We have had a lot of discussion on this blog, in earlier days
about Kashmir and the perennial problem it is for
the Indian state.
Now that the central
government is pumping in a INR 80,000 crore package for the Kashmiris, plus the
usual flow of tax payers’ money for security reasons, they have received an
excellent feedback from people of the state.
By openly
supporting the death of a commander of a terrorist organization, the people of
Kashmir have clearly shown where their loyalties lay. And they do not look at
all at par with the Indian state.
That leaves a very
uncomfortable question for the Indian polity of the day. What to do with
Kashmir at this stage? Is pumping money blindly and empowering the armed forced
really going to work?
This is plainly
the strategy that everyone who has ruled in Delhi has followed. While militancy
has weakened due to a strong army, hostility between the army and locals is
only increasing. An army is not really a diplomatic machine or a NGO type
humanitarian. An Army is trained to act under tough conditions, face
difficulties and take responsibility of security of people it does not know
much about. Now to expect, that they should have probably cuddled and
hugged a terrorist, then probably they should have pinched his cheeks and
admonish him about his naughty behavior seems quite bizarre. Also strange is
the fact that people of Kashmir have all the problems with Indian army, its
government etc, but no problem in taking money most of which comes from hard
earned money of the Indian tax payer.
In this scenario,
where the political parties are themselves at loss as to how resolve this
paradox, it is up to the rest of India to raise their voice. It seems now that
the answer to the Kashmir issue would need to found deep in the conscience of
the Indian middle class.
But plagued by its very own problems and a very self-centric
attitude might not allow the Indian middle class to work on an effective
answer.
Then how will the Kashmir puzzle be resolved? Better still, how
long should we just keep paying a state who resents our presence just so that
we can keep ignoring the problem instead of facing it?
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