To:
Mani Shankar Iyer
Why did Hurriyat accept to meet you and your camp followers, when only a few months back they had refused to meet either the Union Minister of Home, or the members of the Parliamentary delegation ?
The reason is quite clear; you and your accompanying colleagues enjoy an anti-Hindu and more importantly, anti-Modi reputation. In addition, you enjoy the reputation as a pro-Pakistan politician also.
Your first act after becoming a Union Minister in UPA–I, was to fly down to Andaman. Here, you publically removed the plaque commemorating one of India’s greatest patriots, Vir Sarvarkar, from the Cellular Jail. You could not have been unaware of the enormous privations Vir Savarkar suffered while undergoing imprisonment there during the freedom struggle. You did this because he is considered to be a Hindu icon. With one stroke, you attempted to endear yourself to the acknowledged powers in the Congress and to your targeted vote bank.
You were also in the fore-front of the persistent and virulent attacks that Modi endured at the hands of Congress/ secularists/ leftists for 12 long years after the Godhra train burning incident. Even as late as a few months before the last parliamentary elections in May 2014, you told the media (sarcastically), through live telecast, that “ Modi was only fit to serve tea to AICC delegates”.
Recently, while in Pakistan, you appealed to Pakistanis to ‘help Congress remove Narinder Modi as P.M. of India’.
Another Kashmir-expert with you, Kapil Kak, conducted himself in an unsoldierly manner, bringing disrepute to the uniform he once wore. He addressed Geelani in Kashmiri thus, “Bae Chhus Bab Sundh Darshan Karani Har Shrei reti Yewaan” (I come to have Darshan of my father every six months). Kapil Kak is unaware that the only person, on whom Kashmiris endearingly conferred the title of Bab, was the towering Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, a life-long political opponent of Geelani’s Jammat e Islami (JI).
To those Kashmiris who know Geelani well, calling him Bab is to pour salt on the wounds of those Kashmiris whose near and dear ones were butchered by the JI’s armed wing, the Hizb ul Mujahidin, over which Geelani presides. Every Kashmiri, except Kapil Kak, knows that Geelani’s hands are red with the blood of thousands of Kashmiri Pandits and Muslim youth of Kashmir.
I must, however, add that if Kapil Kak called Geelani his Bab based on some biological connection, I have no locus standi in the matter!
I wonder what kind of Air Vice Marshal Kapil Kak has been? After all, another luminary of the Hurriyet, the notorious JKLF Chief, Yasin Malik, was personally responsible for the killing of four Air Force personnel at Rawalpora in Srinagar on 28 Feb 1990. What kind of loyalty is Kapil Kak showing to his own ‘Service’ by meeting and praising the well known killers of his own profession? His disloyalty to his own uniform must be a rare case anywhere in the world, at his rank.
Then there was a Journo, Vinod Sharma, who used to hop from one Studio to another, trying to defend the UPA–I and II, particularly the congress, when the latter was getting bogged, deeper and deeper, into various scams, through which it looted the nation. He did the same thing defending the Congress Chief when she called Modi, “Maut Ka Saudagar”
With such credentials, Geelani was too happy to meet the delegation!
You say that you also met many others; in your own words, “There was not a single political party that we left out”.
What significance does that have? Did they promise that they will endeavor to end the gun culture in Kashmir ? Did you ask them, even once, as to why they threw out 400000 Kashmiri Pandits from Kashmir at the beginning of the Tehreek? Besides listening to their litany of woes against India (which has been their staple diet for 70 years), did you not ask them even once about Pakistan turning the Valley into a hell through its nefarious deeds over the past nearly three decades?
Now, coming to some of the other issues that you have written about in your write-up. You say that “…no one in Kashmir had anything commendatory to say about Govt. of India’s handing of Kashmir and about New Delhi’s favored leaders in Kashmir, extending back to Jawahar Lal Nehru’s time”.
Kashmiri’s plaintive cry of its victimhood ever since 27th Oct. 1947, to the present day, has been inspired by Pakistan, fostered by Pakistani proxies in Kashmir, and nurtured by the Congress party and its pseudo-secularist camp followers, right since then. It is your party that has kept the story of Kashmiri victimhood alive, with the sole aim of garnering India’s vast Muslim vote.
According to you, India has always hard its favoured CM in Kashmir.
Oh! Really! Did not the CMs like Shiekh Abdullah, Mir Qasim, Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah, Mufti Sayeed and Mehbooba win elections in Kashmir, fair and square? Where they not elected by their respective legislators to lead the House? Two instances come to mind where Kashmiris could have a genuine grouse. The first was when Sheikh Abdullah was imprisoned in 1953, and Bakshi Ghulam Mohamad was installed as the Prime Minister of the State. These were trying times for the fledgling nation when its integrity was at stake and Government of India had to act in that manner. However, even in this case, Bakshi continues to remain the most popular leader in Kashmir even to the present day. It was unfortunate that your Party, the Congress, eased him out as part of the Kamraj plan, when in fact, being a non-Congress leader, the plan did not apply to him. Ever since his ouster, beginning with the loss of Mo-e-Muqadas in 1963, Kashmir has been hurtling from one crisis to the other.
