Shutdowns, processions, sit-ins, slogans, speeches, secessionist songs etc everything one could witness post 89 had actually happened between 1953 and 1975. It would not be inappropriate to say that whatever Hurriyat, except for militant outfits, did till 2008 was just a replay of PF movement.
Riyaz Masroor
Many years ago, a Kashmiri lawyer had to cut a sorry figure in a European capital where he was invited to speak on the human rights situation of J&K. It was fashionable those days to speak in ‘thousands’ and ‘lakhs’. Separatist leaders would say ‘thousands have been martyred’ without quoting figures. The lawyer followed suit and thus spoke to the learned audience: “Thousands have disappeared in Kashmir, most of them while in custody.” The participants were moved by the word ‘thousands’. At the end of the session, an HR activist approached the speaker with the request: “It’s really a grave issue, can you cite three examples so that I study the whole thing.” The lawyer, as per his own admission, had no handy references so he chose to avoid the query till next morning and forwarded three examples only after seeking them via phone from Kashmir. The lawyer returned home with his lifetime lesson: Shun rhetoric, gather realities. No wonder, the same lawyer is now Kashmir’s leading human rights defender.
In June 2008, when the Kashmiri separatists started the epic campaign against a government decision to transfer around 100 acres of land to a Hindu Shrine Board, Hurriyat Conference was reborn. Not just in the sense that it revived its lost contact with masses but in the sense that it started speaking on real issues harming Kashmiri interests. The campaign forced the government to revoke the order and the land title was restored. Bar Association and Hurriyat celebrated the revocation of order as a ‘victory for Kashmiris’. It was for the first time since 1989 that Hurriyat had opposed any government order , got it revoked through peaceful campaign and later celebrated the ‘victory’. And yes, the peaceful method cast moral isolation upon the authorities who would lob tear-smoke shells on unarmed civilians.
But for that unfortunate economic blocked forced on Kashmiris from Jammu, this small victory would have served a long way in reorganizing Kashmir’s rights movement into an orderly resistance. Nonetheless, 2008 marked a significant transition; the transition from violence to reconstruction, from rhetoric to creativity. In all these years, when had Geelani said India earns Rs 36000 Crores annually from Kashmir through taxes and food imports? When had Mirwaiz wondered over absence of water and power in rural Kashmir saying people pay taxes against no amenity? When had we experienced a different Geelani who wants to substantiate his claims of Indian occupation through figures? A Hurriyat (G) pamphlet, whose authenticity may be debatable, records the volume of land occupied by Indian army in different districts, it says more than 350,000 acres of land has been grabbed.
The issues which in yesteryears were a plain no-no for Hurriyat leaders have suddenly come alive for them. They are reacting to government decisions and processes – a decade ago such reactions were considered taboo. Hurriyat (all shades including JKLF) is increasingly becoming democratic in its conduct and response to the socio-political issues. For example, never had Hurriyat asked people to participate in a process directly controlled by New Delhi. In 2001, they called for outright boycott of census but are now urging people to stand up and be counted, though with a word of caution. It is definitely a welcome transition. By simply shutting our eyes whole world will not turn black.
It would be foolhardy to say that post 2008, Kashmiris began to hate militant violence as a means of resistance; they cannot unless the means of repression remain intact. But we cannot overlook the fact that the culture of peaceful and democratic resistance has taken root after 2008 uprising.
Many would agree that the post-89 resistance against Indian rule in J&K was clearly modeled after the legendary Tehreek Mahaz Rai Shumari (Plebiscite Front Movement). Whole architecture of Hurriyat politics could easily be gleaned from the 22-year PF movement that was spearheaded by many big names but actually inspired by then popular leader Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah, who remained in jail for most of those two decades. Shutdowns, processions, sit-ins, slogans, speeches, secessionist songs etc everything one could witness post 89 had actually happened between 1953 and 1975. It would not be inappropriate to say that whatever Hurriyat, except for militant outfits, did till 2008 was just a replay of PF movement. Isn’t it a fact that while Sheikh would bask in the glory of rising popularity his detractor and then Prime Minister of J&K, Bakhshi Ghulam Muhammad was eroding the autonomous status of the state? For that matter, PF movement too was an abstract activity that kept people aloof from what was happening around them. Interestingly, if in past Sheikh’s PF movement had got consumed into rhetoric, now Hurriyat is trying to remodel itself over realities rather than rhetoric. The heightened alertness about census and the new recruitment law is a glaring proof of that. If Hurriyat has abandoned the ‘secondhand ideas’ and chosen to embark a new route of democracy and peace, shouldn’t one welcome it as a positive transition?
Mian Abdul Qayoom, President of Kashmir Bar Association, could not understand the nuances of this argument when this writer spoke to a seminar titled “Census and reservation bill – a bid to darken our future” organized by Geelani-led Hurriyat Conference on 22 May 2010. “I completely disagree,” he said and employed all his acumen to disprove the transition highlighted by this writer. Ironically, the lawyer who on his return from Europe had admitted a flaw and got down to work only to create a huge bank of realities was present in the seminar. It would, perhaps, take another session to make Mr. Qayoom understand that the transition does not necessarily mean from bad to good, it is also from good to better. Is there any harm in admitting that things have changed? Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky provides the answer: “Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most.”
Feedback: riyaz.masroor@yahoo.com
Monday, May 24, 2010
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Mom Balpuri’s Cow and Demography Cry
Riyaz MasroorThe noisy Tuesday was virtually the first day of Durbar in Srinagar; Monday had gone into calm, hassle free reopening and gossip. Irked by the deafening sirens, gridlocks, flag cars and road barriers, I vomited out my anger before a friend who happens to be a police officer. “Why should large contingents escort even insignificant persons,” I asked angrily. “After all, who will take care of Mom Balpuri’s naughty cow?” the officer hurled a counter question.
