KASHMIR and IDPs

By K.N. Pandita

On-going upsurge in the valley patently reflects mutual rivalry among political stakeholders come down to its lowest level. Paid agents armed with stones and infused with extremist religious prompting come on streets to disrupt normal flow of civil life. Their sponsors consider it an effective tool to show down their political opponents who have vested interest in projecting them as fighters for “aazadi”. Apologists artfully brand them a generation grown under the shadow of the gun.

What is the rivalry about? For nearly five decades or more, right or wrong, traditional political party kept the monopoly of political power its cherished preserve. Its long stint created an impression with its stalwarts that the party was invulnerable essentially because Kashmir remained the fief of one dynasty.  Continue Reading…

Daily Excelsior

Sir,

This refers to the news item ‘Reach out to people of J&K’ (DE  August 20). Expression of sympathy by the Congress chief to the people of the valley is feigned and hypocritical. It is a fraud on the people of the valley. Congress is in power at the Centre and partner in the ruling coalition in the State. Firing at the protesting crowds in Kashmir  has taken place with its full and tacit consent. The Congress High Command ensured that its protégé CM in J&K is not destabilized. How then will an ordinary Kashmir be convinced that the Congress chief has an iota of sympathy for him and that her expressions are sincere? The generation that has  grown  up “under the shadow of brutality and conflict” – in the words of the Congress chief, has been dragged to that fate by the ruling Congress and none else because it unleashed  their suppression during last six decades in general and two previous decades in  particular. Continue Reading…

By K.N. Pandita

PM’s handling of recent talks with representatives of J&K State political parties in New Delhi is variously interpreted.

Separatists, secessionists and dissenters call it an exercise in futility like so many of them in the past.

Some expected very exciting things to be delivered by the meet. This cannot happen and did not happen.

On the contrary, in a sense what the Prime Minister said is a landmark statement in the recent history of internal commotion in the valley. In very unambiguous and honest words he has conveyed the broad contours of Government of India’s policy on Kashmir.  Continue Reading…

Daily Excelsior

Sir,
Apropos ‘Cong seeks suspension of Assembly, Governor’s rule’ (DE Aug 4), the 50-member delegation of State Congressmen is doing a great disservice to the country by demanding removal of Omar Abdullah and animated suspension of the Assembly. These are extreme steps and if taken will only prove the spinelessness of the central government. State Congress has the record of running away from responsibilities as happened in 1990. Congress is major coalition partner in the government of the state. If it has dawned upon the Congressites that there is not good governance in the State, it is equally responsible for that. It should have quit long back but it did not. The real intention of the delegation was not to impress upon the PM the grave situation in Kashmir but subtly to profile a new candidate as PC chief. The situation in the valley is not at all as critical and disastrous as has been painted by the delegation to the PM. It is full of exaggeration and panic. Removal of Omar at this stage will not be only disastrous but also suicidal, which will not be compensated in any case. The might of the state must prevail if India wants to keep Kashmir integral to the Union.
August 4, 2010, K.N. Pandita, Jammu.

By K.N. Pandita

Kashmir valley is on boil. People, administration and media all seem to have turned hostile to the coalition government led by NC under the leadership of young Omar Abdullah. It is open anti-India outburst.

The onus of maladministration of the State should not be brought exclusively to the doorsteps of the young chief minister. The type of political construct that we have in the J&K State leaves far less scope for anything called patently good governance whosoever at the helm of affairs.

If the NC had not succumbed to the lust of power after the results of last election were announced, any astute politician would have advised NC to let its coalition partner ride the tiger.  This would have dispelled a chance of direct confrontation between two major rival political parties.  Continue Reading…