Comment

The fragility of India’s rule over Kashmir:
A simple question paper becomes a security threat!!!
By: Ajaz Khan

Kashmir has been reeling under illegal occupation for the last 6 decades. The corridors of power in New Delhi along with the puppet regimes in Kashmir over the years have turned this paradise simply into a walking minefield wherein even a lecturer lands up in the lockup for just setting up a question paper for an examination.

Lecturer Noor Mohammad Bhat of Gandhi Memorial College was charged and then arrested for setting a question paper, which the puppet regime deemed ‘anti-establishment’ or ‘anti-national’. This entire episode once again affirms the fact about how state affairs are being conducted on the barrel of a gun in this unfortunate valley where individual rights are being crushed by the wanton use of force from those who suppose to preserve and nourish them.

Lecturer Noor Mohammad asked students appearing for the B.A. B.Sc. and B.Com 1st year annual examination ‘Are the stone-pelters real heroes? Discuss’. He further asked students to translate an Urdu passage into English: “Kashmir is burning once again. The warm blood of youth is being spilled like water. Police and soldiers are beating even small children to death. Bullets are being pumped into the chests of even girls and women. People in villages and towns are crying in pain. Rulers continue to be in a deep slumber. It appears they’ve turned dumb, deaf and blind.”

Puppet government machinery and some of the columnists in Srinagar based English dailies termed this act of the lecturer as ‘politicizing education’. Now if one looks at this objectively and rationally one can easily find it very questionable if asking such questions is ‘politicization’. For the sake of argument, if we consider this act of the lecturer as ‘politicization’ what can one make of the undue government interference in universities, colleges and schools? Haven’t the government machinery put curbs on universities and colleges to bar students even from talking politics let alone practicing it. Are our universities and colleges allowed to fulfill the role they are supposed to? Are our universities and colleges allowed to talk about the gross human rights violations the people are subjected to on daily basis by the police and soldiers? What about the teachers, lecturers and professors in Jammu region? Didn’t they politicize when they openly were part of illegal acts against the state subjects of Kashmir in 2008 by being involved in the blockade against the valley? Wasn’t it a crime that these Jammu lecturers and professor of rightwing political parties executed in the broad day light yet they were showered with petals?

If the lecturer’s act was ‘politicization’ and any sort of breach of conduct, which any sane person can find none in the question paper, it should have been the institution that he is employed with to initiate an action against him. However, the police overrode all the steps in the hierarchy and took the matter into its own hands and what followed then? The lecturer was arrested under the section of Unlawful Activities Act. He was denied a bail and was rushed to police custody. When the students staged a protest demonstration against the arrest of the lecturer near Islamia College, the troopers showed their valour as usual by going berserk and ransacking the college. This saga yet again displayed the complete erosion of the rule of the law in the valley.

Not surprisingly, to one of the puppet regime’s ministers Taj Mohidin, the question paper looked grave issue and not the precious blood and lives of the young souls that were taken away from us by the occupational army who they represent. Is this what they call a democratic setup? Does democracy functions with the wanton use of police? How rightly M.J. Akbar in one of his write ups (http://mjakbarblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/strange-democracy.html) termed Indian democracy as a ‘strange democracy’. By this token what term would describe the democracy prevalent in Kashmir? Since the state affairs are run by the police in Kashmir, therefore, ‘police democracy’ would suit the setup that runs here.

The statement that emanated from New Delhi based PDUR (Peoples Union for Democratic Rights) against the arrest of the lecturer has really hit the nail on the head showing the puppet regime in Kashmir the place where they really stand. The statement reads, “The facts of the case once again bring out that whatever be the public claims about J&K being an integral part of India, the real situation suggests otherwise.”

The author lives in Srinagar and can be reached at: