The violent protests involving stone pelting and arson are the problem here. Peaceful protests have taken in many other places around Kashmir valley and Jammu even without loss of life. Out of the 50+ dead, atleast 5 were killed when protestors set fire to a police station that had explosives inside and it exploded. Another 50 year old woman died when a stone hit her directly in the chest even though she was not part of any protest. These type of protests can't be allowed.
But on the other hand peaceful protests should be allowed.
Here is an editorial from a leading English daily in Kashmir highlighting the contradictions between the aims and practice of the sepratists.
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Any revolutionary force has two targets, moral as well as material. And as much as some would like to disagree, Kashmir is no exception to this general rule. While the structural violence woven into the political systems here has pushed the young protagonists to the top of the ‘anger mountain’ to shout ‘burn the system down’; those who, deliberately or by default, facilitated the adrenaline rush in their bloodstreams, seem plagued by a terrible sense of disorientation. They are hard at understanding
and articulating how to go about from here. All they are doing now is going with the wave and trying to somehow maintain some relevance for themselves and their politics. There are some who have silenced themselves after recoiling into their caves; others are firing paper missiles now and then to signal they are alive; and still others have taken recourse to feigning illness – they publicize doctors’ prescriptions to bail themselves out! (
My comment: He referring to Yasim Malik and Geelani)This maze of contradictions emanating from the people at the so-called apex is so disconcerting that it is the cause and consequence of popular disillusionment and negativism with political leaders of both mainstream and separatist camps.
The other day members of Kashmir’s Bar Association were mad with rage because the High Court judge, who was scheduled to hear the habeas corpus petition of Bar president and general secretary, didn’t make it to the court. Reaching the court at 10am sharp, the Bar members including former president Zafar Shah, Zafar Qureshi, vice-president Ajaz Bedar and scores of others waited for the entire day for the said judge, but to their utmost dismay none of the justices of the High Court were visible. Exasperated over the “undesired absence” of the justices, the Bar ‘leaders’ later met the Chief Justice Aftab Ahmed Saikia, and expressed their disappointment at the absence of the appellate court judges. They told the Chief Justice that not only the cases of Bar president and general secretary were being affected but hundreds of other detainees languishing in jails under PSA were also suffering because of the justices’ absence. So true; but what about the thousands of other people seeking justice but whose cases are pending trail (adjudication) because the Bar Association has asked all lawyers not to attend courts until its leaders are freed? If Bar can’t bear delay of even a single day in the hearing of cases involving its president and general secretary, how could it justify its role in subverting thousands of other cases involving ordinary mortals? How can someone who seeks justice for itself justify its blocking of the same justice to others? Why this contradiction?
Indeed it is these contradictions and innate hypocrisies that are the cause of the popular negativism here. People have seen participatory democracy turn into its antithesis. The political panaceas of the past like the formation of the separatist alliance in All Parties Hurriyat Conference have become same old stuff under a different name. Given their anger, alienation and frustration, the Kashmir’s young, which are now the vanguard, have no illusions about the system, but given their age they have plenty of illusions about the way to change it. They are at cross-roads – it’s what they do and will do that will give meaning to their lives and to their people and the ‘nation’. But unfortunately, the search for ‘freedom’ does not seem to have any road or destination. It is here that a politically mature and tactically sound leadership could make the difference. But alas that too is missing. Wearing popular sufferings as a badge of achievement, those in the leadership roles here have become habitual of deceit. Instead of playing the game as it should be, they take pride in shouting ‘kill the umpire’. Those who are supposed to pass on the torch of experience and insights to the new generation are just not there even though they are physically very much in the think of things. So as the young look up at the society and the leaders around them, it is all, in their words “corrupt, materialistic, decadent, intellectually bankrupt, bourgeois in its values…” Is it any wonder that the entire leadership stands rejected in toto? Can anyone actually dare claim to be in command of the people and the situation right now?
