[Reader-list] Anuradha Bhasin Jamwal: New Delhi needs to shed colonial mindset

[Aditya Raj Baul]

Criminally callous
New Delhi needs to shed colonial mindset to reach the besieged and
alienated people

By Anuradha Bhasin Jamwal on Sunday, July 11, 2010
http://www.kashmirawareness.org/Item.aspx?id=3009

Pathetically, while the situation in the troubled Valley is
deteriorating with every passing day further adding to the people's
alienation and sense of deprivation, the rulers in Delhi continue to
adopt a criminally callous approach to defuse the crisis.

Instead of coming to the rescue of the besieged people, denied of free
movements and essential services, the Union government has opted to
back the chief minister, who is not only the part of the problem but
has also, on his own admission, lost credibility. In the present
situation, mostly of his own creation, Omar Abdullah has also become
quite irrelevant. The manner in which he has dealt with the situation
caused by the killing of innocent youth by the trigger-happy police
and security forces, should leave no one in doubt about his lack of
political sagacity and administrative acumen in assuaging the hurt
feelings of the people and bringing back a semblance of normalcy. A
volatile situation which required healing touch and positive measures
to overcome the trust deficit has been handled by demonstrating the
might of the state and pursuing a path of confrontation. Most parts of
the Valley have remained under curfew for the past several days,
curbing free movements of the people and causing them miseries. The
large deployment of police and para-military forces, frequently coming
into clash with the protestors, opening fire and lobbing teargas
shells, causing further loss of life and injuries sends only one
message to the people that the state is at war with them. Their voice
of protest against the killings and other grave human rights abuses,
their political urges and aspirations will be crushed with the use of
brutal force. The very calling of army to enforce the curfew in
Srinagar amounts to tacit admission of the civil administration of its
inability and lack of capacity to deal with the situation and its
abject failure to manage the affairs of the state. The State
authorities have even tried to gag the press by restricting the
movements of the media persons and even thrashing a number of them,
resulting in the continued suspension of the local newspapers for the
past four days. The policies and actions of the coalition government
headed by Omar Abdullah have not only further widened the gap between
the rulers and the ruled, adding to the people's sufferings, but have
also failed to fulfill its mandate of providing the people good
governance and tackle their day-to-day problems like water supply,
electricity, essential commodities at reasonable rates, sanitation and
roads, not to talk of socio-economic development. The chief minister's
belated move to call a meeting of the mainstream political parties to
consider the present situation and adopt corrective measures is not
going to make any difference. Some of the major parties like the PDP
and Panthers Party have already declined the CM's invitation, terming
his move as a futile exercise, meant for face-saving.


In this scenario, the right course for New Delhi was to step in, take
immediate measures like removing of armed forces, restraining the
police and para-military forces, scrapping draconian laws like Armed
Forces Special Powers Act, releasing all political prisoners,
restoring their free movements and right to address the meetings or
hold rallies, ordering independent probe into cases of killings and
other human rights abuses followed by deterrent punishment to those
found guilty and finally initiating a meaningful process of dialogue
with the leaders of the estranged section of the people to come out of
the impasse.

The powers that be in New Delhi need to shed their colonial mindset
and callous approach in dealing with the present situation, which if
not handled wisely by adopting a humane approach, has all the
potentialities of blowing up into a major catastrophe.

There is need to learn from the past mistakes, particularly the way
New Delhi looked upon and handled the popular upsurge of early
nineties. Instead of understanding and recognizing the genuine
political aspirations of the people and taking measures to satisfy
them, New Delhi dubbed the popular uprising as a proxy war by
Pakistan. Same mistake is being repeated now by dubbing the
spontaneous and natural angry protests over the killing of the
innocents and other HR abuses as a "conspiracy from across" or the
handiwork of "miscreants and vested interests". Need to take measures
for healing the people's wounds, assuaging their hurt feelings and
opening channels of dialogue with them.