M Aseem
The melodramatic events that captured the floor of the house in the last few days are quintessential of the political buffoonery the state has been governed by over the last more than sixty years. The political events in Kashmir valley that followed the secret execution of Afzal Guru inside Tihar forced the members of the house to react in a manner prototypical of the political elite here. The pandemonium created had all the ingredients to be taken as newspaper headlines but what it lacked was sense, and relevance to the governed lot.
Among the highlights of the high voltage drama were tears rolling down the cheeks of none other than the King himself. The nature of the holy tears could have been known fully, had his majesty not wiped these with a perfumed handkerchief. The tears that swelled in the eyes of Tabbasum Guru and little Ghalib were no match for the fine pearls shed by CM. Nor could the tears that rolled down the parents of dead Tahir Sofi’s mother attain the worth. Then there were the thousands of tears forced out by the pepper guns in the lanes and bylanes of city which were just ordinary tears.
The media reported them as the tears of helplessness; by the way whose helplessness? The helplessness of hundreds of parents whose sons were dragged out of their beds by police forces during night raids, or the helplessness of those whose houses were ransacked by CRPF personnel in the name of maintaining law and order?
Another character of the plot offered resignation from his membership of the house with the condition that the CM resigns first. This is the kind of gimmickry that our politicians have excelled in. Obviously, the conscience of the gentleman is hooked with that of a person whom he ridicules whenever he finds an opportunity. Actually, the conscience of all the characters, tall and short, is hooked to what lies at the centre of their dispositions, Power, that too in its raw form.
The old man of Kashmir politics doesn’t have a single word of sympathy for his herd. He flies to Srinagar, whispers a word or two to another old man, and flies back to his refuge. Probably the team Srinagar has forgotten some lessons in the emotionally charged atmosphere. The message would probably be to display statesmanship and hold tight to the chair, for Kashmiri community suffers from short term amnesia and soon the tide will be over.
The master of all scripts written for Kashmir, the Congress, has decided to play wait and watch. For them, it is a double edged sword. Their sole concern is how to come clean in the elections in the state and build on the issue of Guru hanging in the union politics. The grandmasters have been able to divide the Kashmiri vote to dilute the Kashmir issue and so far they have been quite successful.
They say time is the best healer and certainly the tears of Tabbasum and Ghalib, the tears of Tahir’s mother and the countless ordinary tears would get dried up in the mill of time; the only reference left would be the golden tears of prince Abdullah.
