The aftermath of the brave jawan's murder showed that not only do Kashmir's ‘silent Muslims' exist in sizeable numbers but they are willing to take the fight to the enemy camp
For three years, the BJP tolerated every whim of the PDP. As Minhas Merchant observes, the BJP scuttled its national manifesto which promised to abrogate Article 370 for the sake of the alliance. On its part, the Mehbooba Mufti Administration let Rohingyas settle in Jammu; allowed encroachment of Jammu forests and didn’t stop the exodus of Hindus from Jammu villages under Rohingya pressure; beat NIT Srinagar students for hoisting the Tricolour; forced the Ramzan ceasefire and demanded talks with Pakistan; and on April 14, forced the resignation of BJP ministers Lal Singh and CP Ganga for supporting the demand for a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the murder of an eight-year-old girl child in Kathua district. On April 30, the BJP changed its members in the State Cabinet. Clearly, Mohammad Haneef forced a rethink.
Shujaat Bukhari was the polar opposite of the Aurangzeb family. This writer met him on September 29, 2010, when the UN Information Centre hosted a disastrous seminar at its official premises in Lodhi Estate, New Delhi, to give a platform to a bunch of India Ragdo (crush India) viragos from Srinagar. The meeting was organised by the Women’s Initiative for Peace in South Asia, National Foundation for India and UNIC, and Bukhari shepherded the blatantly secessionist women. They managed an appointment in Rashtrapati Bhavan, but an angry President Pratibha Patil ordered them out when they raised ‘azadi’ slogans there.
The panellists were the usual secular Left-liberals under whose umbrella these supporters of Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani promoted their separatist agenda. They included Dr Sayeda Hameed, then Member, Planning Commission, with Minister of State rank; Dr Mohini Giri, former chairperson, National Women’s Commission and daughter-in-law of late President VV Giri; and activists Jyotsna Chatterjee and former MP Subhasini Ali. A short clip on Geelani was shown and Anjum Zamarud Habib of the Geelani faction railed against India and insisted Kashmir was an issue of self-determination. That was the year stone-pelters first appeared; she ranted: “Boys with stones in their hand can never be defeated.”
Anyone who has read Shujaat Bukhari would have no difficulty in understanding what he stood for. The fact that he was murdered by the separatists/terrorists with whose aims he was in broad agreement is a telling commentary on the levels of intolerance among these trigger-happy lumpens.
One does not wish to appear inhumane, but this seems the most appropriate time to ask why India is investing human resources and public funds to provide security to those who disrespect our territorial integrity, and wish to secede to join Pakistan or to become an independent nation. Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah dreamt of a ‘Switzerland of Asia’, a glorified holiday resort for white Europeans. What a fall for the land of Rishi Kashyap!
India needs to re-Sanskritise the Himalayas by taking Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s path-breaking initiative on Yoga to the next level. A beginning should be made by scrapping the contentious Article 370 (and its illegitimate tail, Article 35A) by Presidential Order. There must be an honest delimitation of seats on the basis of population so that Jammu gets justice and due weightage, and the tiny Kashmir valley is reduced to its proper size. This alone will pave the way for Gilgit-Baltistan and Occupied Kashmir to move towards reunification with India, something the people of the region earnestly desire
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