Zamir Ahmad
It is often said that ‘all generalisations are dangerous.’ Notwithstanding the paradoxical essence of this quote, we can say that sweeping statements of the people in power are not only dangerous but also horrendous. The recent horrific dance of death choreographed by the paramilitary forces has snatched young sons from their parents. And instead of accepting the reality, the government, both at the central and state levels, has been callous, to say the least. The home minister has infact given a license to kill to the CRPF branding the protestors as being backed by Lashkar-e-Toyyiba. As far from truth as it is, it also explains the helplessness of the state government before the might of ‘national Interest’.
The Kashmir problem has been made complex more by its mishandling by the powers that be rather than by its genesis. The rise and fall of Sheikh Abdullah, the accord of 1975, the rigged elections of 1987, the armed insurgency of the nineties and the mass protests of today all have a common thread transcending people, times, reigns and regimes. That of inappropriate handling of the situation at appropriate times.
If the callous, brutal and utterly uncalled for killing of a teenager brings people down on the streets, you cannot call them suicidal. Especially when the cover-up orchestrated by the police wants us to believe that the killing was mysterious and police had no role, whatsoever, in it. The two men who brought the victim to the hospital were, in fact, labeled as possible suspects. Losing a dear one is a colossal loss which no one else can empathise with. But instead of trying to soothe the frayed tempers the government only added fuel to the fire. Instead of asking people to stay indoors and refrain from protesting it would have been proper for the government to accept the mishandling of the situation and apologize publicly. This did not happen and it did not stop there either. The string of protests led to more deaths and more protests. Boys fell like flies before the bullets of the security forces.
The wanton killings went unabated as the government went into the hiding. Later on, when the law minister of the state called a late evening press conference it was expected that good sense might have prevailed and the government might have realized the folly of adopting an ostrich-esque approach. It seemed it had. The minister squarely blamed the paramilitary forces for lack of command and appealed the union home minister to rein in his forces. But a public snub, a day after, was all the government could elicit as a response. Instead of the Union Home minister coming to the rescue of the beleaguered government, it was his ‘Munshi’, the home secretary who absolved the CRPF of any wrong doings and gave them a more than a clean chit. As if on cue, the government again went into a denial mode and tried to blame its political opponents for the trouble. More bullets were fired and more boys were killed.
The simmering cauldron called Kashmir needs no further fuel when the genuine public protests are branded to be either imported from across the border or instigated by politicians who are out of power. This ‘one colour, one brush’ approach paints us only in grey but the hues it imparts to the psyche of a common man has only one shade; Red. The red of anger, the red of alienation, the red of rebellion and of course the red of blood.
