India unable to quell Kashmiri intifada
Bharat (aka India) are in total denial. The media as well as the diplomats don't seem to realize the foreign policy failures that that Deli faces. Delhi has still not woken up from its disastrous involvement in Afghanistan which has been expensive in money, but also in diplomatic mileage. Bharat openly supported Bush in the US elections and got Obama. What kind of foreign power takes sides in US elections? Only incompetent ones. Bharat supported Abduallah Abdullah in Afghanistan and got Karzai. What kind of foreign power supports a candidate who represents a minority of the population.
Bharat has colossal internal cavities, and Kashmir, Assam, and the Naxals are some of them. One of the biggest cavities is the 450 million Dalits, Untouchables and Tribals who are not part and parcel of Bharati society. The 150-180 million marginalized Muslims have been totally isolated from the mainstream (Muppie propoganda stories notwithstanding).
The Bharati media is totally divorced from the plight of the Kashmiris and absolutely do not comprehend the reasons for the "intifada" in Kashmir. When Jawarlal Nehru ruled Delhi he ran Hyderabad, East Punjabi boundary and Kashmir roughshod. In in irredentist zeal he manipulated the boundary so that Gurdaspur would to to the newly emerged nation and then connived to create a fake articles of accession on Kashmir (which Bharat now claims is lost-as if it ever existed).
- "The Centre's belief has essentially been that the Kashmir issue will be addressed with the passage of time. This approach is flawed." The government has been unimaginative, bureaucratic and insensitive towards the entire issue. Former Air Vice-Marshal Kapil Kak
- "Kashmiris are essentially politically conscious people and the Centre has to realise this. There has to be a political solution to the issue with dignity and selfrespect," said Kak, who has been involved in several Track-II initiatives on the Kashmir imbroglio. Analyst.
- New Delhi's enthusiasm for talks with Islamabad compelled it to overlook the warnings of the crisis that was on the anvil. Former national security adviser Brajesh Mishra
Jawarlal Nehru than forced about 560 states into a so called "Union". Most the states were threatened with war. They joined this hodge podge "country, but never really accepted it. Nehru then went around changing boundaries based on ethnicity and language. That was his bane. Today the ethnicities are demanding distance from Delhi. the masses who thrive under $2 per day (actually .50 cents*) want out-they want fifty states (insted of the current 22) and most want either independence from Delhi, semi-independence or so much autonomy that it is close to independence. While the masses toil under starvation, the military establishment and corrupt politicians are throwing away money as if it is going out of style. It is spending about $3 billion on a rust bucket which Bharat calls an aircraft carrier, and is wasting $10 billion in 126 new aircraft-all this while half of Mumbai, Delhi, Benaras, Kolkota (and all major Bharati cities) sleeps on the sidewalks.
This India Today report is as hilarious as it is inaccurate.
India has failed to comprehend Pakistan's change in strategy-from sabotage to subversion-in Kashmir, experts have said.
This is reflected in the unleashing of the intifada-style stonepelters on not only the security forces in the Valley but also the central and state governments.
The strategy change in the past couple of years was visible to everyone except the government", according to experts.
The impasse over Amarnath Yatra in 2008 which was precipitated by Pakistan-sponsored mass demonstrations in Kashmir and the RSS-encouraged mob violence in Jammu should have served as a forewarning.
Plotters from across the border have realised that intifada-style stone-pelting and mass demonstrations have and will fetch them optimum results with minimum input, they said.
Experts claimed that intelligence agencies had cautioned the government of the build-up such intifada and that Pakistan
will resort to subversive strategies using the civil society after it failed to achieve its objective through violent means.
But the Indian government brushed the warnings aside and did precious little to nip the problem in the bud. Mail Today Bureau, New Delhi, July 11, 2010
- "The basic reason behind the flare up in the Kashmir Valley is the failure to build on the gains that had been made by the security forces in the troubled state" Indian Army Chief General V K Singh said Sunday.
- "The Kashmir situation has been tense for quite some time and the reasons are many. The basic reason being that we have not been able to build on the gains that have been made." Indian Army Chief General V K Singh.
- "So far as the army is concerned, I think as security forces, a lot of work has been done. The situation has been brought to a particular level when other initiatives should have started to make way for betterment."Indian Army Chief General V K Singh. TOI
The army chief of Bharat is saying it clearly-but the media and the politicians in Delhi cannot comprehend it and have a tin ear to it. It is a lot easier to blame Pakistan for the massive blunders made in Kashmir.
Aghast over the state's response, former Intelligence Bureau director A. K. Doval said: "The government chose a wrong tool to address the situation. Instead of reaching out to the civil society, it from satisfactory." "The Centre should have been cautious after the Amarnath crisis. Signals were evident that Islamabad was trying to escalate tensions in the state. But the government, it seems, was fast asleep," he added.
