Javaid Ahmad Mir
It is for the fermentation of this magical word “azaadi” that has spilled the streams of blood down the terrains of a valley. Then the wolves of this valley sail in the same red streams with their ballot boxes to collect feathers for their dens. And then there is the boycott of truth by the denizens of this paradise instead of the ‘ballot box boycott’.
Welcome to Kashmir in the season of elections 2014!
Right to self determination is withering these days from the minds of Kashmiris with their zest to vote. You cannot board a bus—as it is filled with the crowd of mainstream supporters. Voters await a revival with the coming of BJP government. The ‘kamal ka button’ has faded away the unjustifiable martyrdoms of lakhs of the innocents who deceased for a collective peace. But here our brothers want a separate ‘revival’—revival through their votes.
Did they really not hear the groaning of their raped sisters, mothers and daughters in kunan poshpora while struggling eagerly in the queue to cast their vote?
When did we lose that determination for our right to self determination so massively, quite prevalent with the masses who cast their votes?
Do they really want a change at the cost of injustice to the ocean of blood, which has been flowing continually from decades?
And finally, will they really, get what they are being promised?
“their fields, their crops their streams
Even the peasants in the vale
They sold, they sold all, alas!
How cheap was the sale.”
They keep lulling the people with the same virtual lullabies of ‘sadak, paani, bijli’ which are found nowhere, properly in comparison, to the dedication; they go out to vote for them. And this way, the denizens are kept in the dandling state and this period reviews after every five years, be it any party.
What the changes are going to be brought by these votes in a disputed territory, which is in shambles inside? They did nothing good, neither they will, just this being in queues will trample the souls of those mothers who have lost their sons, crush the core of those half widows and half mothers.
Dear companions, we will be free, only after rebelling against the fakery, crime, oppression and exploitation.
Let’s join hands against this drama, let’s stand with those half mothers, half widows and let’s stand for those lakhs of innocents who were killed for speaking the truth.
So do we need to stand with our victimized families or support the people who want power clutch us? We cannot run away from the reality, that our ‘nights will be curfewed’ still, even after the votes, we will still be the oppressed ones even if we become ‘the collaborators’ and this way we will keep living like the ‘white men in dark’. Agha Shahid sums it beautifully for us:
Freedoms terrible thirst, flooding Kashmir,
Is bringing love to its tormented glass.
Stranger, who will inherit the last night of the past?
Of what shall I not sing and sing?-
(The author is the senior APHC leader. The ideas expressed in the article are the author’s personal.)
A Saw an Old lady…She came Crying and Weeping on the Road Seeing the long queue outside the Polling station…Putting her Head Scarf on the ground and asking Allah the revenge of her Son’s Blood…..From Whom these traitors of Indian Forces?