The response baffled me. What the hell is some Balpuri’s cow to do with the mess the Durbar has brought out on Srinagar’s fast narrowing roads. But, as probed further, Mom Balpuri appeared a character portraying the Kashmir’s ruling class, and his cow a metaphor for the social liabilities of this class. Small wonder, these liabilities are being taken care at the cost of public convenience. Alas! Balpuri’s cow did not get enough care.
Ghulam Muhammad Ganaie was perhaps the only bet for National Conference in Budgam’s Khansahib constituency when it fought elections in 1996. He was the party’s block president and was more famous by his nick name Mom Balpuri, probably after his native village Balpur. Despite being a grass-root worker, this rustic, simpleton farmer would wonder why a bevy of gun-wielding Personal Security Officers (PSOs) would follow him like his shadow, though he later came to know that he was a ‘protected person’ after NC got the crown.
Mom Balpuri had a cow that he was very fond of. He would cherish even his cow’s naughty antics – it would cross over to neighbour’s paddy field, hit a kid or two or snap the rope and shove into some grocery shop. Youth of Balpur still remember how Mom Balpuri would struggle to prevent his pet from hurting others. After becoming the ‘protected person’ Mom Balpuri would chase the freaky cow while his PSOs would follow him, wielding guns. He would rebuff them to help him leash the cow by surrounding it rather than following him. “But how can we do that sir, we cannot move to your front, we have to be at your back and guard you.” This would put off Mom Balpuri because the cow would run even faster sensing not just Balpuri but several men with guns following it. This went on till 17 March 2001 when the assailants murdered Balpuri at his residence. His PSOs must be sad why they could not help him leash his cow, or save him from the assailants.
What Mom Balpuri in his pastorally honest sense would want his PSOs to do is being done by almost all the PSOs who are attached to VIPs and VVIPs. Then it was only the matter of comforting an ill-tamed cow, now it is about almost everything – rearing children, ferrying them to school, going shopping with the madam, mowing the garden, attending telephone calls, fixing meetings and much more.
From all ministers to lowbrow politicians, PSOs are flanking every individual who has something to do with the ruling regime. There are PSOs who go for extended leave, take vehicle from the ministerial staff and roam around in his home town, flaunting his false errrr real power across his neighbourhood. Who is paying for all this luxury? Masses.
Coming back to roads, Our VIPS travel with a false sense of being superior to the rest. Their well-guarded vehicles zoom through busy roads with frightening speed. Later in the afternoon, as I started to check the day’s happenings a citizen journalist came to me with a startling complaint.
“Please inform SP traffic that PRO of the Works Minister G M Suroori has left office with a PWD vehicle 9330 JK 02 L (Bolero). He is now enjoying in his village, patrol bills will be paid by the government,” he informed. I simply passed on the information to Police high ups, just to satisfy the citizen journalist, though I was sure the complaint will be junked. But I began wondering if the PRO was taking care of Suroori’s or his own ‘naughty cow’?
Mom Balpuri was not to blame when he saw himself in the security ring. The ruling regime wanted to leave an impression in the area that they have the ‘presence’. The PSOs would serve as an advert of POWER; people with smaller problems would be psychologically drawn to Mom Balpuri, considering the Police escort he had around him round the clock as an indication of POWER. The innocent old man, Mom Balpuri was isolated from his earthy lifestyle and squeezed into the new frame of POWER.
Fourteen years after the PSOs scared that naughty cow in Balpur, the VIP culture has spawned a new social class comprising everyone who is followed by a security van and flanked by gunmen. People belonging to this class believe they have the first right to move on the road. Policemen or Traffic Cops have no teeth to regulate their movement or discipline them.
Democracy, they say, is a great leveler. But here the democracy, believed to have returned in 1996, has further fragmented the life. There are people with LINKS to power. There are people with ACCESS to POWER. There are people with CHANNELS in bureaucracy and then there are people who have the BUSINESS with the POWERFUL. Masses are at the bottom of the pyramid.
Separatists are crying hoarse that the eight percent reservation in government jobs for scheduled caste candidates would affect the state’s demography. The chief minister has reassured them that it was not the case. But the fact is the demography has long changed. The VIPs are eating into the social space of the masses that are now worse than the underclass of a totalitarian state. A Kashmiri threatening another Kashmiris’ social identity, no hartaal for this please!
First published in Rising Kashmir 8 May 2011 (Feedback at riyaz.masroor@yahoo.com)
The response baffled me. What the hell is some Balpuri’s cow to do with the mess the Durbar has brought out on Srinagar’s fast narrowing roads. But, as probed further, Mom Balpuri appeared a character portraying the Kashmir’s ruling class, and his cow a metaphor for the social liabilities of this class. Small wonder, these liabilities are being taken care at the cost of public convenience. Alas! Balpuri’s cow did not get enough care.
Ghulam Muhammad Ganaie was perhaps the only bet for National Conference in Budgam’s Khansahib constituency when it fought elections in 1996. He was the party’s block president and was more famous by his nick name Mom Balpuri, probably after his native village Balpur. Despite being a grass-root worker, this rustic, simpleton farmer would wonder why a bevy of gun-wielding Personal Security Officers (PSOs) would follow him like his shadow, though he later came to know that he was a ‘protected person’ after NC got the crown.
Mom Balpuri had a cow that he was very fond of. He would cherish even his cow’s naughty antics – it would cross over to neighbour’s paddy field, hit a kid or two or snap the rope and shove into some grocery shop. Youth of Balpur still remember how Mom Balpuri would struggle to prevent his pet from hurting others. After becoming the ‘protected person’ Mom Balpuri would chase the freaky cow while his PSOs would follow him, wielding guns. He would rebuff them to help him leash the cow by surrounding it rather than following him. “But how can we do that sir, we cannot move to your front, we have to be at your back and guard you.” This would put off Mom Balpuri because the cow would run even faster sensing not just Balpuri but several men with guns following it. This went on till 17 March 2001 when the assailants murdered Balpuri at his residence. His PSOs must be sad why they could not help him leash his cow, or save him from the assailants.
