A series of events led to Anjum Zamarud Habib becoming the only woman leader in the Hurriyat Conference in Kashmir when it was formed. Anjum, in Calcutta to attend the People’s Literary Festival held recently, is part of a panel on the first day of the event with two other activist-writers. It is the day after the Pulwama terror strike.

The literary festival is organised thoughtfully and efficiently by a group of young persons belonging to the Calcutta chapter of the NGO, Bastar Solidarity Network. What inevitably comes up is the phrase “state repression”. But the words need disambiguation, says Monalisa Changkija, a panelist from Nagaland; non-state actors are as good as the state at executing it. Sometimes, she says, it is difficult to point out which is the biggest force to contend with — the state, religion or patriarchy. And resistance movements often reproduce the same structures of control.

This could have been the perfect cue for Anjum. While working with the Hurriyat Conference on behalf of her own organisation, Kashmir Tehreek-e-Khawateen, she was convicted and spent four years in Tihar jail. She wrote the bookPrisoner No. 100: An Account of My Nights and Days in an Indian Prison (originally written in Urdu, published in 2011) on her prison days. Anjum felt let down by the Hurriyat leadership during her trial and her stay at Tihar. She wrote about it. The lists of names of other jailed persons that were being forwarded to authorities with requests for release did not include her name. She felt overlooked because she was a woman.

Yet Anjum does not say much on the subject on stage. One day later, however, at the interview, she opens up. Over our conversation I also learn that her silences are important.

Anjum is a tall, handsome woman in her late fifties. Her head is covered with a dupatta. She looks piercingly at her interlocutor, and with some scepticism, it seems, but before it becomes unnerving, her face breaks into a broad smile and her eyes sparkle. It is clear from the beginning that whatever she says often goes against the grain of the resistance movement she is part of.

“They are discussing censorship here. But what about the censorship we use on ourselves,” she asks, as if thinking aloud, as we walk out of the small auditorium in Phoolbagan in east Calcutta, where the festival is being hosted. We stroll into the foyer crowded with book stalls and grab two empty chairs.

Prisoner No. 100 is her most celebrated book, but she talks about her latest, Nigah-e-Anjum. It is an account of her life, written in Urdu, which she says will be translated into English as well. It means what the stars are seeing, but it is also, quite clearly, a play on her name.

Anjum is also the author of two other “data-based” studies that she documented. One is on Kashmir’s war widows and the other on the forgotten prisoners of Kashmir. Both were published in 2009 in English.

So does she regard herself as a writer? Anjum looks stunned. “Writer? I am not a writer at all,” she asserts. Then what about these books about her own life? “They are about what happened,” she says. Writing is an act of imagination, she implies. She has only transcribed her own life. Unlike in other kinds of writing, there is no gap here between what happened and what was expressed, because all of it is completely political. But it is also her life. Can her autobiography then be called “personal documentation”? She loves the phrase.

It seems, she had not set out to be in politics, or in the “resistance” — her word — in Kashmir. After finishing her postgraduate studies, Anjum had joined Hanfia College in Anantnag city, about 50 kilometres south of Srinagar, as a teacher of Education. Soon after she joined, a dowry death occurred in the area. It disturbed her tremendously. Though dowry is not practised extensively among Muslims, Anjum realised that she needed to act. She says, “From my childhood I had wanted to do something for women. We decided to form a pressure group. Within 15 days, 200 to 300 women had joined us.” So began the Women’s Welfare Association, Islamabad — the local name for Anantnag.

In two or three years, what Kashmir calls its resistance movement and authorities in India call militancy would erupt in the Valley. By that time, the women’s association had taken root and become stronger. Anjum’s sympathies were with the resistance. So when the United Hurriyat Conference was formed in 1993 as a political outfit to advocate Kashmiri independence, her association, Kashmir Tehreek-e-Khawateen, also signed up. This was the only women’s association in the group of 26 and Anjum was the only woman leader in the Hurriyat.

It was not easy, from the start. “We were not given a place in the executive body or in the decision-making process.” This is the way, she says, women are left out from the big decisions, “individually, collectively, formally, informally.” She adds, “We, the women of Kashmir, want to live, we want to exist.”

Being alive and yet not feeling as if they exist is not a feeling that is peculiar to women in Kashmir. In Tagore’s story Jibita o Mrita, the female protagonist, Kadambini, had to commit suicide by jumping into a well to prove that she was indeed alive.

In the Hurriyat, Anjum was put in charge of the human rights cell. She looked at women’s issues. At the same time, she stresses that no issue can be separated from the political uncertainty and nothing is more important than the lives being lost in Kashmir every day. “We raised slogans of azadi. We want better political change. We are against the killing of innocent lives,” she says.

Everything else takes a backseat, she feels, when “our boys are disappearing every day. We don’t know when the men leave in the morning if we are going to see them again.” Kashmir, she says, is being denied the beauty and promise of life. “Women are singing wedding songs at the funerals of their unwed sons. War has destroyed not only the physiques of our young men, but also their psyches, their souls.”

By the late Nineties, Anjum was very much in the public eye, wanting a peaceful negotiation towards separation for Kashmir. “I was always very bold,” she says, and smiles. “I was active, I was courageous. I was visible, vibrant and vocal,” she says, still smiling, as if savouring the alliteration. “And don’t forget, I was young, and beautiful. Very beautiful,” she says with emphasis.

In 2003, she was arrested and charged under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA), and thrown into Tihar jail in Delhi till end of 2007. This is something she has written and spoken about a lot, and perhaps that is why she does not want to talk about it much.

“I lived in misery,” she says, a cloud passing over her face. She does not mind repeating that the Hurriyat leadership had not stood beside her, but it seems she would rather not dwell on the subject. She remains quiet for a while. “I was born for resistance,” she says, when she looks up again. “I have great respect for (Syed Ali) Geelani [chairman of the Hurriyat Conference],” she adds. Back in Srinagar, after Tihar, she returned to her political work and writing. “The youth love me. I discuss with them everything without politicising issues because I am not a politician. Politics makes tricky and negative things strike your mind.”

In Calcutta, Anjum was also supposed to address a meeting the following week organised by the human rights organisation, Association for the Protection of Democratic Rights, but could not because there were apprehensions that miscreants would try to attack her.

What does she make of Pulwama? She is silent again for a few minutes. “We are against the killing of innocents,” she says, and continues, “India and Pakistan should come forward peacefully to negotiate the Kashmir problem.”

