Sheikh Qayoom
State chief minister Omar Abdullah has again voiced his disagreement with the army over perceptions about the overall security situation in the Valley. In a recent media interaction, lieutenant general Om Prakash, GOC of Srinagar based 15th corps had described the security situation as “alarming”. This irked the chief minister who voiced his disagreement in public.
Omar said nobody should talk in such a manner, as this would rattle the tourists and the pilgrims presently visiting the Kashmir. In a rather left-handed compliment the chief minister said if the situation was really as bad as had been perceived by the GOC then those responsible for it must also be spoken about.
AFSPA continuation and its revocation seems to have become a pastime for the politicians in power despite snubs from the security grid that the same cannot be allowed to become subservient to political likes or dislikes of those ruling the state.
Whether or not the army’s top brass understands the political compulsions of the chief minister who had even put a date on the ASFA revocation when he first spoke about the issue last year, the hard fact is that nobody seems to care about the plight of the person who has put himself in a tight quandary through this controversy.
The only silver lining to the otherwise unpleasant debate between the state government and the army over the AFSPA partial revocation is that the people do not seem to be amused at all. Having lived on the zero calorie diet of political promises for over 60 years now, Kashmiris have learnt the art of distancing themselves from the brinkmanship games our politicians play.
Perhaps the days of ‘Wadi Ayub’ are over. In mid fifties when Kashmir was passing through an extremely unsure political phase in the aftermath of Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah’s arrest, a wrestling competition was held in Srinagar city.
A wrestler named Wadi Ayub defeated King Kong, Dara Singh and some other famed wrestlers of those days. Enthusiastic Kashmiris carried the wrestler on their shoulders shouting Pro-Islam slogans. The crowd believed Wadi Ayub was a Muslim wrestler.
After the wrestling competition was over, a Delhi based newspaper wrote the story revealing that Wadi Ayub was actually a Jewish wrestler! It is perhaps too late to look for a Wadi Ayub resurrection through the cacophony on partial revocation of AFSPA or its continuation in the trouble torn Valley.
The debate over the entire issue is good for media headlines and commentaries, but the fact is nobody at the common man’s level is sweating over it. Bothering oneself over such controversies is fine to score political points over rivals, but believing that this would some day become a major election issue would be far fetched.
In today’s world we might bring in Wadi Ayubs from outside, believing they would be lifted on shoulders and carried in celebratory processions is imagining too much.