What Mom Balpuri in his pastorally honest sense would want his PSOs to do is being done by almost all the PSOs who are attached to VIPs and VVIPs. Then it was only the matter of comforting an ill-tamed cow, now it is about almost everything – rearing children, ferrying them to school, going shopping with the madam, mowing the garden, attending telephone calls, fixing meetings and much more.
From all ministers to lowbrow politicians, PSOs are flanking every individual who has something to do with the ruling regime. There are PSOs who go for extended leave, take vehicle from the ministerial staff and roam around in his home town, flaunting his false errrr real power across his neighbourhood. Who is paying for all this luxury? Masses.
Coming back to roads, Our VIPS travel with a false sense of being superior to the rest. Their well-guarded vehicles zoom through busy roads with frightening speed. Later in the afternoon, as I started to check the day’s happenings a citizen journalist came to me with a startling complaint.
“Please inform SP traffic that PRO of the Works Minister G M Suroori has left office with a PWD vehicle 9330 JK 02 L (Bolero). He is now enjoying in his village, patrol bills will be paid by the government,” he informed. I simply passed on the information to Police high ups, just to satisfy the citizen journalist, though I was sure the complaint will be junked. But I began wondering if the PRO was taking care of Suroori’s or his own ‘naughty cow’?
Mom Balpuri was not to blame when he saw himself in the security ring. The ruling regime wanted to leave an impression in the area that they have the ‘presence’. The PSOs would serve as an advert of POWER; people with smaller problems would be psychologically drawn to Mom Balpuri, considering the Police escort he had around him round the clock as an indication of POWER. The innocent old man, Mom Balpuri was isolated from his earthy lifestyle and squeezed into the new frame of POWER.
Fourteen years after the PSOs scared that naughty cow in Balpur, the VIP culture has spawned a new social class comprising everyone who is followed by a security van and flanked by gunmen. People belonging to this class believe they have the first right to move on the road. Policemen or Traffic Cops have no teeth to regulate their movement or discipline them.
Democracy, they say, is a great leveler. But here the democracy, believed to have returned in 1996, has further fragmented the life. There are people with LINKS to power. There are people with ACCESS to POWER. There are people with CHANNELS in bureaucracy and then there are people who have the BUSINESS with the POWERFUL. Masses are at the bottom of the pyramid.
Separatists are crying hoarse that the eight percent reservation in government jobs for scheduled caste candidates would affect the state’s demography. The chief minister has reassured them that it was not the case. But the fact is the demography has long changed. The VIPs are eating into the social space of the masses that are now worse than the underclass of a totalitarian state. A Kashmiri threatening another Kashmiris’ social identity, no hartaal for this please!
First published in Rising Kashmir 8 May 2011 (Feedback at riyaz.masroor@yahoo.com)
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Kashmir via Kabul
What does peace in Afghanistan bode for J&K?
Riyaz Masroor
What does London Conference on Afghanistan, beginning January 28, mean to us? This crucial question requires an elaborate answer.
Kashmir shares an interesting relationship with Afghanistan. Not just because Afghans ruled the ‘paradise on earth’ for 67 years but because peace in Kashmir is inversely proportional to war in Afghanistan.
In 1979, when Russia’s Red Army forayed into rugged, war-torn Kabul, Kashmir was basking in a newly-bought peace under Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah. The decade of Soviet occupation in Afghanistan was marked, in Kashmir, by relatively poised regimes except for a brief trouble under G M Shah, who had toppled Farooq Abdullah’s government in 1984. Back then Pakistan’s official media would gloat over the Afghan Jihad but people responded not beyond listening to radio dispatches from Peshawar or Kandahar.
But that was soon to end. Russia’s exit plan was conceived little later than mid eighties. Before that plan could be executed Kashmir saw the resurrection of separatist movement. A large coalition of separatist groups, Muslim United Front, ran for state elections in 1987. The poll was brazenly rigged to prevent MUF, purported to comprise anti-National Conference vote bank, from assuming power.
Most of the modern historians unwittingly believe that the electoral fraud of 1987 has actually rooted the cult of violence in Kashmir. That may be a reason but not the reason. It was very well known that Pakistan had been bankrolling Afghan Jihad and in the event of Soviet retreat the forces of violence were being unleashed across the subcontinent, partly due to the compulsion such operations incur and partly to keep Indian army bogged down in Kashmir. Had there been no rigging in 1987, Russia-made AK 47 rifle would still make its debut in Kashmir; because the Afghan front had now cooled down. The poll debacle only hastened the process and provided a readymade excuse to the supporters of the armed uprising.
However, it would be foolhardy to dismiss the violent explosion of 1989 as entirely a ‘proxy war’. Pakistan, no doubt, supplied the guns but India’s long running apathy toward local emotions had been so acute that it induced a ‘will to die’ in the otherwise docile, easygoing Kashmiris. Proxy wars can be easily defeated if the population is free from any sense of deprivation, occupation or discrimination– let’s call it the 3D crisis.
If Kashmir had started limping back to normalcy in the early years of past decade, it was not only due to 9/11 strike on US. Neither was it because India had woken up to the need to accommodate the Kashmiri concerns about deprivation, dispossession and discrimination, yes the 3D crisis. The nine-eleven had, in fact, triggered a new war in Afghanistan, this time America sticking in the quicksand.
It is interesting to note how Afghanistan and Kashmir share a strange war-peace relationship. As NATO, with the help of Pakistan army, began their share of Afghan mission in 2001, Kashmir started showing signs of calm. Much like the 1979-89 decade the 2000-2009 witnessed lull in Kashmir violence and among other things a sudden reemergence of pro-India politics.
The reason why the Afghanistan conference that began in London on January 28, will have direct bearing on Kashmir is that it has been organised to legitimize the fresh call for engaging Taliban and sharing Afghanistan’s political and economic power with them. The call is simultaneously coming from Islamabad, Kabul and Washington. No wonder why J&K’s Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has given out a matching call urging militants for negotiations.