“No one can portray the right perspective. No one can portray your perspective other than you. My writing is my resistance,” she says, as if going back to the conversation about writing. And what does an incident like Pulwama point at? “We will go where our politicians will take us,” says Anjum. Getting up briskly, she says it is time for tea in a bhaanr from a roadside stall. She sips on it quietly and then declares — “Wonderful.”

source: The Telegraph

source: The Hindu

Within minutes of the Pulwama attack, as news studios went ballistic and outrage across the country reached a crescendo, the prime minister who should have immediately addressed the nation with an appeal for calm and unity remained missing for the day, reminiscent of Nero playing the fiddle as Rome burnt. He emerged the next day to talk about avenging each death even as the entire country was turning into a play-field of divisiveness with attacks against minorities particularly Kashmiri Muslims. He spoke not a word of maintaining restraint.

 
On November 26, 2008, terrorists struck Mumbai and pounded down nearly 150 civilians and 20 security personnel including top police officers. Clearly, India was caught off its guard. In its aftermath, the BJP which was in opposition then began berating Manmohan Singh led UPA government for its deep slumber and for its inability to act against terror outfits and Pakistan which is home to the bases of several jehadi groups like Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed. The mocks of “such attacks would never have happened under a BJP regime” were brought out of the bag in run up to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections to project the 56-inch chested resolve of Narendra Modi to fight till finish the terror outfits. What the pitch clearly missed is the rooted to ground reality of impossibility of terrorism being fought with an arsenal of B-grade Bollywood dialogues.

 
According to the South Asian Terrorism Portal (SATP), there were 388 major incidents in India from 2014 to 2018. While terror attacks in Indian hinterland and Maoist areas have declined, a continuing trend since 2011, Kashmir Valley has seen a major upshot in insurgency since 2014. Among the major strikes of jehadi groups are the Pathankot, Uri, Sunjawan,Nagrota attacks on vital security installations in places with high security vigil. Pulwama suicide car bomb is part of the sequel. All these have happened under the watch of Narendra Modi government. If ‘Singh’s weakness’ was responsible for Mumbai, how is it that Modi can be let off the hook for the attacks that have happened during his tenure as prime minister. Why is it that despite attack after attack, his regime is unable to get the right recipe to prevent them from being repeated? The remedy does not only lie across the border where the likes of Jaish and Lashkar enjoy a free rein. That is only one aspect of the problem.

 
The larger problem is that the Indian government has neither effectively understood the challenge nor assessed it scientifically, forget its inability to look at meaningful options. For the Modi government, the rhetorical muscle-flexing is the only answer to terror strikes. This can only be fodder for the gullible. More than a week after Pulwama attack, a quick recap into the past only reveals that the government has completely lost the plot. It is not only groping in the dark and focusing on histrionics that sound vote-catching enough in run-up to elections, it is resorting to actions that hamper national interests even more.

 
Uri was responded to by the much publicised surgical strike. It neither made a dent to Pakistan, nor checked the growth of insurgency, which has been on the rise in the Valley since 2016. The military action was supplemented by the economic surgical strike called ‘demonetisation’. One of the official justifications was to stop the hawala transactions and terror-funding. Other than robbing people of their cash and laying them off their jobs, it could not help stop the rising trajectory of militancy in the Valley, which is effectively fed by multiple factors including human rights abuse, rash muscular policy, political alienation and radicalisation.

 
Pulwama tragedy fully highlights the failures of this government. The digital prime minister of the country either had no information of the attack or feigned ignorance as he continued to shoot for a film for Discovery channel at Corbett National Park. Had he chosen to use his mobile phone to keep himself abreast of latest information rather than for selfies, perhaps, he wouldn’t have needed the NSA to inform him of what had happened. The prime minister was in the area for 4 hours after the attack, addressed a scheduled rally in Rudrapur on phone amidst celebratory cheer of the crowd while he sought votes for his party. It is not a non-serious issue that the prime minister either chooses to ignore the information of such a major calamity or that his command is so weak that he remained uninformed.
Within minutes of the Pulwama attack, as news studios went ballistic and outrage across the country reached a crescendo, the prime minister who should have immediately addressed the nation with an appeal for calm and unity remained missing for the day, reminiscent of Nero playing the fiddle as Rome burnt. He emerged the next day to talk about avenging each death even as the entire country was turning into a play-field of divisiveness with attacks against minorities particularly Kashmiri Muslims. He spoke not a word of maintaining restraint. His assertion that his ‘blood was boiling’ (it took too long to simmer) and his call for ‘revenge’ instead became a veiled innuendo for promoting mob-inspired surgical strike – this time on Kashmiri students, traders, shawl vendors and tourists. Venom poured out on the social media. Fake news became more fashionable than ever. A right-wing JNU don called for public hanging of 40 Kashmiris, Governor of Meghalaya, a man holding a constitutional post, called for boycott of Kashmiris and Kashmiri goods. Such remarks gave greater legitimacy to the attacks that went on in hostels and streets. The streets of Jammu were ablaze, thanks to an administration conveniently in slumber. The usual mix of ‘Pakistani slogans’ and ‘celebrations’ was used to justify mob-violence. The sight of a Hindu marriage party dressed in all their shining best and dancing to the tune of drums amidst the curfew bound Jammu streets (while the national mourning was on) wouldn’t be treated with similar suspicion or questioned for the ‘lack of patriotism’. The attacks on Kashmiris and other Muslims betrayed more than just this sheer hypocrisy of different yard-sticks used to judge people with different identities.

 
These shocking and shameful incidents laid bare the threat to democracy and amounted to onslaught on the constitutional values of equality and secularism. This is a far serious threat than the threat to the territorial security and integrity of the country. Besides, do such attacks contribute to strategic strengthening of security? On the contrary, they are counter-productive. That, instead of the political dispensation the CRPF had to take on the task of countering the hate propaganda and appealing for calm, is a small indication of how such attacks can heighten the challenges for the security forces fighting insurgency in Kashmir. The trauma and damages caused to the Kashmiri students, traders and others in these mob attacks across India and the silence of the government in face of it will add to the already deepening sense of alienation to create a more fruitful ground for anger in the Valley and radicalization. Such a situation only adds to the existing challenges of the security forces in the Valley. The disproportionately high casualty of army personnel in an encounter post Pulwama attack illustrates this better.

