Physician heal thyself

Arun Joshi

A frequently asked question what is the way forward for Kashmir has a simple answer: It is all in the hands of people of Kashmir. They know it, but they have suppressed their instincts to resolve the problems that have been multiplied by the gun culture that they thought would unshackle them from all their miseries. The hands that picked up guns in the initial stages were indigenous, but the guns and the training for using the weaponry were not. Now the things have slipped out of their hands.

They have become prisoners of select clips on social media and communally polarised narrative without looking into the rot wrecking Kashmiri society in today’s world. Instead of incentivising initiatives that promote peace among themselves, they work to create and cultivate a society of political victims. The social part is excluded completely.

It is pointless to argue with those who believe it is a political problem. They are entitled to hold the view as per their thesis that has more rhetoric than facts to support their way of looking at Kashmir. The surprise, however, is how have they shut their eyes to the fast deterioration of society, where toddlers are raped, and the whole thing ends with hyperboles as a new methodology of lip service. There is no call for “jihad” to fight these ever-growing criminal acts in the Valley. The politicians have no interest in this because it doesn’t bring them the kind of dividends they are looking for always.

Kashmir undoubtedly is a complex and volatile region. This definition pleases all who want Kashmir to be seen as a perpetual conflict zone where nothing can work unless the global powers like the US, China and Russia intervene in the matter.

How can the UN or the US intervene and stop all this? These questions are deflected.

While the rape cases, some known, many more hidden in the shame of bringing these out in the public, trigger outrage, the political set-up courts incidents that help them in communalising the situation.

Nayeem Ahmad Shaikh, a bovine trader, was murdered in Bhaderwah in Doda district of the Jammu region. Politicians’ instant conclusion was that cow vigilantes shot the victim. No heed was paid to the police investigations that said they had not come across any such angle.

The leadership that has adopted communalism as its political ideology broadcast it as an act of cow vigilantism. The design was to disturb the communal stability in the Chenab region. This kind of perverted strategy suits the political groups to overlook the decay in their society.

It also helps them avoiding a question, what was the fault of the three-year old kid who was raped. And how her tragedy was multiplied when her name was made public and politics played on it. Until and unless, society looks within and reforms itself, there is no way forward.