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Space For Peaceful Protest In Kashmir Valley

By Mustafa Khan

16 September, 2010
Countercurrents.org

People of the Kashmir valley have been coerced to remain inside their narrow houses and shut for long hours of curfew. No sooner does the curfew end than some protest begins bringing life to a standstill. It was this tedium of every day existence that made the Eid day protest and marches on Saturday 11, 2010 as a historic day. “It’s suffocating, It’s collective punishment. Every Kashmiri is being forced to stay inside.” This is what Sajjid Iqbal told New York Times (September 14, 2010 )

Their pent up frustration, anger and anguish at the mounting toll of the youths had thrown up a necessity for the leaders to address the people. India is no stranger to such gatherings and marches. The rathyatra of LK Advani passing through many states before the Babri mosque was destroyed had a bloody trail of communal violence resulting in bloodshed in most places. Barring Lalu Prasad Yadav and Mulayamsing Yadav, Chief Ministers and even the Prime Minister twiddled their thumbs as the security forces either looked the other way or members of the forces also took part in the juggernaut. This was happening in the mainland when the militancy in JK was on the rise. Therefore there is no need to apply double standard to compare any event of the earlier days or to the present turbulence in the Kashmir valley, either.

This time there is a sea change in the valley. The youths have taken over the protests, they are the ones who go before the soldiers who have their guns drawn and aimed at them with fingers in a reflex situation of pressing the trigger as the scene is too violent and bloody. There is an action packed drama going on in the streets that calls for a different response than the reloading of the smoking guns.

The most remarkable thing is to ponder why so many thousands of tons of stones thrown at the security forces (who also paid them back in the same measure) did not convince the government in New Delhi for speedy solution or easing of the situation. The government postponed the the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) meeting from Saturday to Monday, then to Tuesday and then again to Wednesday and now after the all party delegation meets everyone in Kashmir valley and Jammu. There is also evidence that even the Home Minister Chidambrum was not seized of the situation in the streets of the valley for he called it fake protest. This is what he said on Thursday when the videos of naked men paraded by the security forces and brutally assaulted by them before the local women went on the air.

The government started narrowing the space or even closed whatever space was available before. The government locked down all the fights to and out of the valley. The air flights were most necessary for the media people to reach the valley and report what was transpiring there. Why was the government so jittery about it? India is the largest democracy in the world and the freedom of the press is a vital pillar of our democracy.

There is another way of closing the space for peaceful protest. The government can counterbalance the intensity of the protest in the valley by welcoming the people of Jammu to register their response to the kind of move the government would make in the valley. This may remind you the counterbalancing the revocation of the land grant to the Amaranth pilgrims in 2008 by letting the ferocious protest in Jammu to continue. The present unrest in the valley is valley specific. It is neither national specific nor even state specific.

The specificity of the valley in regard to space is best seen in two incidents of recent time. The man who threw his shoe at the chief minister became a hero of the people in the valley. Many thousands marched to his village and garlanded and congratulated him for his daring act. The second incident is of the Eid day. Firdous Ahmed Hajjam had climbed over the clock tower at Lal chowk and raised the Islamic flag on Saturday. Again many thousands of people went to his village and congratulated him for his daring act. So the space for peaceful protest is narrowing as well as enlarging depending on the situation on the ground.

http://commonalty.blogspot.com/