 
While the attacks on Kashmiris highlight the twin dangers to Indian democracy and Indian military security, some of the other knee-jerk responses have ended up being counter-productive. The rhetorical upping of ante against Pakistan has now been drowned post the visit of Saudi crown prince. The celebratory mode of the Modi style welcome to the foreign dignitary with beating of drums and a bear hug did not help fetch absolute solidarity but a promise to intervene for India-Pakistan dialogue. The UNSC statement similarly balances between India and Pakistan. The threat of snapping sporting ties and denial of visas to two Pakistani shooters for the World Cup have ended up risking India’s chances of hosting the Olympics or any other international sports events. The threat to abrogate Indus Water Treaty only ends up giving Pakistan a high moral ground and the prospect of floods in Jammu and Kashmir in case the government goes ahead with that bizarre move.

 
Like Hindu mythology’s Bhasmasura (a powerful demon who has the power to turn everything he touches into ashes and is finally tricked into turn himself into ashes), the Modi led BJP government has entered into a completely self-destructive mode. Faced by an enemy, it has begun burning the country from inside. The week-long knee jerk reactions to Pulwama have jeopardized security interests further, damaged the country’s secularism and democracy, weakened rule of law and made the nation a laughing stock before the world. All this exposes the incompetence of the Mr 56-inch chest. Hoping for propaganda to cover up for his massive failures, he has yet not understood the necessity to play a role as prime minister and resort to damage control. Instead, he dashed off to Seoul to get peace prize at a time when peace lays in tatters in the country he rules.

source: Kashmir Times

Abrogating the longstanding treaty would globally dent the view that Indian diplomacy upholds the ethical.

Water is meant to douse fires, yet it is the one natural resource that has, time and again, either been a cause for global conflict or been weaponised by enemy states to score victory.

In the case of decades of volatile India-Pakistan relations, the Indus Waters Treaty – brokered by the World Bank and signed in 1960, to allocate waters of six rivers of the Indus River System that originates in Tibet – has safeguarded against such weaponisation on the subcontinent.

This holds especially true when tensions over Kashmir peak, as they have today. The treaty allocated waters from three western rivers – the Indus, Jhelum and Chenab – to Pakistan, and three eastern rivers – the Ravi, Beas and Sutlej – to India.

It also mandated that India and Pakistan meet twice a year, arrange technical visits to project sites and share details of water flow and quantum used – essentially setting up a mechanism to exchange information and manage potential disputes.

In the wake of the Uri attack in 2016, Delhi suspended the bi-annual talks and promised to ‘fast-track’ projects to use hitherto unutilised water of the eastern rivers allocated to India via three national projects (declared in 2009) – the multipurpose Shahpurkandi and Ujh dams, and the Beas-Sutlej river-linking project.

Why was India’s share unused?

Available data suggests that just under 10% of India’s share lies unused and is allowed to flow into Pakistan. However, even in 2016, this announcement begged the question of why water allocated to India was being ‘wasted’ and not used internally for either power generation or agriculture, given that the rivers fall entirely within India’s jurisdiction, and their use-up is at India’s discretion.

After cabinet minister Nitin Gadkari tweeted on Thursday that India would ‘stop our share’ of Indus waters to Pakistan – exactly a week after the Pulwama attack – that question still stands.

Diplomatic sources who have worked closely on India-Pakistan ties, and experts who deal with water-sharing disputes, indicate that a possible reason for not having done so all these years was to avoid an explosion of new water wars within the country.

Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab and Haryana have already locked horns over access to and use of water from these three rivers, internally. It took nearly 40 years and the intervention of the Centre for the governments of Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab to finally sign an agreement on the implementation of the Shahpur Kandi dam project in September 2018.

Under the current agreement and plan, the project has a capacity to produce 206 megawatts of hydroelectricity, to be shared between the two states and irrigate over 37,173 hectares of land, of which 5,000 hectares are in Punjab and the rest in the Kathua region of Jammu. It is expected to become operational in 2020.

The Ujh dam on the Ravi river is also a source of contention for Punjab as are the Beas-Sutlej and Sutlej-Yamuna link canals. The latter are essentially river-linking projects that aim to distribute river waters across Jammu Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal and Rajasthan more equitably.

Spinning Gadkari’s tweets as action against Pakistan

To have spun Gadkari’s tweets as action against Pakistan in the aftermath of the Pulwama attack, as several prominent BJP leaders and subsequent media reports did, required a kind of mental gymnastics that defies both research and reason; it also gives those who advocate the abrogation of the Indus Waters Treaty a fresh boost.

It assumes that the Indian public – eager to see a strong response against Pakistan for its support to terror groups like the Jaish-e-Mohammed that claimed responsibility for Pulwama – would be so easily fooled into believing that using ‘our share of water’ more effectively was actually a strong act of retaliation.

In fact, it was nothing but wrapping in a bow and recycling a two-year-old announcement of an even older decision and presenting it as, not only new, but strong international action.

India’s role as a responsible global leader

While Pakistan’s duplicity on fighting terror is proof that it doesn’t honour its own global obligations, calls to abrogate the Indus Waters Treaty are knee-jerk emotional responses that don’t factor in long-term and wide- ranging consequences for India in the world.

For a nation that sees itself as a responsible global leader, an emerging economy and an aspirant for the UN’s highest table, India must honour its treaty commitments over a resource that everyday lives depend on.

This is not the only transboundary water agreement India has signed, but the Indus Waters Treaty between two openly hostile nations is held up as a gold standard globally – an example for other warring nation-states to follow in the interest of civilian populations which suffer the consequences of war.

Sabre-rattling aside, as an upper riparian nation, any move by India towards abrogation would alarm other countries which have rights of use over water from rivers that flow down from India and are already embroiled in longstanding water disputes (54 of Bangladesh’s 230 rivers flow through India).

It would also signal other upper riparian countries that treaties don’t matter and they can continue with projects that arrest water from flowing into lower riparian states without any real consequence (China already has several projects damming the Brahmaputra that India is concerned about).

So, New Delhi must ask itself whether it wants to stand similarly accused and lose a great moral force that it currently enjoys on the world stage.

source: The Wire

Amids so much of online hatred and as in various places Kashmiris are threatened there is a different picture in Kolkata .Though there are rumours but Kashmiris of Kolkata Say Kolkata is the safest place .

