanted to share his with everyone so here is the link.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Columnists/S_A_Aiyar_I-Day_for_Kashmir/articleshow/3372132.cms