Stupendous Man

Unlike a lot of other issues that plague India, Kashmir is an issue that I have always closely followed because of my association with people I know from J & K and how this so called azaadi movement from years begone has affected them.

Back in our engineering days, we had a guy from Jammu who quickly became our good friend. Those days we would call him “Kashmiri” as a nickname. It was a nickname just given to him because he was the only guy we knew who was from Jammu and Kashmir. Yet, we made one critical mistake. He was from Jammu. NOT Kashmir. Calling him “Kashmiri” used to infuriate him to no end, and after repeated wordings to us, we finally started calling him Jammu, to which he was very happy with.

I always remember what he used to tell us about his life back home. He used to live in Poonch, literally right at border of both Pakistan and Kashmir. He had enough horror stories of his family having gone through numerous threats by separatists to quit “Kashmir”. Like a lot of his relatives and family, eventually they couldnt take in the threats anymore and moved to other parts of India. He used to keep talking fondly about his home town, while at the same time wince in disgust about Kashmir. Calling him a Kashmiri made him feel like a non-Indian, and he felt calling him Jammu made him more Indian than anything else.

We often used to discuss why after so many decades, there was no solution to the Kashmir mess. His replies used to be simple: “Nobody wants a solution”. Pakistan doesn’t want the crisis to be solved, nor does India, nor do Kashmiris themselves. In his opinion all this azaadi-talk was nothing but a facade, but really, it was a well orchestrated drama to keep the complete autonomy of the state. The real thing that Kashmiris want was land. By driving out millions of people like his families out of state, separatists had successfully taken over the lands and farms once these families owned and opened their own trade. Any peace solution would mean that a lot this land would have to be returned back, or at least people who owned them once upon a time would want them back.

And this, they didnt want. Neither the Kashmiris who had taken over the land, nor the Kashmiri Politicians. The vote bank ensured the center never made any significant attempts to punish or revoke the land occupied by separatists and now any peace solution meant that this land would have to be adjusted with. He used to tell us about how he felt nobody in the valley wanted any concrete solution, but the crisis to be alive constantly so center kept moving billions of rupees there. The general gist as he used to say - create a crisis in the valley, shut down everything in name of bandh, and the government would compensate traders and people in the valley for “lost” business when they re-opened again. Billions of rupees orchestrated so it could be milked by separatists.

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Its almost 12 years since these kind of discussions occurred between us friends. His family moved out, and they had to rebuild it again over a period of time in a new place. Eventually we went out of touch, but yet, every time Kashmir comes in news, I remember him and what he used to say.

Clearly, nothing has changed much since then. Any notion of land immediately snowballs into “Azaadi” movement, and then after a period of time when each party has been stuffed with enough money, the valley goes quite to start erupting again. Heck, this news item just affirms my faith that my friend had not been wrong really about everything he told us.

Leaving apart all this, whatever it is, Kashmir needs a solution and it needs it quickly. I have grown up on the fact that Kashmir is a part of India, and so it has been legally ever since the J&K king decided to join the union of India. Talks of plebiscite in today’s world is bullshit. You cannot drive out people who you don’t like and then ask for polls to see where the people of Kashmir remaining stand.

Here’s a solution that I think is feasible. Let the people of India, Kashmir valley include decide whether Kashmir remains a part of India. We are a democracy, and it is only fair that we as a country decide the fate of Kashmir, and not just a small part of India. We elected this government to take a fair decision for the people, by the people and of the people. We don’t need “selective elections” to come to a conclusion on what could have a big impact on India as a whole. It is only right that since Kashmir has had a huge impact of India (politically, financially or otherwise), we as people of India take a decision on what needs to be done with Kashmir.

If people of India decide Kashmir is beyond repair and the only way ahead is to let go, so be it. But, make Kashmir pay for all that India has invested into it. (After all, didn’t British hold India to a debt because they wanted to leave?). If people of India decide enough is enough of Kashmir, then its fair enough that we give up on Kashmir. (I would vote for this, as I think Kashmir is not worth it. Not for a growing India who cannot be stuck in politics of 100 years ago).

If people of India decide Kashmir is a part of India, then everyone in or out of Kashmir should shut up, take the decision on its face value and work towards making Kashmir a beautiful land again. It will be a tough road, but no roads upwards has ever promised to be easy. And it won’t be very easy; militants need to be flushed out, army needs to be in control, and most of all, it has to be the people of Kashmir who have to understand that their only way ahead is not being an independent nation, but being a crown of a growing India.