The Melting Stalagmite

Back in the days when Orkut was still young and I was still uncivilized, my alter egos aka Fake profiles used to troll 'casually' in many controversial communities. In one such community, I had a long debate with a paki on the Indo-Pak soap opera, Kashmir. I lost the debate hands down because of lack of information. He seemed to have more credible information about the "realities" of the situation. The only defense mechanism I had then was to cry out "bogus" "bogus". As the debate ran into days, I started realizing the great blanket that had been covered over our eyes by the Indian Government and surprisingly the private media.

There is undoubtedly a strong separatist movement in Kashmir. What the Indian Government had been doing for years and years was to hold dummy elections in the state. The army was constantly put in a position where the thin line between peace keeper and human rights violation blurred. India till now has put in 60 years of effort to set things “right” and till now nothing substantial has emerged out of this. But is it worth it?

It always was for me. As a small child, all that mattered to me was the picture in which the map of India was layered beautifully with the drawing of Mother India riding a lion. Kashmir was where Bharath Mata’s head was place. Giving Kashmir away was like cutting the head of our dear Mother India.

As I grew up, I realized that my thinking was symbolically correct. Without Kashmir, India’s head would literally be cut. Kashmir is the final frontier for the very concept called India. It’s a place where we could prove that India is a nation built not just because of religious, regional or racial feelings. It is a place where we could finally disprove the narrow 2 Nation theory. It is a place which would justify the existence of almost 20% of Indians in India: the Muslims.

Now the Azadi movement of Kashmir has picked up pace. Ironically it was the BJP/RSS who contributed negatively. It was Atal Bihari Vajpayee government who lifted the ban on Hurriyat conference. And now it is the Kashmir blockade by Hindus in Jammu that has poured fuel on the issue now. It has given a moral high ground for the separatists and has given them a reason good enough to go all out on this issue.

This was never supposed to happen. As cruel as it sound, in reality, as long as there was terrorism in Kashmir, the situation was pro-India. Neither were they ever going to embrace the non violence method propounded by the mahatma. But now with ISI concentrating more on Afghanistan than on Kashmir, the azadi movement has turned a new leaf. Mass protests are the order of the day. The State Governments apathy to control the situation indicates the strong support the movement has from the people of Kashmir.

There is only one solution now for us. Buy some time somehow. Break Pakistan before Kashmir breaks India into a million pieces. And with the US troops fighting Taliban IN Pakistan, the Baluchistan movement gaining momentum and with the Congress in power without the Left support, this certainly is possible.