তাঁদের বক্তব্য, কলকাতার মানুষের সঙ্গে তাঁরা মিশছেন। কলকাতার বাসিন্দারাই তাঁদের অনলাইনে ছড়িয়ে যাওয়া গুজব সাবধান করে দিচ্ছেন।

কমলিকা সেনগুপ্ত: পুলওয়ামার সিআরপিএফ কনভয়ে জঙ্গি হামলার পর থেকে ক্ষোভে ফুঁসছে গোটা দেশ। পাকিস্তানের বিরুদ্ধে প্রতিশোধ নিতে মরিয়া সকলে। এই পরিস্থিতিতে কাশ্মীরিদের প্রতি বিরূপ মনোভাব দেখাচ্ছেন কেউ কেউ।

কাশ্মীর ও কাশ্মীরি বয়কটের ঘোষণা যেমন হয়েছে, তেমনই দেশের বেশ কয়েকটি জায়গায় আক্রান্ত হয়েছেন কাশ্মীরিরা। ফলে আতঙ্ক ছড়িয়েছে দেশজুড়ে।

কিন্তু এতে বিন্দুমাত্র চিন্তিত নন ফারুক আহমেদ ও জহউর আহমেদ। কারণ, তাঁরা দুজনেই মনে করেন বাংলাই সবচেয়ে নিরাপদ।

ফারুক কাশ্মীরের বুধগাঁওয়ের বাসিন্দা। তিনি গত ১০ বছর ধরে কলকাতায় রয়েছেন। আর জহউর আহমেদ শ্রীনগরের বাসিন্দা। তিনি কলকাতায় রয়েছেন গত ৩০ বছর ধরে। দুজনেই মহানগরে ব্যবসা করেন।

তাঁদের কথায়, পুলওয়ামা হামলার পর থেকে তাঁরা চিন্তিত। তবে সেটা তাঁদের পরিবারের সদস্যদের জন্য। নিজেদের জন্য নয়। দেশের বিভিন্ন প্রান্তে কাশ্মীরিরা আক্রান্ত হলেও কলকাতা বাংলায় এমন ঘটনা ঘটবে না বলেই তাঁদের বিশ্বাস।

তাঁদের বক্তব্য, কলকাতার মানুষের সঙ্গে তাঁরা মিশছেন। কলকাতার বাসিন্দারাই তাঁদের অনলাইনে ছড়িয়ে যাওয়া গুজব সাবধান করে দিচ্ছেন।

সেই কারণেই তাঁরা বাংলাকে সবচেয়ে বেশি নিরাপদ বলে মনে করছেন। জহউরের কথায়, “বাংলা সবচেয়ে নিরাপদ জায়গা। এখানে কখনও আমাদের ভয় হবে না। অনেকে গুজব ছড়াচ্ছে। তাতে কান দেওয়ার দরকার নেই। হামলোগ ইস জাগা মে মেহফুজ হ্যায়।”

আর ফারুকের বক্তব্য, “বাংলাই তো এখন আমাদের বাড়ি। আমরা এখানেই সবাই মিলে ভালো থাকব।”

source: Zee News

In this episode of Wide Angle, Maya Mirchandani talks with David Devadas about the Pulwama terror attack.

New Delhi: In this episode of Wide Angle, Maya Mirchandani discuss the recent Pulwama attack with David Devadas. David has covered Kashmir conflict extensively over the last few years and have also authored two books The Generation of Rage in Kashmir and In Search of a Future: The Story of Kashmir.

The attack in Pulwama took the lives of over 40 CRPF personnel. Pakistan-based terrorist outfit has claimed responsibility for the attack. India has urged the international community to pressure Pakistan to take action against the terror outfits based in its territory.

Watch the video to find out what lessons can be learnt from the attack.

source: The Wire

Pulwama’s gory spectacle is haunting. The mangled wreckage of the bus, the strewn body pieces leave behind the tell-tale signs of the lives that existed seconds before the explosion, of the brutality of loss of lives that could have been avoided. Beyond the war and stated positions is a human tragedy that stands above everything else. What is it that was lost – soldiers, mostly from poor backgrounds, who were unsuspectingly being transported for duty, not in combatant positions, but left behind mourning families. Behind the gruesome killings is the 19-years-old suicide bomber whose one move snuffed out life from over 40 people in just one strike – a militant who should have been studying and not wielding the gun in the first place.

 
Then come the questions. Why did the incident happen? Who is responsible? Could it have been avoided? What is the remedy to prevent such incidents from happening in the future? There are micro level and macro level questions.
The immediate questions necessitate a thorough probe into the security lapses which appear glaring and these need to address all the questions including the manner in which a huge convoy was given road clearance, the gap between intelligence outputs and the security drill, the unchecked movement of the explosive laden SUV amidst such high security, the stockpiling of explosives including RDX by the militants. If infiltrations are claimed to be at zero-level amidst heavy snowfall, how were the explosives smuggled in whether from across the borders or via Lakhanpur? Were there internal leakages from the already existing explosives in the possession of security agencies or kept for use in development projects? Is there a possibility of militants producing their own explosives? Is there some level of complicity in all of this? These questions are as vital as pinning the blame on the perpetrators.

 
The bomber was a Jaish-e-Mohammed operative which has base in Pakistan but is also a product of home-grown militancy. How much is the involvement of Pakistan’s agencies, if at all? Who were the master-minds and logistics accomplices and where were they operating from? These questions need to be resolved on basis of evidence and facts not by chest thumping and muscle flexing, which can only be momentarily comforting for the sense of hurt that the massive scale of killings invokes; but they end up obfuscating facts and hampering truth.

 
The deeper and more vital question is the continuing graph of militancy in the Valley and the additional strength it is gaining, as is evident from the Pulwama attack. The incident punctures the myth of a rosy picture off late being painted by the officials with claims of militancy being wiped out, which has been wrongly calculated on basis of number of militants killed without taking into account the new militants being born. Is the nation being mislead about low recruitment in militant groups or has the intelligence on this count failed? The ground situation today in the Valley is far more conducive for young boys to pick up arms than it was a year ago, despite the claims of the security agencies and the government. Whether the shocking Pulwama attack is an aberration or signals a new and decisive phase in Kashmir’s insurgency is too early to say, but it does reflect the strengthened roots of militant outfits in the Valley. Radicalisation of youth picks up energy from a continued muscular policy pursued without any full stops, and added to this repressive atmosphere is a huge baggage of exercise of democracy in breach, curbing of civil liberties and massive human rights excesses and above all a pending political dispute.

