Edward Colaco
The chants of "Hum kya Chahte hai...Azadi, Leker Rahenge ...Azadi" has become a common affair in the everyday lives in Kashmir. These chants are resorted to primarily create a feeling that the local populace is trapped by the hegemonic government and are demanding for their freedom. However in reality, Azadi has become a voguish word in Kashmir's poisonous lexicon. It has left the local population numb and overburdened with lofty ideas and political failures.
What Happens if Azadi Happens?
One needs to introspect into the aspect of the future of Kashmir incase Azaadi is granted. Before doing so, it needs to be understood that the situation in Kashmir is the result of a corrupt government, separatist leaders fueling the Azaadi agenda and scores of unemployed youth who form the workforce for this so-called Freedom movement. But first the pressing question; Freedom from what? From a nation that has lost countless soldiers in preventing any loss of land or threat to it's citizens and pumps in a major chunk of its GDP towards the development of Jammu and Kashmir? Or probably from the corrupt political parties in the state for whom this festering anguish of the local population works to their advantage? Now let me alter the narrative a bit.
Over the past 80 years, post the accession of Jammu and Kashmir to India, countless soldiers have lost their lives defending the sovereignty of the nation from its Western adversary. Yet the major efforts of the Security Forces is directed towards winning the hearts and minds of the Kashmiri locals. However, the reality in Kashmir is far from what meets the eye. School going children are being used in the stone-pelting & chanting agenda without knowing what is right or wrong. These events are given wide publicity by all national media channels, thereby generating a gimmick of Kashmir to be burning and that the locals need Azaadi. In the event, Azaadi is eventually granted and the Security Forces are pulled out of Kashmir, it is only a matter of time before the Western adversary unleashes it's tentacles of debauchery in Kashmir. With no Security Forces present to prevent it, the downward spiral will continue which will finally lead to the engulfing of the state and incidental inclusion in our Western adversary's state of gradual but definite implosion. This is a reality that the separatists who are furthering the "Azaadi" narrative, aren't telling the local population.
To take the narrative further, let us roll back to 1947 when the marauders aided by Pakistani paramilitary forces invaded Jammu and Kashmir and came up to Baramulla. How they razed the nunnery there and how they tortured and killed the nuns is part of history.
For Pakistan, this is an unfinished story. If all the perpetrators of the Azaadi narrative take into account what is happening in Pakistan today, they will see that the Shia sect and the Sufis of Pakistan have been systematically targeted and killed by the Sunni-dominated majority in the Army and the civil administration. The Muslims of Kashmir are quite different from the Sunnis of Pakistan.
They are gentler, more cultured and similar to the Sufis. Is it difficult to imagine the fate of the Kashmiri Muslims under the tutelage of the Sunnis of Pakistan? It will be the irony of ironies if in the name of Azaadi, if Kashmiris walk into the Sunni trap from which they cannot escape and will have to be reconciled to be treated as slaves and subordinate citizens for all time.
Do the Kashmiris really want this one-way road to slavery in Pakistan instead of the lives they are currently living? This is what the interlocutors should put to the separatist groups in Kashmir.
The Kashmiri locals by nature are peace loving people who desire progress, development and improvement in their way of life. However, circumstances, history and repeated corrupt political governments have engendered the local population constantly receiving the poor end of the bargain. This equation if considered over a period of 70 years has led to anger and disgust which has been used by separatists to further their secessionist agenda, all for their own personal benefit. It's high time the Kashmiris see through their malice and utter disregard for the safety of the local population, and call them out for the traitors that they are. Just as individuals do nations too should take stock of their lives.
We must ask ourselves as a society, and as a state who holds the title of being the Crown of the nation, whether Azadi is the only viable and ultimate solution to the complex state-of-affairs in Kashmir? Is there any alternative to it?
If yes, what is that noble Idea and what should be done to cherish it? The most viable road to a progressive future for Kashmir and it's population is working hand in hand with the civil administration, calling the separatists out for their empty promises and minimizing local support to the tentacles of state sponsored terrorism shamelessly furthered by our Western adversary. The day is not far when the streets of Kashmir will be blooming with flowers and unrestricted smiles and the air will be filled with resonating chants of "Hum Azaad Hai".
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