Kashmir is not a place where the BJP should be playing its nationalistic card
MEHBOOBA’S ALLIANCE PARTNER BJP IS NOT HELPING BY DEMANDING THAT THE POLICE FIR BE QUASHED. THIS NOT ONLY WEAKENS HER BUT ALSO SENDS A MESSAGE THAT THE ARMY IS ABOVE REPROACH
under attack.
A few days after the FIR was registered, the army gave its own version of events to the police, claiming it opened firing in self defence after seven of its personnel were injured.
The army, it must be said, has a right to give its version of events but it is important that it be a part of the magisterial inquiry in the interest of justice, because no one can refute the fact that three civilians died because of army bullets.
Mehbooba’s alliance partner, the BJP, is not helping any by publicly demanding that the police FIR be quashed. This not only weakens an already beleaguered chief minister but also sends an unpalatable message that the army is above reproach.
Mehbooba has steadfastly refused to budge and made it clear that the inquiry will be taken to its logical conclusion. She, in fact, told the state assembly that she had ordered the probe after speaking to defence minister, Nirmala Sitharaman.
The BJP’s open defence of the army is in keeping with the party’s ‘nationalistic’ approach but needs to understand that its position increases the trust deficit between the army and the common Kashmiri.
There are innumerable Kashmir-related instances of plain murder in which army court martial’s have found its officers and jawans guilty but justice has not entirely been meted out. The latest example is that of the Machhil fake encounter — that led to the huge unrest in the Valley in 2010. While the army found five of its personnel including a Colonelrank officer guilty of luring three labourers and shooting them dead as ‘unidentified infiltrating militants’, their life-sentence was overturned by an Armed Forces Tribunal in July 2017.
The Shopian killings have only reopened the Machhil wound and many Kashmiris are asking how such excesses can go unpunished.
The question is more than valid in an alienated Valley that has been crying out for political resolution. The Narendra Modi government has appointed an interlocutor and Mehbooba has withdrawn cases against stone pelters but clearly a lot more needs to be done.
The army has the unenviable job of operating in a hostile environment but it is in its own interest to back the process of justice. Kashmir is not a place where the BJP should be playing its nationalistic card. The ground reality calls for a mature approach in which fairness and justice are not just crucial, but critical.