The martyrdom of five jawans of the Indian Army during an encounter with Pakistan-based terrorists in Kapwara in Noth Kashmir on March 5 should not go unnoticed during our fight against the coronavirus pandemic. As a nation, we have to grapple with more than one challenge simultaneously.
On April 5, five of our jawans located and eliminated the treaty of an attack on our forces stationed in the valley of Kashmir. However, in the process of neutralising the enemy, our jawans lost their lives as well. The uncompromising resilience with which our soldiers chased and hunted down the Pakistani infiltrators is a symbol of patriotism, commitment, chivalry and sacrifice that must be celebrated all over Hindustan.
At the moment, our people seem committed to set a great example of trust and unity in their fight against coronavirus pandemic by making it a common national goal to defeat this public health menace. Unless the whole country stands up in a similar way to address the nuisance of Pakistani sponsored jihadist terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir, the war on terror in Hindustan cannot be won.
The question is, how can we achieve a similar level of nationwide trust and unity against terrorism in the Himalayan union territory? In order to achieve this lofty goal, one must look at the obstacles one comes across. The first and foremost obstacle we face in achieving perpetual peace in the Valley is the so called Muslim leadership there.
For decades, successive governments in Jammu and Kashmir have failed to chalk out a comprehensive counter terrorist insurgency strategy. Hence, they have lost all credibility in the eyes of the Kashmiri and Jamwal population. This incompetence of governance has also created a psychological state of helplessness among the Kashmiri population.
Secondly, the so called liberal intelligentsia that fails to see the role of Pak-China involvement in the terrorist insurgency in Kashmir is another obstacle in the endeavor to create a national consensus for uprooting and pushing terrorism back into its janam bhoomi, that is, Pakistan.
Thirdly, the network of mosques, a majority of which spew out hate speeches during Friday prayers across the country, creates an obstacle I call ‘religious counter narrative’. A weekly call for jihad against ‘infidels’ and calls to participate in global jihad keep our Muslim community in confusion and suspicion. While they have become confused between a Muslim identity that drives from the concept of ‘Umma’ and that of being a Hindustani nationalist, the country remains seriously divided.
Fourthly, the so called democratic political parties, including the Congress and the CPIM, continue to play the vote bank card and, in the name of supporting an imaginary movement for Kashmiri self determination, continue to play at the hands of anti-Pakistani propaganda.
Finally, the Pakistan sponsored international news analysts and media outlets, which act as informal diplomats and whose primary job is to give Pakistan sponsored terrorism in Kashmir legitimacy by addressing it as a movement of national liberation against Indian ‘occupation’.
Let us now examine the above facts in reverse order. The BBC has been at the forefront of a malicious campaign against Indian attempts to defeat Pakistani sponsored terrorism in Kashmir. News footage of Kashmiri jihadists waving guns and Pakistani flags during protests in Srinagar have been broadcasted without exploratory news analysis of the involvement of the Pakistan Army and the Pakistani Inter Services Intelligence, commonly referred to as ISI.
India is portrayed as the aggressor. The fact is that it was Pakistan which had attacked the sovereign state of Jammu and Kashmir on October 22, 1947. It was Pakistan army and the tribal people who inflicted destruction on the lives and properties of innocent law abiding subjects of Maharaja Harri Singh. And it was the United Nations that called Pakistan an aggressor and asked her to pull out all of its troops and non state subjects from Pakistani occupied territories. Did Pakistan comply? No. But more dangerous are those international media personalities who wear the mask of humanity to disguise their prejudice against India.
Christina Lamb, an Oxford graduate and close friend of late Pakistani politician Benazir Bhutto, fits comfortably into this category. In her tweet on April 6, when our jawans had laid down their lives for the country, Lamb talked about the lockdown in Kashmir that was, for a very brief period of time, imposed after the abrogation of article 370. Thus, she acts on behalf of the sponsors of terrorism by reinforcing a false cultural narrative which is propagated by Islamist groups which support terrorism sponsored by Pakistan. Lamb never talks about the subjugation of the people by Pakistan who in Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir (POJK) live under the total control of Pakistan military and the mullahs who preach hate against ‘Hindu Bhaarat’. She completely ignores the denial of civil rights in Gilgit Baltistan and the people who have been gunned down by ‘unknown assailants’ in the so called Azad Kashmir.