 
According to a news report, Aadil Ahmad, the suicide bomber, who picked up the gun less than a year ago, was primarily tormented by his own experience of harassment. “Once he was returning from school when he was detained by the police and asked to rub his nose on the ground. He felt it was very humiliating and would keep recalling the incident again and again,” according to Aadil’s father who said that “otherwise he had no inclination to become a militant”, as quoted by the report. Rewind to 2010 and the story is not dissimilar from Burhan Wani’s transition from a student to a militant. Many young men who joined militant ranks in recent years have done so as a reaction to the experiences of humiliation, harassment and human rights abuse with them or with people around them.

 
There is thus need for a deeper introspection on the Kashmir centric policies being employed now and those that have been pursued since years. Previous central governments since the last seven decades, particularly since the onset of insurgency, have resorted to managing the conflict by alternating brute military might with cosmetic political outreach. In a place that needed the important transition from conflict management to conflict resolution, the present government has followed the simple strategy of an all-out muscular policy, with the predominant echo of bullets and pellets, that has only ended up deepening the conflict. A course correction is one of the most vital necessity if attacks like Pulwama and mass-slaughter of security personnel have to be avoided.

 
Instead, the pre-dominant discourse ever since Pulwama attack is pushing not only Kashmir but the entire country into a much more dangerous vortex. The public outrage and collective pain is understandable but the response needs to be guided by rationale and pragmatic approach. The government and its loyalist media have focused on two basic things. One is the obsession with Pakistan bashing and making a show of efforts to diplomatically “isolate” the country. Second is the call for revengeful action built by whipping up frenzy. The first is inspired by sheer naivete of the global politics which is not shaped by moral questions but strategic interests. It would be foolish to gloss over the strategic worth of Pakistan, as compared to India, for the western powers. It would also be sheer hypocrisy to snub international powers for raking up human rights issue in Kashmir and at the same time garner international support on the question of terrorism. One can do all the chest thumping and muscle-flexing but blaring noises and sloganeering don’t create sound foundations of a good diplomatic offensive; that needs solid work through use of different channels. At best, with all these noises and despite having the high moral ground on terrorism, India may end up isolating and insulating itself from the world.

 
As for whipping up sentiments in favour of a revengeful backlash, it is a huge blunder on three counts. First, it hampers the image of the country internationally. Secondly, responsible and liberal democratic states are not expected to be guided by principles of vindictiveness in their policies and actions. Thirdly, the communal overtones and violence that such a sense of vindictiveness took in Jammu demonstrates the inherent dangers to the nation and its secular fabric posed by such echoes. Sadly, it wasn’t just irresponsible media and fringe politicians who spoke about avenging the attack but also some union ministers.

 
What India needs today is not a knee-jerk response, but one that is taken with a level head, with an open mind, by grappling with questions, some of which may seem pretty uncomfortable. Guided by a discourse that everybody but the government is wrong, we are not embarking on the journey of preventing further disasters like Pulwama, we are only camouflaging the existing failures. The conclusions on involvement of Pakistan can’t be based on emotions but on scrutiny of facts and evidence. In case there is sufficient evidence pointing to such a role, the wiser thing to do is not to turn the back on Pakistan but to launch a solid diplomatic offensive including through engagement to pressurize Pakistan into doing much more to crackdown on the terror modules operating there. Jaish has close liaison with Taliban. India has ‘unofficially’ been a part of the American backed and Russia initiated talks with Taliban. It cannot back dialogue in which Pakistan is also a part internationally but refuse to do so at the sub-continental level. There is also need to understand that for enduring peace, Kashmir issue requires a political resolution in which Pakistan again is a stake-holder. By repeating the past mistakes, there is a greater risk of perpetuating the conflict and bracing for more violence.

 
Precious lives of soldiers have been lost. Many more cannot be treated as cannon fodder and fed to satiate the blood-thirsting calls for revenge. By trying to convert soldiers into symbols of national pride, there is a convenient politics at play to dehumanize their existence. Pulwama, above all, is a human tragedy. Kashmir is turning into a dangerous battle-field where civilians and security force personnel are losing their lives on a daily basis and where suffocated young men are driven to the suicidal path of joining militant outfits. Where does this all end? If the soldiers have a responsibility to fight the borders and fight insurgents, it is the moral duty of the political powers to work for creating conditions where such violent situations can be avoided. The political powers cannot turn themselves into cheer-leaders for more bloodshed. How much more blood needs to be spilled before someone wakes up to the reality that the deeper malaise needs to be treated, not managed and certainly not exacerbated.

source: Kashmir Times

आप दिल्ली, मुबंई या देश के किसी भी कोने में हो कल से “कश्मीरियों हाय हाय, खून का बदला खून से लेगे” जैसे नारे लगाते लोगों के झुंड से आपका सामना ज़रूर हुआ होगा। कश्मीरियों को हमने बड़ी आसानी से देशद्रोही बना दिया है, देशभर से कश्मीरी स्टूडेंट्स, व्यापारियों पर हमले की खबरें आनी शुरू हो चुकी हैं। अगर आप कश्मीरियों के पक्ष में कुछ बोल या लिख रहे हैं तो आप भी देशद्रोही और आतंकवादी करार दिए जाएंगे।

अभी तक तो कश्मीरी अपने कश्मीर में असुरक्षित और सहमे हुए थे मगर अब पूरे देश में उनके लिए डर का माहौल बना दिया गया है। वजह, सीआरपीएफ के जवानों की मौत का बदला लोग सारे कश्मीरियों को मार-काट कर लेना चाहते हैं। माफी चाहूंगी ऐसे शब्दों का इस्तेमाल करने के लिए मगर मौजूदा हालात ऐसे ही हैं।

जेएनयू स्टूडेंट यूनियन के जेनरल सेक्रेटरी ऐजाज़ अहमद (जो एक कश्मीरी हैं) का कहना है, “पूरे कश्मीरी स्टूडेंट्स में डर का माहौल है, कोई कमरे से भी बाहर नहीं आ रहा है। उनके परिवार वाले बुरी तरह से डरे हुए हैं। जेएनयू में स्थिति थोड़ी ठीक है, यहां पर किसी को कुछ बोला नहीं गया है लेकिन फिर भी यहां भी लोग डरे हुए हैं। जो लोग किराये पर घर लेकर रह रहे हैं उनकी स्थिति तो और भी बुरी है। उनसे कमरे खाली करवाए जा रहे हैं। सोसाइटी में लोग कश्मीरियों से घर खाली करवाने के लिए मीटिंग कर रहे हैं।”

