What is the remedy?
With reference to Shekhar Gupta’s timely and lively write-up “No, we haven’t lost Kashmir” (April 22), the author seems justified in observing that “nobody can take our territory militarily but we can still lose the people if we keep militarising our view of Kashmiri anger” as he begins with a big question mark reading “Have we (India) lost Kashmir?” and then gives a comforting reply with “No”. However, he also extensively quotes the earlier war-front developments of 1947 and 1965 which were effectively handled by the Indian people with the active assistance of Kashmiris. One appreciates his deep concern about the alarming position 52 years hence at ground zero. His views that “while Kashmir is territorially secure today, we are fast losing it emotionally and psychologically” speak volumes about the simmering fire that is assuming serious proportions in the Valley as we, according to him, have now started seeing our own people as a military threat. He warns India not to walk into the shoes of Israel whose military power had taken the Jordan, Syria, Egypt and Lebanon military head on and squarely defeated them. Gupta pleads that India is not Israel and the adoption of the same strategy in Kashmir could prove suicidal.
However, the author only diagnoses the prevailing ailment in the Kashmir Valley and does not come up with any prescription for the government to contain the ongoing unrest. Needless to say, the restraint shown by our security forces is being viewed as their weakness by the sponsors of stone throwers. Such a situation can’t be allowed to go on endlessly.
The author also talks about adopting a political plan to convince the people that they are better off in India. But whom should the government talk to, more so when the stone throwers are reportedly paid for by Pakistan-based terror groups and duly supported by the Kashmir-based leaders of the Hurriyat Conference. Mind you, the National Conference is also fuelling the fire in the Valley, much to the discomfiture of the common Kashmiri. Vinayak G Bengaluru