The Kashmir issue is many sided and has more layers than people would care to admit, since not admitting to the complexity of a problem is a lot easier than respecting the multi- varied dimensions of it. As said before, the problem that Kashmir poses to New Delhi is similar to any other counter- insurgency operation that has been undertaken by any government.
In military parlance the term used for a situation that had multiple points of origin and no clear targets, or easily identifiable/ tangible objectives (such as Afghanistan and the International NATO forces) was called a "Cluster Fuck". Which while apt couldn't be spoken of in the presence of official, so it was abbreviated to CF and then referred to as Charlie Foxtrot. The insurgency threat in the valley is a CF if there every was one.
You have a mostly Hindu peace keeping/ security force that is an almost entirely Muslim area. This split on communal lines need not exist, but the fact that it exists must not be ignored by politico's who have the power to shape the lives of entire families who inhabit the Kashmir valley. The constant threat that a child in the valley is in, can't be easily described.
The Indian government has not done a great job at inspiring any sort of trust in the people. In addition the politicization of every issue that the state deals with ensures that the state will continue to be split on communal lines as long as political parties see it fit to do so. A recent example is how the BJP decided it was ethical, or at least alright to start accusing Abdullah and his National Conference of not ensuring that flood victims were rehabilitated and the disaster as a whole was contained.
The Assembly election have presented another significant problem. The alliance between the PDP and the BJP seems quite perfect, but if one looks deeper, it seems to be a little counter- intuitive to have an alliance between two parties that are on completely opposite sides of an ideological spectrum. One of the strongest criticism of the UPA I and UPA II was that even though Dr. Singh might have been well meaning, he was curtailed by different factions of his coalition that just refused to co- operate on certain issues. Thus are the perils of a parliamentary system. The PDP and BJP alliance in the state legislature are going to be beleaguered by problems that can't even be imagined, and we didn't even have to wait very long before a comment crediting the Hurriyat for ensuring that elections went off without a hitch ensured that a parliamentary session was interrupted.
There might be any one solution to this problem, in truth there can't be, not when there are so many different factions that are vying for their own version of the promised land, or at least their home. Here is where David Malone again comes to my mind, and like he said, if India bases it's argument on the fact that the people of Kashmir are Indian, then why don't we begin acting like they are?
- Anirudh R.
This is an opinion piece written by the author who has been credited, and the views that are expressed are exclusively his.
In military parlance the term used for a situation that had multiple points of origin and no clear targets, or easily identifiable/ tangible objectives (such as Afghanistan and the International NATO forces) was called a "Cluster Fuck". Which while apt couldn't be spoken of in the presence of official, so it was abbreviated to CF and then referred to as Charlie Foxtrot. The insurgency threat in the valley is a CF if there every was one.
You have a mostly Hindu peace keeping/ security force that is an almost entirely Muslim area. This split on communal lines need not exist, but the fact that it exists must not be ignored by politico's who have the power to shape the lives of entire families who inhabit the Kashmir valley. The constant threat that a child in the valley is in, can't be easily described.
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| A riot in progress Source: http://kashmirinfocus.com |
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| The Jhelum floods over Source: ibnlive.in.com |
There might be any one solution to this problem, in truth there can't be, not when there are so many different factions that are vying for their own version of the promised land, or at least their home. Here is where David Malone again comes to my mind, and like he said, if India bases it's argument on the fact that the people of Kashmir are Indian, then why don't we begin acting like they are?
- Anirudh R.
This is an opinion piece written by the author who has been credited, and the views that are expressed are exclusively his.
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