Human shield outrage as by-election voting in Kashmiri state turns violent
ON THE day of by-election polling in the violence-racked Kashmir state, Major Litul Gogoi, perhaps angry at the stone pelting by protesters who was preventing voters from exercising their franchise, picked up a carpet weaver and tied him to the front of a jeep.
He then drove him around ostensibly to prevent protesters from hurling stones. This bizarre use of a human shield kicked up a storm.
Retired generals thought the episode was a blot on the good name of the Indian forces; Hindu nationalists supported by the government, backed the erring official.
These extreme measures to tackle stone-pelters paid no dividends. Barely 2% of the populace voted – a body blow to India’s independent Election Commission, but also the populist government of Narendra Modi that promised to stabilise the trouble-torn state through tough measures and quality governance.
In the three years of this government, hope has given way to despair among the people of the Kashmir valley. To the chagrin of many who supported the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, to find an enduring solution to the Kashmir issue, there has been a worrisome hardening of positions in the central government since the ruling party won resoundingly in the state of Uttar Pradesh (UP).
The BJP read this as a mandate to carry on with its tough policy towards Kashmir. A narrative built by the BJP government through a pliant media that showed the security forces as victims and the stone-pelters as plebeians who were irrational and needed to be suppressed. There were also suggestions in the media that India follow the successful policies of the Israelis when it came to taming the angry Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
So much vitriol was extended to the Kashmiris that many on social media insanely demanded the “mother of all bombs” that the US air force used against Islamic State should be dropped on the valley.
The immediate outcome of this hate, besides abusive trolling against all those who seek balance and circumspection, is the violence faced by Kashmiri students, who are forced to study in different parts of the country due to the prevailing instability in their state. In Rajasthan, also ruled by a BJP government, the students at a university were roughed up and forced to return home.
There are scores of unreported incidents where nationalism is flouted against these people. In Meerut, not far from the national capital, Delhi, large hoardings threatening Kashmiris to return home were erected overnight. They were quickly pulled down, but there is little guarantee that the Kashmiris would not be targeted by these Hindu hotheads.
To the credit of the central government, instructions were passed to state authorities that the Kashmiris should be protected, but the implementation in the past has been too lackadaisical to inspire confidence. The police in many states that were not earlier ruled by the Hindu nationalists are becoming used to the new reality where vigilantes and fire-breathing cow protectors call the shots. In some cities of UP, when the police tried to resist cow vigilantes they were beaten up. Slowly the police are getting used to the new normal where the vigilantes rule the streets and decide on how the “enemies of the Hindu state” need to be dealt with.
In Kashmir, the government is faced with stone pelting by not just regular protesters, but female students from relatively elite schools. Images of them covering their faces and letting a stone fly towards the hooded cops have gone viral. State police have decided that the trouble in the valley is being aggravated on social media, and they have shut down the internet and all kinds of messaging applications. Only Instagram has survived in the long list of banned apps.
Recently, the Chief Minister of the state of Jammu and Kashmir, Mehbooba Mufti, was in Delhi and she promised Prime Minister Modi that she would try to restore peace in the valley in the next few months. She wanted a commitment from him that he would allow her to announce talks with all sides (including separatists), but Modi reportedly declined this suggestion.
Unlike the former prime minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, he feels agreeing to speak with separatists is an expression of weakness. He believes his image will soar among his vast legion of supporters if he walks his tough talk.
That means tough times for the people of Kashmir, who don’t really know what to expect. Old-timers here have horrifying memories of disappearances, midnight knocks and torture by state agencies on the one hand, and the criminal excesses by the so-called “freedom fighters” who had been infiltrated into Kashmir from Pakistan.
This time around, there are fewer infiltrators and the uprising is largely indigenous. Many of them who demand liberation or azadi from India are disgusted at the cycle of violence resulting in a slowdown of the economy and poor quality of governance. The people here resent the presence of the security forces that are about 500 000 in number. It is an embarrassingly huge number for the Indian state, but Indian security experts fear that the next war with Pakistan would again be fought over this fabled valley.
US permanent representative to the UN, Nikki Haley, had hinted that President Donald Trump was ready to mediate if the relationship between the two countries worsens. India has rejected this offer, but the pace at which the ties between the two neighbours are declining, especially after a Pakistani court announced a death sentence on an alleged Indian spy, nothing can be really ruled out.
Kapoor is Independent Media’s stringer based in Delhi, India. He is also the editor of the publication Hard News in India.