One does not know whether the PM-in-waiting Rahul Gandhi is a “migratory bird” or not, what is clear is that he is certainly an insensitive and immature bird trying to fly faster than its wings can support. Otherwise, he would not have rushed to the support of the beleaguered chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir Omar Abdullah when the entire nation is disappointed with his inept performance and even the government sources were making it known that there is governance deficit in the troubled state.
Well, it is a different matter that Farooq Abdullah may claim that his son was given a certificate of merit and commended by the Prime Minister for his best performance at the all-party meeting. In the absence of a denial from the PM, we have to believe Farooq. Whether it is “double-speak” or “cohesion”, it is for the PM to assert at yet another briefing for the select editors.
Anyway, the princeling wants to give Omar “time” since he is handling a “tough job”. He wants to give more time even as the state is on the boil for three months after having taken the lives of 89 people and injuring hundreds. What is the time limit that Rahul wants to give to his buddy? Does he want another hundred lives to be sacrificed for the sake of keeping the third generation leader of the Kashmir’s political family in power?
Yes, Omar is an elected leader of a duly constituted government reflecting the collective wisdom of the people of the state. He cannot be ousted on account of any political conspiracy or by any unfair and un-Constitutional means. If he fails to perform and spends his weekends in Delhi and exhibits extreme insensitivity to the grievances of his electors pushing the state into a state of turmoil, should the electorate suffer his incompetence? Interestingly, it is a case of like father like son. When the state was on the edge, father was watching T-20 matches in South Africa and even when Farooq was the chief minister of J&K, in the eighties, he was known to be playing Golf in London when his home state was encountering terror acts from across the border.
J&K is not like any other state in the country. Our neighbour, on the verge of collapse, has been instigating the people and stoking violence with the help of its stooges across the border who style themselves as “separatists” “azadis”, not to speak of LeT operatives who have been let loose on the soil of the Paradise on earth under the guidance of ISI. In a turbulent scenario like this which has been troubling the state for nearly six decades, can we afford to have a chief minister who does not care to reach out to his own people, but prefers to reach out to 10 Janpath for support? If he does not show political maturity to opt out, or sensitive enough to establish rapport with his own people, should there not be a demand for his ouster.
Well, there is a catch. If Omar throws in the towel, what is the alternative, especially when the Centre is clueless and has been pandering to the pro-Pakistani elements? After all, keeping aside his non-performance for a moment, he raised a bogey of the misuse of Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) to deflect the blame on the Indian Army and thus to the Centre for the mess he has created after squandering the massive mandate he got from the people just 18 months ago. While our heavily-accented Home Minister, after having made an ass of himself in dealing with Maoists, is trying to play a different game. The man who wanted the Indian Army to come to his rescue in crushing the Maoist violence, is lobbying for diluting the powers of the Army in a most sensitive region of the country just to placate the separatists. The Union cabinet is vertically divided on this issue and the Army, as is an open secret, is totally opposed to any tinkering with the AFSPA.
In a hapless situation like this, the Central government talks of “political package” “autonomy”, “meeting the aspirations of the youth” etc. Congress high priestess has posed a question to all us. “Why the youth of Kashmir are so angry”. Her party was part of the alliance government both with the PDP and the NC for the last six years and she should tell us why her party or the alliance government has failed to understand the reasons for the youth anger and their failure to assuage the anger in the valley? Moreover, she did not ask a single question when lakhs of Pundits were driven out of the Valley which, Madam must know, included Kashmiri youth? Was there a difference between the Kashmiri youth like Muslim youth and Pundit youth? Had the political parties cutting across ideologies intervened at that time, the state would not have come to this pass.
When we talk of “political package”, we have to pose a question to ourselves. Can there be a greater political package to the people of Kashmir than Art 370. If that has not addressed the issue, what else could? Economically, so far, the Centre has pumped in more than one lakh crore rupees on the state. Still, if the people appear to be dissatisfied, it could only be because of the Pak infiltrators and separatists who are doing their best to create a wedge between the people and the state by various means. It will be foolhardy on the part of the Centre to think that they can solve the problem by dialogue. With whom will you open the dialogue? With separatists? When the separatists’ agenda is known what will the govt achieve by opening a dialogue. There is no special problem for the youth of Kashmir, distinctly different from the rest of the country. Case in point is the agitation by Telangana youth for the cancellation of Gr-I exams and the violent demonstrations of advocates in the state. How are they different from Kashmiri youth? Because of the instigation from Pakistan, overt support by the separatists and the geography of the state makes it appear that the grievances of the Kashmiri youth are more genuine than the rest. Isolating the separatists and azadis from the rest of the people with an iron hand and relocating the youth in different parts of the country with suitable employment coupled with the rehabilitation of Pundits in the Valley would solve the problem to a great extent. The Army should have no fetters in protecting our borders and in preventing infiltration from Pakistan which has a vicious agenda. Rest of the noise generated by political parties like “autonomy” will only pave the way for greater anarchy and confusion serving the territorial ambitions of Pakistan.
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