खुलेआम यह कहा जा रहा है कि सीआरपीएफ के जवानों की मौत के ज़िम्मेदार पूरे कश्मीरी हैं, वे आतंकवाद के समर्थक हैं। इस सिलसिले में बात करते हुए कश्मीर के एक सीनियर जर्नलिस्ट ने नाम ना बताने की शर्त पर बताया कि श्रीनगर के लाल चौक पर बिना शक नारेबाज़ी हुई है और मैं वहां मौजूद भी था। वहां लश्कर के समर्थन में नारेबाज़ी हुई है, ज़ाकिर मूसा के समर्थन में नारेबाज़ी हुई है, गो इंडिया, गो बैक के नारे लगाए गए लेकिन इन सबके साथ सच्चाई यह भी है कि उन प्रदर्शनकारियों की संख्या बहुत कम थी। वे लोग 20-25 की संख्या में थे। अब इस 20-25 लोगों के आधार पर पूरे कश्मीरियों को गलत नहीं ठहराया जा सकता है। (पत्रकार ने उस प्रदर्शन की वीडियो भी बनाई है लेकिन कश्मीर में इंटरनेट की स्थिति ठीक नहीं होने की वजह से हमें अभी वह वीडियो नहीं मिल सका है।)

वह पत्रकार बताते हैं कि देशभर में कश्मीरियों को जिस तरह परेशान किया जा रहा है, उसके विरोध में रविवार को ट्रेड यूनियन की तरफ से कश्मीर बंद किया गया था लेकिन इस बंद के दौरान जो प्रदर्शन हुए वे काफी शांतिपूर्ण थे। यह प्रदर्शन पूरी तरह से कश्मीरियों पर हो रहे अत्याचार के खिलाफ था।

जम्मू में कश्मीरियों के खिलाफ माहौल

दो दिनों से जम्मू में कश्मीरियों के खिलाफ माहौल बना हुआ है। मुसलमानों की संपत्ति को नुकसान पहुंचाया जा रहा है। इन सबको देखकर जम्मू में फिलहाल कर्फ्यू लगा हुआ है। जम्मू में उन इलाकों में विरोध प्रदर्शन ज़्यादा देखने को मिल रहे हैं, जहां कश्मीरी लोगों की संख्या ज़्यादा है।

कश्मीरी इकोनॉमिक अलायंस के चेयरमैन मोहम्मद यासिन खान ने YKA से बात करते हुए कहा,

यहां 100 के करीब गाड़ियां जलाई गईं, लोगों को तंग किया जा रहा है, उन्हें घर से बाहर नहीं आने दिया जा रहा है। हमारी मांग है कि अगर इन सभी चीज़ों को नहीं रोका गया तो कश्मीर में जम्मू से बिजनेस को बैन कर दिया जाएगा, हम जम्मू के अलावा हिंदुस्तान की बाकि रियासतों से ही सिर्फ बिजनेस करेंगे।

मोहम्मद यासिन का कहना है कि यह एक सियासी मसला है। यह दो मुल्कों के बीच की लड़ाई है और इसमें जम्मू-कश्मीर के लोग पीसे जा रहे हैं। कश्मीरियों को लेकर एक परसेपशन बना हुआ है हिंदुस्तान में कि ये आंतकवादी हैं मगर ऐसा कुछ नहीं है। हम किसी की भी जान चली जाए उसके खिलाफ हैं, यह कश्मीर का बच्चा-बच्चा जानता है। गांधी जी ने कहा था कि मुझे रौशनी की किरण कश्मीर से दिखाई दे रही थी, यह भी तो सच्चाई है, इस चीज़ को भी तो आप माने। कश्मीर के लोग भी दंगा फसाद पसंद नहीं करते हैं।

अब सोचने वाली बात यह है कि वर्तमान में माहौल ऐसा क्यों बना है, यह सारी चीज़ें क्यों हो रही हैं, इसे कैसे ठीक किया जाए उसपर बात होनी चाहिए। कश्मीर में राष्ट्रपति शासन चल रहा है, जब तक कोई सरकार नहीं बनेगी कैसे बाते होगी?

यासिन ने आगे यह भी बताया,

हमारा यही कहना है कि जो भी कुछ हुआ है उसको लेकर सरकार फैसला ले, सिविलियंस को कोई अधिकार नहीं कि वे मारधार करें। अगर हुकूमत इस मसले पर कुछ कर रही है तो उनको किसी निष्कर्ष पर आने दीजिए। आप आम लोगों को क्यों सज़ा दे रहे हैं। ऐसा नहीं है कि आप किसी को भी मार सकते हैं, हमारे बच्चे वहां पढ़ रहे हैं। हमारा बिज़नेस जम्मू-कश्मीर से बाहर भी है, उसका क्या होगा?

कश्मीर के सीनियर पत्रकार खुर्शिद वानी बताते हैं कि जम्मू में बुरी स्थिति बनी हुई है, कश्मीरियों के खिलाफ माहौल बनाया जा रहा है, किसी को बाहर निकलने नहीं दिया जा रहा है, तो अभी उसका रिएक्शन कश्मीर में होना नैचुरल है। कश्मीर में इंटरनेट स्पीड भी डाउन कर दी गई है कि कश्मीरी देख भी नहीं पाएं कि बाहर क्या हो रहा है। कश्मीरियों को अनअवेयर किया जा रहा है। इसे एक सेट मैनर में जानबूझकर किया जा रहा है।

अगर इस तरह से स्थिति चलती रही तो कश्मीर में हालात और भी बुरे हो सकते हैं। हालांकि आज कल लोग डरे, सहमे हुए हैं। जिन लोगों ने खुद वायलेंस देखा है, उनको यह दर्द महसूस होता है, जब सीआरपीएफ और आर्मी के लोग मरते हैं तो कश्मीरियों को भी दर्द होता है।

सीआरपीएफ के जवानों की मौत से हर कश्मीरी भी दुखी है

ऐजाज़ का कहना है कि कश्मीरियों ने भी सीआरपीएफ जवानों की मौत की निंदा की है,  कश्मीरी किसी भी दहशत की घटना के सपोर्ट में नहीं हैं। किसी की भी जान जाए कश्मीरियों को भी दुख होता है कि एक इंसान मर गया है लेकिन यह क्या तरीका कि आप इसके लिए कश्मीरियों से बदला लें? उनपर हमला किया जाए? ज़बरदस्ती यह कहा जाए कि कश्मीरी हिंदुस्तान का हिस्सा नहीं हैं।