The crucial London summit should, therefore, not be mistaken as yet another conference on counter terrorism. It rather represents America’s radical switchover vis-à-vis its latest war. General McChrystal, US Army’s Afghanistan Chief, has made no bones about the need to negotiate peace with Taliban. Even an average analyst would see this statement as a stark admission of ‘defeat’. Remember, four-star general of a superpower army does not speak in air; the opinion that war in Afghanistan is increasingly becoming unwinnable has been sinking within the military discourse of Pentagon and its allies for past few years. If you cannot secure the palace of your loyal president in Kabul even as you fight the insurgents with full might for nine years, you better switch to plan B. Obama is already on way to implementing this plan B, which includes ‘re-empowering’ Taliban in lieu of peace ( or may be a graceful exit).
As the pattern sine 1979 goes Kashmir needs to prepare for a fresh bout of disturbance. A new ruling coalition largely dominated by Taliban would not just represent America’s ‘tactical surrender’, it would embolden Pakistan. Pakistan army, as a host of news reports suggest, has all along been involved in Afghanistan insurgency by proxy. Now, if America is taking Pakistan on board and offering political power to Taliban, it only signifies Pakistan army’s second ‘victory’ since it connived with US to defeat the former superpower USSR in the same Afghanistan. Moreover, if Obama-Karzai-Zardari trio has its way in forging a pro-Taliban regime in Kabul, the forces that were running the show there, may be tasked to reorient themselves. China’s troubled Xinxiang won’t make a choice owing to Beijing’s solid ties with Islamabad and the of late ‘patch up’ with US. So, will it be Mission Kashmir II?
It is difficult to say with certainty that the ‘Afghan wave’ would be finally made to spill over to Kashmir. But the major policy transition in US and Kabul makes it appear all too likely. India may be alive to the military challenges such a scenario could throw up but the question is has it been able to eliminate the ‘will to die’ from within the Kashmiri population.
If the incidents that occurred in past few weeks are any indicator, the 3D crisis seem running deeper than it was in 1989. Earlier we didn’t see people staging demonstrations during gunfights. Is it really hard to discern why Kashmiris would opt for violence if yet another anarchic moment came their way?
Kashmiris have never fought a war of choice. In all these 421 years of 3D crisis, they have always fought wars of survival. New Delhi cannot bring saints and monks together to curse Afghanistan that never-ending war inflict the country so that Kashmir remains peaceful. Afghanistan’s peace has always entailed war in Kashmir only because the ground here has all along remained fertile. Now, if India wants to eliminate the reasons for Kashmiris to revolt again, it should not wait for formal US withdrawal from Afghanistan. A word of caution: All the guile has been used up since 1947. Rallying Kashmiris around a mirage would be difficult now. Something real, yes real, need be done before the ‘Afghan wave’ touches our shores.
(Feedback at riyaz.masroor@yahoo.com)
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
No tricolour at Lal Chowk ! What next?
Riyaz Masroor
On the eerily quiet day of January 26, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), locally called CRP, chose to shun the 20-year-old practice of unfurling Indian tricolour at Srinagar's commerical center, Lal Chowk . Troops have been observing this practice ever since BJP’s Murli Manohar Joshi dared to reach Lal Chowk in 1991 and after alighting from an armored military vehicle unfurled the national flag atop the Clock Tower popularly known as Ghanta Ghar, a conspicuous city symbol. In this backdrop, the practice of hoisting tricolor, on national days such as January 26 and August 15, that too barely half a kilometer from Bakhshi Stadium, where the main function is held, reeked of a jingoistic political symbolism.
This business hub, it must be noted, has a political significance. It was here that in 1947 India’s first Prime Minister rubbed shoulders with Kashmir’s popular leader Sheikh Abdullah while promising the right of self-determination to the people of J&K; it was here that in 1975 hundreds of thousands of people received him after he entered into a deal with Nehru’s daughter Indira Gandhi, then Indian premier; and it was from here in 1994 that the pioneer of Kashmir insurgency, Muhammad Yasin Malik, declared his transition from violence to nonviolence and struggle for democratic rights. In the light of this historical record, Lal Chowk represents political evolution. Murli’s flag-hoisting recipe, actually, wanted to undo this tradition and make Lal Chowk appear as a symbol of military conquest.
Having remained witness to significant political evolutions, this trade hub also bore lot of violence and saw lot of bloodshed. In April 1993 the troops allegedly set ablaze a huge shopping complex following a gunfight with militants. Besides killing of scores of civilians in the crossfire, around 200 shops and five commercial buildings are reported to have gutted in that devastating fire. Inayat Khan of Dalgate is only the latest victim. Following his murder allegedly by CRP sleuths early this month; local traders staged demonstrations seeking removal of CRP men from the ruined Palladium Theater.
The Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has announced a Rs 2 Crore plan to revive the "pristine glory" of Lal Chowk. Will that happen while keeping the garison-like image of this historic place intact. The chief minister must get down to first things first: remove CRP from Palladium, demilitarise Ghanta Ghar, put a ban on laying concertina wires on Lal Chowk roads etc..can you do at least this much, Mr. Omar!
On the eerily quiet day of January 26, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), locally called CRP, chose to shun the 20-year-old practice of unfurling Indian tricolour at Srinagar's commerical center, Lal Chowk . Troops have been observing this practice ever since BJP’s Murli Manohar Joshi dared to reach Lal Chowk in 1991 and after alighting from an armored military vehicle unfurled the national flag atop the Clock Tower popularly known as Ghanta Ghar, a conspicuous city symbol. In this backdrop, the practice of hoisting tricolor, on national days such as January 26 and August 15, that too barely half a kilometer from Bakhshi Stadium, where the main function is held, reeked of a jingoistic political symbolism.
This business hub, it must be noted, has a political significance. It was here that in 1947 India’s first Prime Minister rubbed shoulders with Kashmir’s popular leader Sheikh Abdullah while promising the right of self-determination to the people of J&K; it was here that in 1975 hundreds of thousands of people received him after he entered into a deal with Nehru’s daughter Indira Gandhi, then Indian premier; and it was from here in 1994 that the pioneer of Kashmir insurgency, Muhammad Yasin Malik, declared his transition from violence to nonviolence and struggle for democratic rights. In the light of this historical record, Lal Chowk represents political evolution. Murli’s flag-hoisting recipe, actually, wanted to undo this tradition and make Lal Chowk appear as a symbol of military conquest.