Former Air Vice-Marshal Kapil Kak said: "The Centre's belief has essentially been that the Kashmir issue will be addressed with the passage of time. This approach is flawed." The government has been unimaginative, bureaucratic and insensitive towards the entire issue, he said.
"Kashmiris are essentially politically conscious people and the Centre has to realise this. There has to be a political solution to the issue with dignity and selfrespect," said Kak, who has been involved in several Track-II initiatives on the Kashmir imbroglio.
While the Bharati Army clearly tells the politicians to resove the issue politically, the gung ho cowboys in Delhi want to rub the noses of their real and preceived enemies in the mud. "Kashmir is an integral part of Bharat" they scream. "It is an internal issue" they holler". "Borders cannot change" they yell. This sort of hollow rhetoric bellicose sloganeering resolves nothing and frustrates the Bharati Army which is sick and tired of having to go into the streets of Kashmir and shoot innocent kids throwing stones at them.
Even the Wall Street Journal a Right wing newspaper owned by Rupert Murdock repudiates Bharati lipsitick on a pig. Titled "Flag marches won't solve Kashmir"
Then there's the political stalemate between the secessionists, led the All-Party Hurriyat Conference, and the state government. Though the secessionist agenda has only limited support in the state, local demands for regional autonomy remain very popular. Despite protracted negotiations over a period of more than a decade, no tangible progress has been made.Consequently, a substantial segment of the population harbors much pent-up frustration. Any incident, however trivial, can easily stoke this anger. In the summer of 2008, at least 50 people were killed when unrest broke out over the government's decision to allocate land for the building of shelters for an annual Hindu pilgrimage. The situation was finally brought under control only after weeks of demonstrations and violence.Unfortunately, in the wake of the most recent outbreak of protests Kashmiri authorities have only made the situation worse. The local police have focused on counter-insurgency duties over the last several years and can't cope with civilian mobs. National-level forces aren't much better. The most significant of these, the Central Reserve Police Force, has lost much of its crowd and riot control capabilities. Thanks to them, a woman died from a stray bullet and a man drowned while trying to flee them. Both these incidents generated a new wave of protests.
If India Today's report was an isolated story, one could ignore it. In the so called "world's largest democracy", each media outlet tries to outsell the other with sensationalism. It ends up in a media frenzy which ratchets up tensions in the entire nation. The Bharati media is the most immature on the planet.
Experts claimed that mishandling of the Shopian case by the state government also contributed to the current impasse.
Pakistan's change of strategy has suited the mismanagement of Kashmir's affairs over the past two years.
"Frustration has been rising in the Valley over a series of events and this suited Islamabad's subversive approach. It would be judicious to address the grievances before the situation slips away from hand. The implications could be disastrous," a noted Kashmir expert said.
Former national security adviser Brajesh Mishra said New Delhi's enthusiasm for talks with Islamabad compelled it to overlook the warnings of the crisis that was on the anvil.
"It is clear that Pakistan-sponsored terrorism has received a boost from our anxiety to hold a dialogue with them. And they have taken full advantage of this," he said.
Intifada was an uprising by Palestinian Arabs against Israel in the late 1980s and in 2000.
Intifada is an Arabic word which is usually translated as "uprising". It mainly included non-violent resistance, besides general strikes, boycott of Israeli products and refusal to pay taxes. Stone-pelting by youths was an integral part of the movement. Centre slept as Pak unleashed Palestine- style intifada in Valley, Mail Today Bureau, New Delhi, July 11, 2010
Bharat has trampled on the rights of the Kashmiris. It brought them in at a special status, and then merged them into the union. The Kashmiris have repeatedly rejected the leaders who Delhi purchased. The Lion was thrown to the wolves after he took the bribes. His progeny are known as puppets and cannot venture out of their plush palaces. Kashmirs are brutalized every day-half the Bharati army is there to keep the insurrection down.
If a half a million strong army cannot keep down Kashmir, it should be fired and Delhi should hire Swiss guards. Repeated reports have shown that infiltration is down and Pakistan is not the culprit. However Kashmir simmers and Srinagar is burning. All Bharatis can do is blame others for their ills.
The problem with the India Today story is not that it blames Pakistan for everything. The problem is that it concentrates on the symptoms, instead of looking at the causes. The causes are the illegal occupation of Kashmir.
*According to a 2005 World Bank estimate, 42% of India falls below the international poverty line of $1.25 a day (PPP, in nominal terms Rs. 21.6 a day in urban areas and Rs 14.3 in rural areas); http://www.worldbank.org.in/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/SOUTHASIAEXT/INDIAEXTN/0,,contentMDK:21880725~pagePK:141137~piPK:141127~theSitePK:295584,00.html
Despite significant economic progress, one quarter of the nation's population earns less than the government-specified poverty threshold of 12 rupees per day (approximately USD $0.25).
A 2007 report by the state-run National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector (NCEUS) found that 77% of Indians, or 836 million people, lived on less than 20 rupees (approximately USD $0.50 nominal; $2 PPP) per day.