Beneath the uneasy calm

Kashmir simmers: Caught between politicians and separatists are civilians who yearn for end to crisis

On a visit to Kashmir by March-end which included a trip to the southern district of Kulgam, considered troubled, and to the northern district of Baramulla by train and taxi, I experienced only calm and friendliness.

But Handwara has demonstrated that in Kashmir, though outwardly at peace, violence brews beneath. In Handwara, the story of a young girl’s molestation by a soldier brought suppressed grievances, suspicion and resentment of the youth onto the streets, and the short-sighted, continued presence of military bunkers in civilian areas brought the army into confrontation with the civilian population.

The young girl’s appearance on a video shot by the army, denying that she had been molested by a soldier but by a local youth, visibly frightened and almost incoherent, is at the heart of the story, with the police having detained her and her father at some undisclosed destination.

Three young people, a 55-year-old woman and a child lay dead in firing by the police and the army. “They call us separatists, they are making us separatists,” a young journalist was quoted as having cried out. “In your view we are all terrorists anyway, aren’t we?” he asked.

Though Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti visited Kupwara and called on the families of the victims with salutary effect on the public mood, and Handwara’s MLA–erstwhile separatist leader and present member of Mufti’s cabinet Sajjad Lone–camped there and met the family of the dead child, inflammatory rumours had gripped the public. The government in fact placed the army in the line of fire.

A third narrative then came from the mother pinning the overreaction of both sides on a panicked response of a young Kashmiri girl, born and brought up in conflict, so characteristic of Kashmir’s young today. But this then brought the conduct of the Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) Police under public scrutiny. The minor girl and her father’s detention was purportedly for their protection. But those wishing to meet her, including her mother, were regulated by the police.

This contradicted the status report filed by the government before the high court that the minor girl and family had requested police protection and were not under any detention. Nayeema Mehjoor, chairperson of the State Commission for Women, offered to assist the family of the minor girl in relocating them.

This was further confused when the girl, obviously traumatised, and her family in a detailed two-hour meeting with their lawyers, were reported to have appealed to be allowed to stay at a place of their own. The issue of what sparked the incineration is therefore confusing, and even the act of committing the offence and who was responsible remains obscure. But what is alarming is that such an incident could have set off the violence that it did.

India is indeed seen as a land of opportunity, but is also seen by Kashmiris as a Hindu nation. Handwara has left all Kashmir on the edge, which will take but a spark to reignite.

India is indeed a land of freedom bound into a nation unparalleled in the world by the extent of its diversities in language, culture, caste and creed held together simply by an idea, the idea of India. Yet, to find place in this tapestry, the people of Kashmir must be allowed the enjoyment of the fullest participation in governance. Only then can they be expected to look upon even the state government as their own.

And this gives the government an opportunity. Handwara brought once more into focus the resistance to continuing application of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). But it also brought into question the conduct of the police. The Public Safety Act, 1982, allows the state police indefinite detention, and until 2010, it was foisted even on children.

Though not invoked in Handwara, this needs no amendment but abrogation. Members of the military on the other hand, are in any case protected from arrest for anything done within the line of duty under Section 45 of the CrPC. The AFSPA, however, provides what amounts to total immunity. It has guidelines but no rules. Hence, the Handwara agitators’ call for action for unjustified firing will remain unpunished.

But there is an alternative. The deployment of the army extensively in civilian areas in Kashmir is a hangover frozen along the demands of the war of 1947-48. Clearly, the premier threat today of war between two nuclear armed states is no longer a military assault, it is infiltration. If nothing else, that is the lesson of Kargil.

For this purpose, the army would do well to consider redeployment along the more vulnerable Line of Control, in areas with a scattered population comprised mainly of Gujjars migrating seasonally to the highland pastures. In the Valley, civilians look upon the army as an occupation force, despite laboured efforts by military authorities to dispel such an image, nor is the army presence here required for maintenance of law and order.

Financial investment

Such redeployment will indeed require heavy financial investment. But surely, the need for restoring the confidence of a section of India’s citizens in J&K in their constitutional freedoms must be of paramount consideration. I see no other means of bringing the conflict in the state to closure.

A passing reference to any Kashmiri blog on Facebook will substantiate this. And the relinquished military structures can be put to good use as hospitals or other buildings needed for community service, including placement of local police personnel.

New construction could then generate employment for Kashmir’s masons, carpenters and a host of skilled workers at present languishing under a regime of high unemployment, thus giving recourse to militancy a wide resource base of youth blighted through their upbringing.

The ruling alliance in J&K can then deliver on its promise of development by using areas so vacated by the army in the Valley for providing public facilities, schools, hospitals, tourist resorts and panchayat offices. The imagination of most youth within Kashmir, of being more educated, aware, connected and more aspirational than their predecessors, remains constrained by structural and political factors leaning towards alienation, estrangement and withdrawal.

But there are successful Kashmiri businessmen prospering within and outside Kashmir even in the US, West Asia and South East Asia, who could be invited to invest.

If such a plan were implemented, there would be no need to withdraw AFSPA, which would cease to apply in areas which are without an army presence, except when the army is required to be called in. One constructive consequence of the tragedy in Handwara is the removal of the three military bunkers in Handwara market by the municipal authorities in the presence of minister Sajjad Lone.

And decentralisation is now mandated by the Constitution, making every village a self-governing unit. Handwara has exposed dramatically the lack of public participation in governance in J&K. But the instrumentalities exist through institutions of decentralisation, transparency and accountability.

The most viable scheme of decentralisation presented to former prime minister Manmohan Singh’s round table in Srinagar in 2006 was the one devised by the last government led by Mufti Sayeed.

And every village has common land or shamilat which can become grounds for dissemination of economic opportunity through rural business hubs centred on investment in information technology, the timber industry or in the development of tourist facility, generating employment and livelihood for Kashmir’s youth. Therein lies the way to the future.

(The writer, a retired IAS officer, was Chief Information Commissioner and Chairman, National Commission for Minorities)