Nice to see you back to blogging after a pretty long hiatus. I must say you have hit the nail on the head. I myself wonder what do we achieve by throwing the life out of gear at the drop of a hat. Ok a news item of 50 seconds on NDTV, but afterwards? You too know it well. This has never helped us.

Though I would not hold people fully responsible for these hardships but then malaise we are suffering from is partly self induced. Leave aside questioning the so-called freedom leaders do we question ourselves what are we achieving.

I cannot agree more with your suggestion that on elections we should have gone about our business but then you know we would not be allowed to.

Do these people actually wait for a disaster – something like an last year’s land grab issue – to come and proclaim “I am the leader”. Is that their claim to fame?

Sometimes I wonder are we becoming from pro-tehreek to anti-tehreek, my inner voice tells me that it is neither – we are thinking about the happenings around us – We were never pro-tehreek (luckily never were self-styled commanders) or anti-tehreek (luckily not even part of IuM).. We were and are simple people caught in this quagmire and at times seem to be incapacititated to think what is right and what is not right. And when we do think, I am sure a label is ready for us from either of the camps.

What do you say to a family member of a Shopian victim? Do you tell him, that he needs to stop protesting and resume his pathetic oppressed life where his sister or wife or daughter will get molested and killed again and again and he can do nothing about it just because his fellow kashmiri – who is equally vulnerable to the threat (but does not realise it) – has to earn his bread and butter. No, you dont. The only way to stop what is happening to Kashmiris today is to let the world know what it is. Yes candlelights help but that is when you live in a normal world where the winds of time are choked well before they extinguish them. In Kashmir, candles just are not sufficient. Ask yourself, did the two week long strike against the shopian incident bring no good. It did. Ever that small amount. But it has added to the cauldron. Now they know that, if nothing else there will be a strong resentment if anything similar happens.

The fact that our leaders are nowhere close to the ‘follow-blindfold’ material makes individual effort that much more important. We have to start thinking about all those who face the brunt of Indian occupation directly. It may not be us today but God forbid there are no insurances that it won`t be us in the future.

On a closing note, I say hartaals are no waste but only when we really mean to show solidarity and not what we do today – loiter around with forgotten mates. I

As far as discrimination goes, it seems the great nation which rules over us will never understand what aspirations of people on the ground actually are. They are willing to go by what their stooges tell them. It has been happening for many decades now and I thought the mass public uprising will change the way it thinks about the Kashmiris. But no, the belief was misplaced.

The patron of NC himself mentioned that the reported suicide by an AYSS supporter was actually due to the fact that the person was neck-deep in debt. Yet how many from the national media tried to see whether there was any truth in the assertion by the Samiti that the deceased committed suicide due to the land deal revocation. Mind you, it was very significant for the agitation in Jammu till then was not at such a high pitch.

What more proof of discrimination (against Kashmiris) do you need when you have countless deaths in Kashmir valley on a day to day basis. How many agitators were harmed in Jammu, it’s a well known fact. Agitators in Jammu, armed with lathis, tridents and what not… Agitators who looted and plundered yet seem to have come out unscathed. And if this wasn’t enough the promise to release those involved directly with this violent agitation.

What more can we say. It’s all very obvious and yet no one seems to notice it.

Juz A Kashmiri
http://blog.mykashmir.info