Having remained witness to significant political evolutions, this trade hub also bore lot of violence and saw lot of bloodshed. In April 1993 the troops allegedly set ablaze a huge shopping complex following a gunfight with militants. Besides killing of scores of civilians in the crossfire, around 200 shops and five commercial buildings are reported to have gutted in that devastating fire. Inayat Khan of Dalgate is only the latest victim. Following his murder allegedly by CRP sleuths early this month; local traders staged demonstrations seeking removal of CRP men from the ruined Palladium Theater.
The Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has announced a Rs 2 Crore plan to revive the "pristine glory" of Lal Chowk. Will that happen while keeping the garison-like image of this historic place intact. The chief minister must get down to first things first: remove CRP from Palladium, demilitarise Ghanta Ghar, put a ban on laying concertina wires on Lal Chowk roads etc..can you do at least this much, Mr. Omar!
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Neelofar and her mates
Chatting in the fairyland
Riyaz Masroor
The skyline, frilled with clouds, reflects in the calm, crystal-clear waters of the splendid river, as if the heavens have descended on earth. The ambience on the riverside appears even more awesome because Romana and Sabrina are ensconced in the warm squeeze of their mates, in their new everlasting world – the Paradise. Tabinda Gani of Handwara and scores others from Shopian’s Saidipora, Kupwara’s Kununposhpora and other areas are unmindfully frolicsome.
“Thank God you too are here. You are the only ones closer to my age,” Romana tells Sabrina and Tabinda Gani in a husky tone as others, elder to these teenage girls, talk fun. Sabreena and Tabinda enjoy the swing made up of flower stems, which don’t break and are more durable than the worldly carbon fiber.
Suddenly a hush wraps this jovial scene as a boll of cloud rolls itself into the premises and evokes a silent yet awed response from the God’s favorite women in Jannah. The cloud boll looks like a space ship but it doesn’t work on laws of force or motion but a Godly command.
Landing from this ‘space ship’ are Neelofar and her teenage sis-in-law, Asiya, their sparkling hazel eyes enhancing their fresh and rosy aura. Fairies sing paeans. Ahlan wa sehlan marhaba Welcome! Welcome! God be pleased with you! Romana and Sabrina warmly hug Asiya while Neelofar makes her way into the elder club of women who are pampering themselves near the gushing streams of milk, honey and rose water.
Neelofar gives a warm hug to Tabinda, tears trickling down her graceful cheeks. “My dear sister, the beasts, who outraged your modesty, have not been hanged and your family, like ours, is waiting for justice ever since those brutes molested and murdered you on 20 July 2007. How shall I tell you I and my darling Asiya went through the same ordeal at the fateful sunset of 29 May 2009. How shall I…how shall I…how…?”
Hearing her Bhabhi’s frantic sobs, Asiya rushes to the scene and attempts to mellow down the gloom Neelofar’s tears have set in. “We are God’s favorites. We faced whatever we faced. That’s not for our fault but for the fault of the hyper masculine lust. God has taken care of us by hosting us here in the paradise; God will hold the neck of those who outraged us.”
A bevy of white-winged fairies stream through the walkway; they are holding a whole range of bouquets. “I don’t like white rose,” yells the young Sabrina, “give me the yellow one.” A fairy stretches her hand out in the air and pat comes a yellow fragrant rose in her hand, bringing cheerful smile on Sabrina’s face.
Romana is told that on 23 August 2007 Sabrina had gone out to fetch something from a locality shop at Ikhrajpora in central Srinagar and vanished only to be traced dead, her body bruised confirming rape. “O My God!” Romana exclaims, trying hard to withhold her tears.
In order to mollify Sabrina, who is in preteens, Romana asks her: Ever heard of Shabnum? The little Sabrina responds with a quizzical gaze. “I will tell you,” Romana quickly resumes. “She is one of us but she survived the assault, not before the army men would molest her.” She is actually referring to the rape of Ayesha and her daughter Shabnum who were living a modest yet happy life in a two-and-half apartment in Badrapayeen, a hamlet in Kupwara district, till everything shattered in the night of 6 November 2004. Initial reports had said some Major Ramman, who TV Channels later insisted was actually Major ‘Rehman’, was found guilty and subsequently ‘suspended’ by his superiors as a mark of ‘justice’.
Romana informs Sabrina that a little known NGO, run by a Kashmiri Pandit, who has long been settled in Pune, has taken Shabnum to an Orphanage there. In the orphanage many like her spend days and nights in an alien ambience. “I had read some reports and articles in newspapers about her.”
As if talking to her own self, Romana tries to imagine how Shabnum of Kupwara’s Badra Payeen area would react if given a chance to speak. “You know what pains an outraged girl more than the fact that she was raped?” Romana tosses up the question, which she says Shabnum would have asked. An unstated remark of Shabnum starts crossing everyone’s mind: “When the rulers deny, it hurts. I think I was raped twice, first by the army major and then later by Mufti Muhammad Sayeed, then CM, who said Beti ka rape nahin hua...maa ka hum dekh rahe hain.”
Romana gives Sabrina graphic details of the incident as she had read in newspapers; how the uniformed army men had locked the door from inside and raped Shabnum in the night intervening 5 and 6 November 2004 and how the life had come to a stand still for weeks together.
“What probe? What? What? What probe?” fumes Neelofar, her eyes exuding both helplessness and anguish. “And look how the present chief minister Omar Abdullah denied a fact that was later evidenced by his own subordinate institutions.” Neelofar displays a strange sense of rebellion. “I know what happened to Major Ramman, who rapped the mother and the daughter in front of each other…an army court later acquitted him of the charges of rapping.”