The second instance is when rajiv Gandhi entered into an alliance with Farooq Abdullah in 1987, leading to large scale rigging of elections under the nose of Farooq Abdullah. This rigged election is considered a watershed in the armed uprising in Kashmir, for which Congress and its ally Farooq Abdullah is to squarely blame.
Besides, Kashmiris seem to overlook the fact that Congress (High Command) during its 60 years rule dumped many inconvenient CMs and foisted their own nominees on many states as a matter of right. In this regard Kashmiris should have no complaint because, at least, the political power always remained in the hands of a Kashmiri Sunni Muslim.
You mention about Kashmiris complaining about two Indian TV channels and asking you to close them.
It is news to me that Kashmiris have started watching Indian TV channels. Please be informed that in every Kashmiri house, people only watch Pakistani TV channels and Zakir Naik’s Peace TV. To these have been added many channels preaching Wahabi Islam from Saudi Arabia, leading to the radicalization of Kashmiri society, whose evidence is much visible in the Valley. A few years back I got stranded in Kashmir for four days during my yatra to Harmukh Gangabal due to persistent rain. During the entire four days, the only channels that I was compelled to watch are the ones listed above. Not one Indian channel was being carried by the cable operators.
You compare Amit Shah to Viceroy Linlinthgo for having said that disturbances in Kashmir are restricted only few districts.
Can you dispute Amit Shah’s statement on facts? Does one have to remind you that India did not get Independence only because of ‘Quit India’ Movement’; it was due to numerous other reasons too? Declassified of many documents now reveal that there were host of other reasons which compelled British to leave India. It is, therefore, only the naive who will compare the two statements, to earn brownie points in a fruitless debate.
…. plus the overwhelming military presence wrapped in the security blanket of AFSPA.
You seem to approve of Kashmiri refrain that there are 13 lakh troops in Kashmir. The figure is ridiculously over-blown. Nevertheless, the heavy presence of troops in Kashmir is to protect Kashmiris themselves from the well armed Jihadis who, in the absence of the Army, would have turned the area into another Iraq or North Waziristan. After all, the security forces were inducted into Kashmir only because the Tanzeems like JKLF, HUM and LeT created mayhem in early nineties.The security forces continue to be in Kashmir only because the misguided Kashmiri youth, fired by religious zeal, continue to be willing tools to fight Pakistan’s proxy war against India in Kashmir.
…. Army domination of the Valley is certainly no way of winning hearts and minds.
India and Indian Army has left no stone unturned to win the hearts and minds of Kashmiris ever since Pakistan sponsored proxy war began in Kashmir in 1989. Under its Op Sadhbhawna, very innovative schemes in both rural and urban areas were launched to render assistance to the people. Lakhs of Kashmiris benefited through these schemes. I dare say that progress achieved in many sectors in Kashmir during the disturbed conditions owes its success to army’s Operation Sadbhawana. Please compare the anti-insurgency operations being conducted by any Army in any part of the world. Indian Army has an enviable record of using maximum restraint and being involved in least number of human rights violations, despite taking fairly large number of casualties over the past many years in Kashmir.
Please note that winning hearts and minds of those brain-washed and radicalized youth who truly believe that they will go to jannat and enjoy 72 houries there, is next to impossible. They will have to be dealt with militarily. For that, the security forces will continue to be there.
….The certificate of commendation given by the Army Chief to Major Gogoi, who tied an innocent man to a jeep to parade him around as an example to others, despite the poor devil having been one of the miniscule number who actually voted in the recent Srinagar parliament by-election, has spread such loathing right across the Valley…
You call Farooq Ahmad Dar, the person who was trussed to the Jeep by Major Gogoi, as ‘innocent poor devil’. This is a clear disinformation and people like you lend credibility to such disinformation by spreading such myth. Farooq Ahmad Dar was among the 1300 strong mob which had gheraod the polling booth at Gundipora in Budgam district on April, 9, 2017. The mob was throwing stones/petrol bombs on the few security personnel and the polling staff, deputed by the Election Commission to conduct the polling. Major Gogoi had done so under compelling circumstances, which posed grave threat to the lives of the men under his command, as also to the civilian staff. Had Major Gogoi acted in any other manner, there would have been enormous violence resulting in the death, destruction and injuries to many, including the civilians. Those indulging in this disinformation campaign forget that the most important of the ‘Human Rights’ is the ‘Right to Life’; enshrined in the United Nations Human Rights Charter, Indian Constitution and in the constitution of every liberal democracy of the civilized world. This is exactly what Major Gogoi upheld. Army Chief, General Bipin Rawat, rightly awarded Major Gogoi the COAS Commendation Card for his innovative action which saved many lives.
……..Kashmiris in the last three years since the BJP came to power at both the centre and in the state, have been distanced as never before from the rest of the country by ghar wapsi, love jihad, beef bans, cattle slaughter bans, gau rakshak excesses, Yogi Adityanath and his private army, the Hindu Yuva Vahini .
