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Kashmir: Valley Of Death And Unemployment

By Mustafa Khan

08 July, 2010
Countercurrents.org

The situation in Kashmir valley has never been as bleak as today. 1989 is much far back in history, albeit the policy of governor Jagmohan has come home to roost. He not only induced the minority Pandits to migrate by offering them government largess but even gave them transport facility and thus accentuated the communal divide rather than bridging it. Simultaneously the even more minuscule Muslims who braved all odds to live a decent and safe life in Delhi and elsewhere fared worst, became suspect terrorists in the eyes of the rest of the country. This structured bias persists. So, the walnut tree grows through the windows and cracks in the walls of the deserted houses.

Basically the human situation in the valley and of the Pandits who left it is existential as well as political. Stark realities include Srinager being one of the dirtiest cities in the world. India shining has left it far behind. The valley is no Gaza and yet nothing was rushed to it to make amends and ameliorate the situation.

Among the most common human development index is the job situation. Muslims have fared the worst during Hindu, British or Indian rule. Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, no exception as he also failed to get a government job despite a master’s degree in science: “Why Muslims were singled out for such treatment. We constituted the majority and contributed the most towards the state’s revenues, still we were continually oppressed…Was it because a majority of Government servants were non-Muslims?..I concluded that the ill treatment of Muslims was an outcome of religious prejudice.” Has the situation changed in the first decade of the 21st century?

In 1988 this writer was in the valley for three weeks and had to cash travelers cheques and do shopping. Government jobs in banks and revenue departments and elsewhere were almost to the last man staffed by Hindus. At one time curiosity drove him to humouredly ask why so. The bank official was having a plate of bhajiya and a cup of tea with fellow staff members. Some of them turned to the interlocutor. The concerned officer proferred bhajiya as a reply!

Earlier in June 2010 the Prime Ministe made a visit to Kashmir and spoke in polite Urdu that getting a job was tough indeed for the people there.

It would be untrue to say that the Kashmiri do not qualify. Justine Hardy in her new book “In the Valley of Mist” says about Kashmir: “its children (are) the most highly educated in the country because of the Central Government’s attempt to buy the love of the Kashmiri people, spending more on state education than in any other part of India.

“It meant that they had been sowing one of the main crops of rebellion themselves, producing thousands of graduate full of ambition but very little employment to temper their expectations.”

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh confirmed the paucity of jobs, electricity; ration shops, roads, drinking water and infrastructure in the valley when he addressed the students on June 7, 2010 in Srinager.

“I can imagine the disillusionment of those who have received education in premier institutions like the Sher-e-Kashmir University and yet cannot find good employment… “Hamare naujawan hamaare mulk ka mustaqbil hain. Hamein apne naujawanon se bahut badi umeedein hain,”

“where Kashmiri youth can find lots of avenues for their ‘zahni (psychological), jazbaati (emotional) and peshawarana (professional) taraqqi”.

“Main jaanta hoon ki behtareen taaleem haasil karne ke baad bhi kam mauqe milne se kis qadr maayoosi hoti hai.”

The Prime Minister says that he is aware of the disappointment and desperation of the young on account of unemployment in Kashmir and also acknowledges that he would like to create situations where the psychological, emotional and professional development would be possible for the young. But the stark reality is different. The boys are falling victim to the bullets of the troops while going to tuition, playing in stadium or lawns, farming or simply found in sealed and search operation and driven to the border and shot! Or has the threat of Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray’s letter delivered to the Prime Minister by his son Udhav Thackeray on September 13, 2007 also come home to roost? He had held out a threat if jobs were to be given to Muslims under the recommendations of Sachar committee it would be tantamount to another partition of the country! Through a civil war?

Ajit Bhattachariya, Kashmir: the wounded valley (New Delhi: UBS, 1994) p.67.

Justine Hardy, In the valley of mist (London: Rider, 2009) p.27.

“Tarraqi, kaamyaabi..”PM prays in Urdufor Kashmirs. Irna, June 7th, 2010.

Thackeray’s Letter. Saamna September 13, 2007.

Mustafa Khan
Malegaon, Maharashtra
http://commonalty.blogspot.com/