Ironically, the international anti-Bharat media and its team of freelance protégé are on very good terms with Congress and parties whose political narratives promote a negative image of the country. When Congress leader Rahul Gandhi arrived at the Srinagar airport in August 2019 to ‘inspect' the situation on ground, Indian authorities rightly denied him entry into the union territory since it was no more than a photo and publicity stunt. Where was the Congress on January 19, 1990 when every mosque in Kashmir shouted death to Kashmiri pundits? Where was the CPIM when close to 6,000 Kashmiri pundits were uprooted and made internally displaced people?
Political parties that bear the clout of Congress and CPIM are a shameful obstruction in establishment of a national patriotic cultural narrative that can unite Hindustan as one body.
A network of mosques in India is busy propagating the idea of pan-Islamic religious cultural hegemony by converting non-Muslims to Islam or by calling for jihad against non-believers. Their immediate concern is not Hindustan’s national or economic security. The most recent example to come to surface is their stubborn refusal to maintain social distancing during religious congregations in the mosque on Friday during the coronavirus fight back.
These mosques as well as Islamic religious seminaries have become vocalists for Pakistani proxies in Kashmir. Dr Zakir Naik is one such example. Hence, a major portion among the Muslims, under the influence of their crooked religious indoctrination, and who constitute an integral part of our national population is by default unpatriotic.
This small but hyperactive portion among our Muslim community acts like a fifth columnist. The democratic and Hindustani nationalist Muslim population must form a united front with the Hindu patriotic nationalist to counter this false and self-defeating cultural narrative which is a reminiscent of Arab imperialist expansionism.
India faces a challenge from the so called left-liberal as well those who have always promoted antagonism between the state and the wider masses, leading to distrust not only between the two but also among different ethnic and religious minority groups. Arundahti Roy is one such name that springs to mind in the above context. Writing in New York Time on August 15 last year this is how she concludes her analysis of the post August 5 scenario:
“If Kashmir is occupied by security forces, India is occupied by the mob.”
Arundati Roy skips the role of Pakistan military in sponsoring jihadist terrorism in the Valley and while mourning about the ragged conditions of the refugee camps in Jammu she conveniently forgets to mention the role of Srinagar mosques and Pakistan sponsored jihadis who massacred innocent Kashmiri pundits in front of their loved ones. Hence, in the final analysis, they betray history by selective treatment of actuality. Indian intelligentsia comfortably ignores the role of China which is the main economic ally and strategic partner in its ‘One Road, One Belt’ imperialist expansionism that cuts right across the heart of Gilgit Baltistan, which is an Indian territory occupied by Pakistan.
And finally, the role of the Muslim political leadership in Jammu and Kashmir needs to be exposed. Right from Sheikh Abdullah to Mehbooba Mufti, there has not been a single chief minister in J&K who ever tried to mobilise the population against the militancy. They have all been demanding withdrawal of Indian Army from the Valley without launching a campaign against Pakistani occupation of PoK or Pakistan’s continuous violation of the LoC which, after the abrogation of Article 370, is now the official ceasefire line. They have been supportive of the so called Joint Resistance Leadership and Jihad Council. Despite the anti-India rhetoric and pro-Pakistan slogan mongering, the people of this country have been tolerating their unpatriotic political and divisive social role in Kashmiri society.
As the snow begins to melt on the mountains of Jammu and Kashmir, terrorist infiltration from the rogue state of Pakistan will resume. They are also looking for excuses to deploy heavy contingents of military in Gilgit Baltistan. The fragile peace that we are witnessing in J&K since the abrogation of Article 370 now seriously hangs in the balance. To restore a representative system of government under the circumstances is a risk India cannot afford to take for the time being. Democratic system of governance can only prevail and bring development and prosperity in times of peace and with the help of nationalist and patriotic leadership. At the moment we have neither.
The recent incident that claimed the lives of five patriotic jawans and the hippocratic anti-India political narrative adopted by the opportunist Muslim leadership in Kashmir are the biggest hindrance in return of democracy to Jammu and Kashmir. Until the whole of Hindustan is mobilised into one united body which stands firm in support of a nationalist and patriotic government to combat terrorism in Kashmir, and which demonstrates to have a similar resolve that is being witnessed today in our fight against coronavirus, and until a new nationalist and patriotic Muslim leadership emerges in J&K that decisively cuts its political umbilical cord with the Islamic jihadist religious cultural narrative of separatism democracy, peace and development will never be accomplished there.
Comments
0 comment