मीडिया में वॉर मूवमेंट हो रहा है, उन्हें रिवेंज चाहिए लेकिन रिवेंज किससे चाहिए? अच्छे से पहल करके इस बात का हल निकाला जाना चाहिए लेकिन यहां लोगों को बस रिवेंज चाहिए, कश्मीरियों से रिवेंज।

ऐजाज़ बताते हैं कि कश्मीरी युवा अपने भविष्य को लेकर बहुत चिंतित हैं, उन्हें भविष्य खतरे में दिख रहा है कि वे कहां जाएंगे। कहां पर नौकरियां मिलेंगी? ना ही कश्मीर में स्थिति ठीक है और ना ही अब कश्मीर के बाहर ही कश्मीरियों के लिए सकारात्मक माहौल है।

ऐजाज़ बताते हैं कि कश्मीर में शिक्षा की स्थिति ठीक नहीं है। तकनीकी शैक्षणिक संस्थान नहीं हैं, इस वजह से कश्मीरी युवाओं को पढ़ाई के लिए बाहर आना पड़ता है, जैसे कि देश के अन्य क्षेत्रों से लोग बाहर निकलते हैं लेकिन देश में हमारे खिलाफ अगर ऐसा माहौल बनाया जाएगा तो हमारे भविष्य का क्या होगा?

किन परिस्थितियों से गुज़रता है हर एक कश्मीरी

जो स्टीरियोटाइप लोगों ने कश्मीरियों को लेकर दिमाग में बना रखी है कि कश्मीरी देशद्रोही होते हैं उन्हें उसे तोड़ना होगा। कश्मीर में भी आप जैसे लोग ही रहते हैं, कोई आत्मा नहीं रहती है, हमारे भी इमोशन हैं। जिनके बच्चे हैं, वे खुद उस तनाव में 40 साल से फंसे हुए हैं। कश्मीरी कश्मीर में भी वैसे ही रहना चाहते हैं जैसे दिल्ली में लोग रहते हैं। आप किसी चीज़ को वायलेंस से कंट्रोल करेंगे वह सही नहीं है।

कश्मीरनामा किताब के लेखक अशोक कुमार पांडये ने अपने फेसबुक वॉल पर लिखा है, “उनके माँ-बाप उन्हें आतंकवाद की आग से बचाकर नागरिक बनाने के लिए भेजते हैं कश्मीर से बाहर पढ़ने। तुम उन्हें मार पीटकर वापस कश्मीर भेज रहे हो भारत के प्रति ऐसा गुस्सा पैदा करके कि कल वे हथियार ना भी उठाएं तो मन में एक कड़वा एहसास उम्र भर रहेगा। तुम चाहते हो यह हो ताकि तुम लगातार उनके खिलाफ नफरत फैला सको। एक दिन आएगा जब तुम्हारी इन्हीं हरकतों की वजह से वहां जाने में टूरिस्ट भी डरेगा। तुम यही चाहते हो। कश्मीर को भारत से पूरी तरह काट देना।

तुम देश से प्यार नहीं करते। तुम यहां नफरत की खेती करना चाहते हो। तुम्हें शहीदों की मौत का कोई अफसोस नहीं। तुम बस उनकी लाशों पर नृत्य करते चील-कौवों से हो। तुम्हें ना आज की चिंता है ना कल की। तुम जैसों ने ही कश्मीर से लेकर उत्तर पूर्व तक के लोगों को गैर बना दिया।” (इस पोस्ट को फेसबुक ने हटा दिया है)

वहीं, कश्मीर से हालिया यात्रा करके आईं एक युवा पत्रकार कश्मीर की स्थिति पर बात करते हुए बोलती हैं, “कश्मीर के बच्चे ऐसे माहौल में बड़े हुए हैं, जहां उन्होंने सिर्फ खून खराबा देखा है। वे एक वॉर ज़ोन में रह रहे हैं, कश्मीर के बच्चों को चिल्ड्रेन ऑफ वॉर कहना गलत नहीं होगा।

हीबा का केस ही ले लीजिए, वह सिर्फ 18 महीने की है लेकिन जब वह बड़ी हो जाएगी तो उसके दिमाग में क्या चलेगा, मेरी गलती क्या थी, उसका भाई शहादत पूछेगा कि मेरी बहन की गलती क्या थी?

कश्मीर से माता-पिता अपने बच्चों को बाहर शिक्षा और रोज़गार से ज़्यादा इस बात की वजह से भेज रहे हैं कि उनके बच्चे उस माहौल से दूर रहें, आतंकवाद से दूर रहें। उनकी पहली वजह यह नहीं रहती है कि उनका बच्चा पढ़ लिखकर नौकरी कर ले, उनकी वजह यह रहती है कि अगर मेरा बच्चा यहां रहेगा तो उसके साथ कुछ हो सकता है, वह गलत रास्ता पकड़े, मिलिटेंट बने इससे बेहतर है वह बाहर जाए।”

इसलिए ज़रूरी है कि कश्मीरियों को लेकर अपना परशेप्शन बनाने से पहले हम वहां की परिस्थितियों को समझे, उनके लिए देश में कैसा माहौल है उसे जाने, बस घर बैठे हम उनके विरोधी ना हो जाएं।

source: Youth Ki Awaaz

दोपहर होते-होते पटना की हवा भी नफरत की आग में जल रही थी। ठीक शाम 8 बजे मैं जब बोरिंग रोड चौराहे से गुज़र रही थी तब कुछ जाहिल लौंडे सड़कों पर तिरंगा लिए पाकिस्तान #$*& के नारे लगा रहे थे।

ऐसे ही मवाली पटना स्टेशन के पास लह्सा मार्केट में लगे कश्मीरियों की दुकानों को लूट रहे थे, उन्हें पीट रहे थे। पटना के सब्ज़ी बाग और पटना सिटी के इलाके में भी यही नारे लगाए जा रहे थे। मुसलमानों के खिलाफ गंदी-गंदी गलियां दी जा रही थीं।

मैं बस हैरान थी और यह सब देखकर अपने ही शहर को पहचान नहीं पा रही थी। इस शहर में रहते हुए 40 साल से ज़्यादा हो गए हैं। शहर को बदलते, टूटते और बिखरते हुए देखा है। इस शहर ने बहुत से दुःख झेला है। हर बार यहां की साझी विरासत और साझी संस्कृति इसे दुखों से बाहर ले आती थी।

हमारे शहर की सबसे हसीन शाम और सुबह इसलिए थी कि हमारे भीतर सारे रंग घुले-मिले रहते हैं मगर आज मन परेशान है यह देखकर कि जम्मू-कश्मीर के पुलवामा में हुए आतंकी हमले में मारे गए हमारे 42 जवानों की राख ठंडी भी नहीं हुई है कि इसे भुनाने की कोशिश हो रही है।

खास समुदाय के खिलाफ नफरत और हिंसा फैलाई जा रही है। यह सब बहुत सुनियोजित तरीके से हो रहा है। क्या यह संयोग है कि पूरे बिहार में एक ही तरह के नारे लगाए जा रहे हैं? गालियां भी एक ही तरह की दी जा रही है।

 

कोई यह सवाल नहीं पूछ रहा है कि हमारी सुरक्षा व्यवस्था में क्या चूक हुई? खुफियां एजेंसियों को इस हमले का अंदेशा था फिर भी जवानों की जान क्यों दांव पर लगाए गए?