Neelofar argues that it is not just the unbridled hyper masculine lust but a racially motivated hatred that prompts such wild, barbaric rapes in Kashmir. “I cannot explain what exactly I went through… I was hearing the moving shrieks of my dear one Asiya…the merciless rapists smeared her head with red sindoor (The vermilion powder Hindu groom puts between the bride’s parted hair). For a moment I thought we represented the nation Kashmir and the rapists represented the state of India; it was the Hindu India raping the Muslim Kashmir…I wish whole India is not like that…I simply wish all Indian army men are not like that…I hope the Indian rulers know what it means when army of a democratic nation goes on raping spree…I just hope India doesn’t break for all these crimes…..”
Compared to others, Romana is being seen lucky for she preferred death over being outraged when the prodigal youth of a politically connected family drove their Alto car against her on 03 May 2009. “But,” Neelofar raises her voice, “we too would happily die if given a choice. The claws of power-sodden uniformed men sank into our frightened body and soul and we would wish death that didn’t come till we were murdered.”
Neelofar says that Romana set an example. “I don’t know if all the Indian soldiers are beasts like the ones who molested us. I would suggest let all the girls, whom we left behind in the world, emulate Romana in a different sense. Let them carry a poison pill with them. If, God forbid, they are caught, let them swallow the poison and embrace death and defeat the evil military man of the world’s largest democracy.”
Meanwhile fairies begin their job; hairdressing of Neelofar, Asiya, Romana, Sabrina and Tabinda with diamond-studded combs having bristles made from peacock feather. Romana whines when the comb entangles her blonde hair. “I have been through more than this…so combing won’t hurt me,” responds Tabinda recalling how her doctor brother would often advocate death sentence for a rape.
After Tabinda was gang-raped and murdered, her brother would for long cite a similar case that took place in Delhi in 1998, in which the exemplary death sentence was awarded by the session’s court, Delhi, to a 30-year-old man in Ghandi Nagar, East Delhi in 1998, for the rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl who was on her way from school.
“Come on! We would not have been together now had the culprits who outraged you (Tabinda Gani) been hanged …or awarded a lifer..! But I am sure God has his own ways of punishing the wrongdoers.” The Godly women disperse in groups and begin their routine chores in the Paradise.
riyaz.masroor@yahoo.com
Riyaz Masroor
The skyline, frilled with clouds, reflects in the calm, crystal-clear waters of the splendid river, as if the heavens have descended on earth. The ambience on the riverside appears even more awesome because Romana and Sabrina are ensconced in the warm squeeze of their mates, in their new everlasting world – the Paradise. Tabinda Gani of Handwara and scores others from Shopian’s Saidipora, Kupwara’s Kununposhpora and other areas are unmindfully frolicsome.
“Thank God you too are here. You are the only ones closer to my age,” Romana tells Sabrina and Tabinda Gani in a husky tone as others, elder to these teenage girls, talk fun. Sabreena and Tabinda enjoy the swing made up of flower stems, which don’t break and are more durable than the worldly carbon fiber.
Suddenly a hush wraps this jovial scene as a boll of cloud rolls itself into the premises and evokes a silent yet awed response from the God’s favorite women in Jannah. The cloud boll looks like a space ship but it doesn’t work on laws of force or motion but a Godly command.
Landing from this ‘space ship’ are Neelofar and her teenage sis-in-law, Asiya, their sparkling hazel eyes enhancing their fresh and rosy aura. Fairies sing paeans. Ahlan wa sehlan marhaba Welcome! Welcome! God be pleased with you! Romana and Sabrina warmly hug Asiya while Neelofar makes her way into the elder club of women who are pampering themselves near the gushing streams of milk, honey and rose water.
Neelofar gives a warm hug to Tabinda, tears trickling down her graceful cheeks. “My dear sister, the beasts, who outraged your modesty, have not been hanged and your family, like ours, is waiting for justice ever since those brutes molested and murdered you on 20 July 2007. How shall I tell you I and my darling Asiya went through the same ordeal at the fateful sunset of 29 May 2009. How shall I…how shall I…how…?”
Hearing her Bhabhi’s frantic sobs, Asiya rushes to the scene and attempts to mellow down the gloom Neelofar’s tears have set in. “We are God’s favorites. We faced whatever we faced. That’s not for our fault but for the fault of the hyper masculine lust. God has taken care of us by hosting us here in the paradise; God will hold the neck of those who outraged us.”
A bevy of white-winged fairies stream through the walkway; they are holding a whole range of bouquets. “I don’t like white rose,” yells the young Sabrina, “give me the yellow one.” A fairy stretches her hand out in the air and pat comes a yellow fragrant rose in her hand, bringing cheerful smile on Sabrina’s face.
Romana is told that on 23 August 2007 Sabrina had gone out to fetch something from a locality shop at Ikhrajpora in central Srinagar and vanished only to be traced dead, her body bruised confirming rape. “O My God!” Romana exclaims, trying hard to withhold her tears.
In order to mollify Sabrina, who is in preteens, Romana asks her: Ever heard of Shabnum? The little Sabrina responds with a quizzical gaze. “I will tell you,” Romana quickly resumes. “She is one of us but she survived the assault, not before the army men would molest her.” She is actually referring to the rape of Ayesha and her daughter Shabnum who were living a modest yet happy life in a two-and-half apartment in Badrapayeen, a hamlet in Kupwara district, till everything shattered in the night of 6 November 2004. Initial reports had said some Major Ramman, who TV Channels later insisted was actually Major ‘Rehman’, was found guilty and subsequently ‘suspended’ by his superiors as a mark of ‘justice’.
Romana informs Sabrina that a little known NGO, run by a Kashmiri Pandit, who has long been settled in Pune, has taken Shabnum to an Orphanage there. In the orphanage many like her spend days and nights in an alien ambience. “I had read some reports and articles in newspapers about her.”
