J&K: Start talking

Harud is a film directed by Aamir Bashir. Set in strife-torn Kashmir, it’s the story of an adolescent Kashmiri boy, Rafiq, with a “missing” elder brother and a traffic policeman father steadily declining into lunacy because he can’t cope with the trauma of violence around him on the streets. It details the haunting dreariness of everyday life in Kashmir where eruption of violence gets as unremarkably absorbed into ordinariness as suppressed anger and fear that preceded it. In the director’s own words, the film is about “what an average Kashmiri has been through in the last two decades”. The film is not singularly about Rafiq. It’s about an entire generation of youth growing up under the threat of violence that could explode any moment, coupled with the uncertainty of an uncertain future.

23 Winters is a documentary by Rajesh S. Jala. Woven around a real-life protagonist named Bota, it’s a poignant story about a young Kashmiri pandit turned prematurely old, having spent his youth in the refugee camps in Delhi due to forced exile during mass migration of Kashmiri pandits in early 1990s. Bota developed schizophrenia, conjuring up hallucinated dreams of returning to Kashmir. Though the film centres around the plight of an individual, it reflects the pain of displacement of an entire community, and of a generation growing up in forced exile away from their homeland.

The directors of both films are Kashmiris — one a muslim, another a Kashmiri pandit. Both are stories of ordinary humans who suffered because of situations beyond their control. Protagonists of the two films are ostensibly on different sides of the fence, yet the suffering and its source is common. Both graphically portray heart-wrenching sorrow about lost youth, missed opportunities and shattered dreams. That is the tragedy of Kashmir. In this battle, there is no winner. Neither the average Kashmiri residing in the Valley, or the ones forced to leave. Neither the stone-pelting boys losing golden years of youth, nor the valiant soldiers of the security forces laying down their lives in the call of duty.

Reports from the Valley talk about an intensity of anger and resentment that is reminiscent of the early 1990s, the beginning of insurgency in Kashmir. Other than longstanding issues and grievances, and the persistent malignant shadow of Pakistan, the magnitude of the current crisis and its continuation could also be explained in factors rooted in the current politics of the state. Inherent contradictions of the alliance between the People’s Democratic Party, that has been soft on militancy, and the proponents of “love jihad” and “ghar wapsi”, the BJP, came onto the surface over issues like beef ban in Jammu and Kashmir and release of hardline separatist leader Masarat Alam Bhat. Inadequate relief for 2014 flood victims’ rehabilitation, failure of the alliance to start any meaningful dialogue with various stakeholders in the state, intolerant attitude of the ruling party at the Centre manifested in a series of vicious statements and violent actions against minorities continuously eroded the middle ground of conciliation in Kashmir. Incidents like the physical assault of an MLA in the J&K Assembly, a Kashmiri truck driver being burnt alive over beef rumours, hardened and encouraged extremist elements on both sides of the divide. This typically led to a situation where the majority middle ground constantly and continuously ceded space to a frenzied eruption of the “azadi” and pro-Pakistan forces.

The Centre’s complete reliance on the Army and paramilitary forces for controlling the situation without making any effort towards a political solution has only escalated the crisis. In the last 45 days, the BJP government has undone years of painstaking work done by previous governments to bring about a semblance of peace in Kashmir. Various confidence-building measures by previous governments have been demolished by pellet guns. The strategy of previous BJP Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to solve Kashmir issue within the ambit of “Insaniyat, Jamhuriyat and Kashmiriyat” is completely ignored by the present government. The Delhi-Lahore and Uri-Muzaffarabad bus services launched by Mr Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh respectively were part of confidence-building measures. Trade routes between Uri-Muzaffarabad and Poonch-Rawalkote were opened by Dr Singh to facilitate trade and people-to-people contacts. Between 2005 and 2008, several working groups were made to reach out to people in Kashmir that included representatives of political parties, ethnic groups, intellectuals and professionals. In 2010, the UPA government engaged with a cross-section of people through interlocutors. An all-party delegation talked to separatist leaders and ordinary people. There were genuine attempts to create a healing touch and find a political solution. The arrogance and shortsightedness of the current government has done irreparable damage to a fragile situation.

As Kashmir continues to burn, a small news item went largely unnoticed. Amid cries of “azadi”, 308 youth from different parts of the state donned the uniform of the Indian Army. Between death and devastation, distrust and destruction, this news ignites a flicker of hope and points towards a direction that is imperative for establishing peace in the Valley. It is essential to engage with the local populace, specially the youth, in Kashmir. For any solution towards peace, it’s necessary to integrate the youth of Kashmir into the mainstream of Indian society, economy and polity.

Militancy cannot be fought by brute force alone. While there cannot be any compromise on the unity and integrity of the nation, and any force that threatens or challenges the territorial integrity of India needs to be dealt with firmly, bullets and pellets cannot provide a lasting solution. The solution lies in engaging the people of Kashmir through dialogue and confidence-building measures, through economic opportunities for locals, by creating a conducive atmosphere for the youth to lead a normal life, and finally by the age-old civilisational values of compassion, tolerance and inclusiveness that is India. A hard line on either side will only harden historical faultlines. It’s time that both sides agree to give and take across the faultlines, lest more misery comes in the way of an ordinary citizen — Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist, of the state of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh.

The writer is chief spokesperson, Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee, and national media panelist, AICC