Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Report from ground zero

Tathagata Bhattacharya and Haroon Reshi report from ground zero

Prabhakar Tripathy, commanding officer, 117 Battalion CRPF and PRO, CRPF (Kashmir), confirms, “They have no fear. They try to snatch our guns. Very often, there is no choice but to open fire.” We ask both X and Tripathy that why do stones need to be answered by live ammunition. X says, “It is not that simple and innocuous. These people pelt stones to kill you. It is not easy being a policeman on these streets.” Tripathy points to the thousands of rounds of rubber bullets and tear gas shells fired. “If you compare the situation, you will see the forces have acted with great restraint,” he adds.

But clearly people in the Valley are not impressed with this restraint. Syed Ali Shah Geelani, the foremost leader of the separatist movement and chairman of the Hurriyat (G), “People are resisting the Indian military occupation of J&K. There is no legitimacy or justification for the same. Since 1952, we have had more than 130 rounds of talks and there has been no headway. For talks to be fruitful, New Delhi should accept that J&K is a disputed territory. It has to withdraw forces, withdraw Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), Public Safety Act (PSA) and release the detainees.”

Mirwaiz Omer Farooq, chairman of Hurriyat (M), says, “This is a spontaneous outburst of public anger brought about by decades of alienation. These youth, who are pelting stones, have been raised and brought up in conflict. After militancy erupted in 1989, people started looking at Pakistan to further the cause of freedom. That phase is also gone now. But now, they have a clear direction that they have to win their freedom themselves and they are ready to die for the same. India has to realise that it is Kashmiri nationalism at work here. New Delhi has to come out of denial. The government does not allow any demonstration and sit-ins. It has created this pressure cooker situation and hence this violent outburst.”

Mirwaiz concedes that the pro-freedom parties have not been able to deliver in concrete terms. “We have held dialogues with New Delhi in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2009, we went with ideas and proposals but Delhi did not act on a single issue. People today construe dialogue as a sellout, as a ploy to buy some time. One has to understand that there can’t be any lasting solution to the Kashmir problem within the Constitution of India or that of Pakistan.”


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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