As if talking to her own self, Romana tries to imagine how Shabnum of Kupwara’s Badra Payeen area would react if given a chance to speak. “You know what pains an outraged girl more than the fact that she was raped?” Romana tosses up the question, which she says Shabnum would have asked. An unstated remark of Shabnum starts crossing everyone’s mind: “When the rulers deny, it hurts. I think I was raped twice, first by the army major and then later by Mufti Muhammad Sayeed, then CM, who said Beti ka rape nahin hua...maa ka hum dekh rahe hain.”
Romana gives Sabrina graphic details of the incident as she had read in newspapers; how the uniformed army men had locked the door from inside and raped Shabnum in the night intervening 5 and 6 November 2004 and how the life had come to a stand still for weeks together.
“What probe? What? What? What probe?” fumes Neelofar, her eyes exuding both helplessness and anguish. “And look how the present chief minister Omar Abdullah denied a fact that was later evidenced by his own subordinate institutions.” Neelofar displays a strange sense of rebellion. “I know what happened to Major Ramman, who rapped the mother and the daughter in front of each other…an army court later acquitted him of the charges of rapping.”
Neelofar argues that it is not just the unbridled hyper masculine lust but a racially motivated hatred that prompts such wild, barbaric rapes in Kashmir. “I cannot explain what exactly I went through… I was hearing the moving shrieks of my dear one Asiya…the merciless rapists smeared her head with red sindoor (The vermilion powder Hindu groom puts between the bride’s parted hair). For a moment I thought we represented the nation Kashmir and the rapists represented the state of India; it was the Hindu India raping the Muslim Kashmir…I wish whole India is not like that…I simply wish all Indian army men are not like that…I hope the Indian rulers know what it means when army of a democratic nation goes on raping spree…I just hope India doesn’t break for all these crimes…..”
Compared to others, Romana is being seen lucky for she preferred death over being outraged when the prodigal youth of a politically connected family drove their Alto car against her on 03 May 2009. “But,” Neelofar raises her voice, “we too would happily die if given a choice. The claws of power-sodden uniformed men sank into our frightened body and soul and we would wish death that didn’t come till we were murdered.”
Neelofar says that Romana set an example. “I don’t know if all the Indian soldiers are beasts like the ones who molested us. I would suggest let all the girls, whom we left behind in the world, emulate Romana in a different sense. Let them carry a poison pill with them. If, God forbid, they are caught, let them swallow the poison and embrace death and defeat the evil military man of the world’s largest democracy.”
Meanwhile fairies begin their job; hairdressing of Neelofar, Asiya, Romana, Sabrina and Tabinda with diamond-studded combs having bristles made from peacock feather. Romana whines when the comb entangles her blonde hair. “I have been through more than this…so combing won’t hurt me,” responds Tabinda recalling how her doctor brother would often advocate death sentence for a rape.
After Tabinda was gang-raped and murdered, her brother would for long cite a similar case that took place in Delhi in 1998, in which the exemplary death sentence was awarded by the session’s court, Delhi, to a 30-year-old man in Ghandi Nagar, East Delhi in 1998, for the rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl who was on her way from school.
“Come on! We would not have been together now had the culprits who outraged you (Tabinda Gani) been hanged …or awarded a lifer..! But I am sure God has his own ways of punishing the wrongdoers.” The Godly women disperse in groups and begin their routine chores in the Paradise.
riyaz.masroor@yahoo.com
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Will Obamantra settle Kashmir?
Riyaz Masroor
Two important events in South Asia and the latest buzz between South Asia’s nuclear cousins – India and Pakistan – give out a glimmer of hope about some sort of settlement over Kashmir dispute. As for events, the defeat of world’s most organized insurgency in Sri Lanka and the weakening control of Taliban in parts of Pakistan have cleared the doubts, if any, that there could ever be a military solution to any ethno-political or religio-cultural conflict in post cold war world.
Then there are important statements. On 9 May 2009, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari told Jim Lehrer of American PBS TV that his country did not perceive India a threat. "Well, I am already on record. I have never considered India a threat. I have always considered India a neighbor, which we want to improve our relationship with. We have had some cold times and we have had some hard times with them. We have gone to war thrice, but democracies are always trying to improve relationships”. Exactly a fortnight later on 23 May , Chief of India’s formidable Air Force, Air Marshal Fali Homi Major, told Rahul Singh of Hindustan Times that China posed a more real and potent threat to India than Pakistan. “The way he (China) is growing, he definitely has the capability…we know very little about the actual capabilities of China, there combat edge or how professional their military is…they are certainly a greater threat.” This statement could be easily read as a more technical response to Zardari’s gesture. After all when India considers China a major threat in the neighborhood it points to the realization that Pakistan is no longer a threat. Though bit oblique, Indian assertion that Pakistan too is not a threat has paved a fertile ground for further build up on the path of peace and reconciliation.
The following week saw yet another exchange of peace gesture between India and Pakistan. On 21 May 2009, Pakistan’s foreign office spokesman Abdul Basit hoped that the new Congress-led government in India would resume the bilateral peace process with Pakistan “sooner rather than latter.” In his weekly media briefing Basit also appealed to the world community that it should play a “role” in strengthening the “strategic stability” in South Asia. Few days latter, on 25 May India’s newly appointed foreign minister S M Krishna began his stint by extending a hand of friendship to Pakistan. Stating that the neighbors cannot be replaced, Krishna linked reconciliation with Pakistan to the sustainability of India’s economic growth. The foreign minister, in his first media interaction, said the new government’s highest priority was to strengthen ties with the neighbors and further consolidate strategic partnerships with the U.S., Russia, China, Japan and the European Union. The Minister vowed to nurture close ties with its traditional partners with the aim of furthering India’s “non-aligned” foreign policy and strengthening its “strategic autonomy.”
The post-Bush America is encountering a different world with even North Korea, besides China and Russia, reasserting their antagonism toward the American hegemony. Since Kashmir is located at the strategic crisscross of big powers in Asia, a sharper US focus on the dispute is quite understood. We need not repeat how Kashmir was mentioned by the worlds’ biggies including Obama and David Miliband at a time when the people in Kashmir had left behind a bloody phase of Azadi movement and were voting in throes. The continuity of Obama’s Kashmir-is-the-key policy about South Asia peace is all the more palpable.
