Professor Abdul Ghani Bhat can Best Answer
There have been some awkward developments in Kashmir in recent weeks. The APHC leader Prof. Abdul Ghani Bhat has made some unusual statements recently saying that time had come to speak the truth. The learned Professor may agree that he has not made any disclosures in the real sense of the term; both, the informed elites as well as common masses in Kashmir know fairly well what has been going on in Kashmir for the past 21 years, who did what and why. Prof. Bhat should be knowing it fully well that in politics what is said is as important as when it is said, and even where. This is because political people understand things by their whole being, their faith, emotions, outlook, ideology, but they do things (speak out or any other action) on the basis of calculation. Evil politicians calculate their self interest, but genuine and sincere politicians take public good into account, and do only what is in the best interest of their people at any given point in time. So far it is not clear Prof. Bhat’s assertions have served any good purpose; their negative impact is, however, more clear: DG Kuldeep Khuda used it to make his point almost immediately, and so did Mr Omar Abdullah a few days later. Hailing APHC Leader’s statement, voices also came up from elsewhere in Kashmir demanding an investigation into all the deaths since 1990. One would wonder what is happening here. Is the agenda of freedom movement being diverted? We sometimes come to hear about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa, but I ask was it set up before or after the abolition of Apartheid? Obviously after, once the main job was done, rest of the issues were subsequently addressed.
That said, we however, do not hold, definitely not, that Prof. Bhat’s intended purpose behind what he said was to create that sort of negative impact. May be, by saying what he said, he meant to do something good to the freedom movement, and to the suffering masses of Kashmir, particularly when he says that ‘time had come’. So he seems to have done something taking the time factor fully well into consideration, but then what did he do, with what purpose, he can best answer.
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Dr. Syed M Inayatullah Andrabi is a well-known figure in the circles of political Islam. Born in Srinagar, the capital city of Indian Held Kashmir, Dr Andrabi has been intimately involved at the intellectual level with the global politics and political issues since his student days in 1980 at Pune (India), where he completed his Ph.D. in Linguistics in 1983 at the Centre of Advanced Study in Linguistics, Deccan College, University of Pune, Pune, India. Upon completing his doctorate he returned home to join the University of Kashmir, first on a post-doctoral fellowship and later as faculty, but could not continue because of the deteriorating security situation in Kashmir, and had to move to United Kingdom in 1994 where he continues to live since along with his wife and five children.