These are non-issues in the country and have no bearing on Kashmir. Kashmiris have remained alienated from India for many decades, whereas as Modi has been in power only for the past 3 years. During the UPA-II rule, when the govt. was hell bent on destroying the Ram Setu in Rameshwaram, a correspondent asked Dr. Manmohan Singh as to why the govt was destroying a bridge which millions in the country believe was built by Bhagwan Ram? The then PM replied, “We have the mandate”! Similarly, whatever is happening in the country, the elected governments have a mandate to do it. If Kashmir, does not like U.P. electing saffron-clad Yogi as a CM, so be it. After all, should the Kashmiris be given the right to decide who the Indian electorate will vote for? Should it be the sole prerogative of Kashmiris to decide who should rule India and its states?
Dear Mani Shankar Iyer, let me remind you that in Kashmir, one never saw cows/calves being slaughtered and beef consumed before 1990. During Maharaja Hari Singh’s time, the killing of cows/calves was banned in the whole state. When Sheikh Abdullah took over the reins of the government, he continued with that policy. Kashmiris, who are mostly Hindu converts, rarely ate cow. It is a recent phenomenon; induced by the sway that Wahabi Islam has come to cast over the Valley during the last 27 years.
Your specious argument that we will lose Kashmir if we treat Kashmir as Vietnam, is meant to mislead the gullible. There is no comparison between the two. Kashmir shares a 5000 year old history with the rest of India. It is the cradle of Shaivism which pervades across the country; it is a land named after Kashyap Rishi, to whose gotra many Tamil Brahmins trace their ancestry. It is a land whose first mention is found in Mahabharata during Gonanda I dynasty. Bhagwan Krishna himself called a part of Kashmir as Parvati itself. Pray, tell me, what was the similarity between Vietnam and America, separated by lakhs of km of blue waters of the Pacific Ocean.
“You quote Mirwaiz as saying that the ‘..greatest danger is of the political issue of Kashmir being converted into a Hindu- Muslim issue”
I, as a Kashmiri Pandit, find it laughable. That he spoke these words in impeccable English (as you put it), does not lend them any legitimacy. If you are not aware then let me tell you the kind of slogans used in 1989-90, when the armed uprising commenced. Here is a sample of these:-
“Zalimo, O Kafiro, Kashmir harmara chod do”.
(O! Merciless, O! Kafirs leave our Kashmir)
“Kashmir mein agar rehna hai, Allah-ho-Akbar kahna hoga”
(Anyone wanting to live in Kashmir will have to convert to Islam)
La Sharqia la gharbia, Islamia! Islamia!
From East to West, there will be only Islam
“Musalmano jago, Kafiro bhago”,
(O! Muslims, Arise, O! Kafirs, scoot)
“Islam hamara maqsad hai, Quran hamara dastur hai,
Jehad hamara Rasta hai”
(Islam is our objective, Q’uran is our constitution,
Jehad is our way of our life)
“Kashmir banega Pakistan”
(Kashmir will become Pakistan)
“Kashir banawon Pakistan, Bataw varaie, Batneiw saan”
(We will turn Kashmir into Pakistan alongwith Kashmiri Pandit
women, but without their menfolk)
“Pakistan se kya Rishta? La Ilah-e- Illalah”
(Islam defines our relationship with Pakistan)
Dil mein rakho Allah ka khauf; Hath mein rakho Kalashnikov.
(With fear of Allah ruling your hearts, wield a Kalashnikov)
“Yahan kya chalega, Nizam-e- Mustafa”
(We want to be ruled under Shari’ah)
“People’s League ka kya paigam, Fateh, Azadi aur Islam”
(“What is the message of People’s League? Victory,
Freedom and Islam.”)
Press release of HM published in the morning edition of Urdu
Daily ‘Aftab’ of April 1, 1990.
‘Kashmiri Pandits responsible for duress against Muslims should
leave the Valley within two days.’
Headlines of Urdu Daily, Al Safa, of April 14, 1990.
‘With Kalashnikov in one hand and Q’uran in the other the
Mujahids would openly roam the streets singing the Tarana-e-Kashmir.’
Gullible/ partisan politicians like you are taken in by the Kashmiri hospitality showered by the polished Mirwaiz and you tend to believe everything he says. The above slogans should open your eyes to the fact that the Tehreek was, from the very beginning, an Islamic movement. It was falsely projected by their apologists in India as a secular movement to ensure their hold on the captive Muslim vote bank. Now that the secularists have got badly exposed, the Mirwaiz is feeling the heat.
Besides, Geelani himself has said on numerous occasions that the objective of Tehreek is merger of Kashmir with Pakistan bara-e- Islam.
Mani Shankar Iyer, you are a classic appeaser, hoping against hope, to achieve something politically. After all, you sacrificed a lucrative career in the Foreign Service, in the hope that you will achieve something bigger. However, as Modi says, “In life, try to do something, rather than achieve something.”
Incidentally, you know the definition of an appeaser…Here it is:-
“An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile in the hope that he will be eaten up the last.”
Winston Churchill
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