Of significant note is that Zardari made the statement about India not being a threat to Pakistan from the American soil. It is believed, says a Press Trust of India report, both Obama and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in their meetings with Zardari had impressed upon him that Pakistan should no longer consider India as a primary threat and rather concentrate its energies on fighting terrorism inside the country.
So, the American hand in Indo-Pak peace process is no longer “invisible” but the possibility of this “hand” delivering any results will entirely depend on how both India and Pakistan will play their cards. That the Pakistan has all along been advocating a third-party intervention in Kashmir is a proven fact, which was reiterated by the country’s foreign office spokesman Abdul Basit on May 21. If, on the U.S. insistence, Pakistan is more willing to resume the peace process, it is not so much surprising. What should be understood in a proper context is whether India has at long last grown comfortable with Washington’s mediation, which the Indian policy makers like to call as “facilitation”. A mild activity on Tract II has already began; advocates of people-to-people contact are again talking; a peace delegation from India that also involves some Kashmiris is about to leave for Pakistan and there is a gradual media build up that the peace process will take off soon.
Reading the subtext of whatever is happening on Track II is very difficult. However, the intonations suggest that both countries, with variable seriousness, appear to have been convinced that Kashmir’s non-territorial settlement was within the parameters of possibility. That is more or less closer to former Pakistani President and army chief General Parvez Musharraf’s four-point formula. The big question that will hover over the ensuing peace exercise in South Asia is whether Pakistan could afford giving up claim on Kashmir and if India would afford to stop linking the peace process with terrorism. Undue expectation from Obama administration is really unadvisable. But the emerging situation suggests that Obamantra should work in favor of South Asia peace.
Feedback at riyaz.masroor@yahoo.com
Friday, May 22, 2009
A Gatsby killed Romana
Riyaz Masroor
Romana’s murder highlights the core of our societal malaise. Let’s look at the issue beyond the clichéd generalizations such as “social waywardness” and “social evils”.
The fresh spurt in crime rate in Kashmir appears to have two interrelated prongs: the state and the people. As for the state in Kashmir, it lacks popular sanctity for which a host of reasons could be cited. On the other hand, people are suffering from financial insecurity, which is part genuine part self-imposed.
The state here tends to tackle the issue of legitimacy through slogans rather than performance. For example, the slogan of progress, prosperity and development has induced among the masses a wild competition for financial uplift.
After all what does it mean when government resorts to radical discourse about progress and development? It obviously means more money to contractors, more corruption, more inequity and more frustration within disadvantaged sections. This prop-culture hoists a nouveau-riche section of people over the masses that have always remained at the bottom of the development pyramid. These pampered social upstarts vie for positions in power and jockey for bigger share in the state wealth; they get licenses, they get permits, they get lands, shops and other incentives. The masses are made to live on the mercy of these social biggies who have access to and stakes in the state power. Such a system cannot generate moral values even if we keep crying in mosques.
Amidst this organic tie-up between the state and the selfish layers of our society, a son murdering his father to lavish family fortunes on a rave party or a lovesick youth from moneyed family knocking the cute and innocent Romana to death should not surprise us.
If we are content with this mad rush for money, we better not bother about “social waywardness”. Some of the largest pay premiums, says Adam Smith, go to highly qualified people who are willing to do morally questionable work.
Let’s confess that we have serious moral issues and let’s admit that invoking religious traditions won’t help. We need a creative response to the aforementioned prop culture, which is spawning newer social diseases.
In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, James Gatz believes that his humble lifestyle makes him a mismatch for his coveted Daisy. So he renames himself as Jay Gatsby and labors to achieve material success on the grandest scale possible. Fitzgerald never reveals how Gatsby amassed his fortune. But he leaves little doubt that Gatsby’s work was not just morally suspect but well outside the law. In fact, a Gatsby killed Romana and other Gatsbys feel offended!
Romana’s murder highlights the core of our societal malaise. Let’s look at the issue beyond the clichéd generalizations such as “social waywardness” and “social evils”.
The fresh spurt in crime rate in Kashmir appears to have two interrelated prongs: the state and the people. As for the state in Kashmir, it lacks popular sanctity for which a host of reasons could be cited. On the other hand, people are suffering from financial insecurity, which is part genuine part self-imposed.
The state here tends to tackle the issue of legitimacy through slogans rather than performance. For example, the slogan of progress, prosperity and development has induced among the masses a wild competition for financial uplift.
After all what does it mean when government resorts to radical discourse about progress and development? It obviously means more money to contractors, more corruption, more inequity and more frustration within disadvantaged sections. This prop-culture hoists a nouveau-riche section of people over the masses that have always remained at the bottom of the development pyramid. These pampered social upstarts vie for positions in power and jockey for bigger share in the state wealth; they get licenses, they get permits, they get lands, shops and other incentives. The masses are made to live on the mercy of these social biggies who have access to and stakes in the state power. Such a system cannot generate moral values even if we keep crying in mosques.
Amidst this organic tie-up between the state and the selfish layers of our society, a son murdering his father to lavish family fortunes on a rave party or a lovesick youth from moneyed family knocking the cute and innocent Romana to death should not surprise us.
If we are content with this mad rush for money, we better not bother about “social waywardness”. Some of the largest pay premiums, says Adam Smith, go to highly qualified people who are willing to do morally questionable work.
Let’s confess that we have serious moral issues and let’s admit that invoking religious traditions won’t help. We need a creative response to the aforementioned prop culture, which is spawning newer social diseases.
In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, James Gatz believes that his humble lifestyle makes him a mismatch for his coveted Daisy. So he renames himself as Jay Gatsby and labors to achieve material success on the grandest scale possible. Fitzgerald never reveals how Gatsby amassed his fortune. But he leaves little doubt that Gatsby’s work was not just morally suspect but well outside the law. In fact, a Gatsby killed Romana and other Gatsbys feel offended!
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