 

मीडिया में लीक हुई चिट्ठी से यह साफ है कि 8 फरवरी को इस सिलसिले में एक अलर्ट जारी करते हुए कहा गया था कि जम्मू कश्मीर में आतंकवादी आईडी के ज़रिये सुरक्षा बलों के काफिले पर हमला कर सकते हैं। फिर भी उनकी सुरक्षा में क्यों चूक हुई?

 

सरकार के पास ना तो इन सवालों के जवाब और ना ही आतंकवादियों पर गंभीर विचार करने की ताकत है। अगर ऐसा होता तो आज यह उन्मादी सड़कों पर नंगा नाच नहीं कर रहे होते।

हम सब जानते हैं कि पाकिस्तान खुद आंतकवाद को झेल रहा है। यह भी सच है कश्मीर की समस्या को हवा देने में भी उसका हाथ है लेकिन क्या हम इस बात से इंकार कर सकते हैं कि कश्मीर की समस्या के प्रजनन-पोषण में हमारा हाथ नहीं है?

 

यह सब एक गहरी बीमारी के लक्षण हैं और इस बीमारी का समाधान नफरत नहीं है। ऐसे मौके पर सवाल तो उठाना ही होगा। मैं जानती हूं सवाल करने वालों पर इस देश में कभी भी हिंसक घटनाएं घटित हो सकती हैं लेकिन अगर हम डर कर चुप हो गए तो हम सब का अंत निश्चित है।

 

अखबार, रेडियो और टीवी पर जिस तरह उकसाने वाले बयान दिए जा रहे हैं, जिस तरह की हिंसा और नफरत परोसी जा रही है, इसके पीछे की राजनीति को भी जानना होगा। हमारी इसी नफरत और दरार का इस्तेमाल आज तक होता रहा है।

 

किसी भी दरार के पास आग लगाने पर प्रचंड मात्र में राजनितिक उर्जा फूटती है, जिसका इस्तेमाल नफरत की राजनीति के लिए किया जाता है। मेरे शहर की खास बात यह है कि यहां आज भी नफरत से ज़्यादा मोहब्बत करने वाले लोग हैं।

 

हम जानते हैं कि हमारी दुनिया दोष रहीत नहीं है फिर भी मुझे अपने इस घायल और दागदार दुनिया से प्यार है। मैं जानती हूं कि आज भी यहां नफरत के खिलाफ मोहब्बत के लिए जान देने वाले लोग हैं।

 

मुझे अपने शहर की इस ढीली-ढाली बेतरतीबी से प्यार है। यहां ज़िंदा सपनों के साथ ज़िंदा लोग बसते हैं। हमारे पटना को नकली देश भक्त नहीं चाहिए।

 

हम अपनी दुश्मनी अपने दुश्मन की माँ, बेटी के साथ बलात्कार कर नहीं निकालेंगे। जब सड़कों पर मवाली लौंडे उत्पात मचा रहे थे, ठीक उसी समय मोहब्बत के रंग में रंगे लोग सड़कों पर निकल कर यह कह रहे थे कि हम नफरत के खिलाफ प्रेम के पक्ष में खड़े हैं।

Party sources said the leadership was upset with Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik’s statement that there was intelligence failure from the Indian side.

Conscious of the public anger over the Pulwama attack, the ruling BJP is treading cautiously and has asked its leaders to share the emotions and sorrow of the families of security personnel killed in the attack.

It began with Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman briefing the party’s spokespersons at the BJP headquarters immediately after the meeting of Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) on Friday. According to party sources, Jaitley told them that no one should make “war-mongering” or “political” statements over the terror attack. “The spokespersons have been strictly told they should handle it sensitively,” said a source.

With the Congress also choosing to react in a measured way, the BJP spokespersons were asked not to make any statements about the attack and almost all party programmes were cancelled on Friday. “No politicising the issue,” said a party leader.

Union ministers have been asked to be present at funeral ceremonies of all the victims in their respective states and state unit leaders and morcha office-bearers have been asked to “join the families to share their grief”. “The party’s presence in sharing their pain should be visible. People should feel that the BJP is with them,” said a party leader. BJP chief Amit Shah, who was at the party headquarters on Friday after his programme in Patna was cancelled, is also learnt to have spoken to chief ministers and state unit heads about it.

“We have been asked to convey to the state units that no one from the state should make any statement calling for war with Pakistan. But party workers have been asked to join if there is an exhibition of sentiments by the people,” said a leader.

With the BJP banking on national security, the party would have to take all steps to see that the gravity of the Pulwama attack and the anguish among the people against it should not affect their approach to the party. Public anger should be directed at Pakistan only and it cannot be allowed to turn against the party-led government. In his first address after the attack, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked every political leader to stand united.

It is learnt that leaders of BJP as well as Sangh Parivar have been urged to handle the situation keeping in mind that national security is a major plank of the party. Party sources said the leadership was upset with Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik’s statement that there was intelligence failure from the Indian side. “It was a rubbish statement. Intelligence has to be lucky every time while terrorists have to be lucky once. Such a statement should have been avoided,” a senior party leader said.

BJP leaders admitted that there is no “clarity” on how the country should respond to the attack. “There is not much scope for another surgical strike. We have had it, and we have made them heroes,” said a leader. Another added, “What will we attack in another surgical strike? There are no concrete structures across the border (or LoC) to destroy. So, the first step would be to get all the nations, including China, with us.”

Earlier in the day, BJP general secretary Ram Madhav told The Indian Express, “The priority will be this — how will you make Pakistan accountable for it. For that, whatever steps needed, tactically, strategically and diplomatically, will be taken.”

source: The Indian Express