May 2003 Issue
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Editorial
U.S. Double Standards
The new diplomatic offensive launched by the Americans in South Asia, has provoked strong Indian resentment. On America's double standards on terrorism, the Indians are rightly asking--Is US naive or simply hypocrite? The State Department's prejudices against India, as reflected in the recent actions, threaten to torpedo the unrealised promise of closer Indo-U.S. relations.
America's apparent benign attitude towards Pakistan, its extraordinary tolerance of the violation of all norms on terrorism and the proliferation by Pakistan, the meek response to Pakistan's brazen nuclear and missile co-operation with North Korea and a return to the tone of "even handedness" in the public statements, simply confirm the worst suspicions about U.S. intentions. of late, the US has been feeling shy in describing Pakistan's support to Jehadis as "terrorism". It would prefer to call it simply as "infiltration". Americans no longer demand end to cross-border terrorism on a permanent basis. They would like India to feel satisfied if "infiltration is reduced".
The U.S. has also made attempts to undermine India's defence co-operation with Israel and sought to create difficulties in India's burgeoning relationship with Iran, China and Afghanistan. This is being done to appease Pakistan and pressurise India to align with U.S. to fulfill its hegemonistic designs. Ambassador Blackwill, who had radically altered the discourse on three big issues--Kashmir, terrorism and nuclear proliferation, that bedevilled the bilateral relationship in the past, has been shown the door.The apparent U.S. unwillingness to confront Pakistan on any issue raises deeper concerns in India about the nature of the emerging relationship between U.S. and Pakistan. Given the lack of political will in New Delhi, it is true that India's options in dealing with Pakistan-sponsored cross-border terrorism may be limited. Should that become a temptation for hanging on to U.S. for bailing us out? It is a good augury that a serious debate has begun in the country on whether "strategic alliance" with U.S. was in India's interests. The emerging consensus is that it will limit India's options, including military ones, without any great benefit.
To suggest that the U.S. does not have enough leverage is not credible at a time, when U.S. has pumped massive doses of economic assistance in Pakistan and also written off a billion dollars of debt. Pakistan cannot disregard what the U.S. says, as it is so dependent on Americans.
There is total divergence of views between India and the U.S. on Kashmir, cross-border terrorism and global terrorism, Indo-Pak relations, nuclear issue, the role of religious-identity politics in plural societies and the shaping of the new world order.
The US has been playing double games on Kashmir and using finer points to make about the complexity of the Kashmir situation and Pak sponsorship of cross-border terrorism. Its frequent references to Kashmir as a "disputed territory" and inclusion of "wishes of Kashmiris" in any final solution, have only served to stoke the Jehadi flames and accord legitimacy to religious-identity politics, with grave implications for India's pluralist society.
Americans have been deliberately maintaining ambiguity on the issue of cross-border terrorism, refusing to acknowledge the sources and linkages of terrorism in Pakistan or holding Pakistan state responsible for its complicity. U.S. categorises Jehadi campaign not as a threat to the civil society and stability of state but as an instrument to bring India to the negotiating table. By constantly harping on the dangers of nuclear conflict, the U.S., in effect, reinforces Pakistan's resort to nuclear blackmail.
The U.S. continues to pursue 'Brezhinski line', i.e. using Islamic fundamentalist groups for hegemonistic designs. Its concerns on global and cross-border terrorism are only America-specific.
There is a need to evolve innovative military and diplomatic responses to force Pakistan to desist from sponsorship of cross-border terrorism. New Delhi must tell Americans firmly that their advice will be welcome only, when they are sensitive to Indian concerns. At the same time, Indians must engage American public and the business community, to educate them on how U.S. policies were indirectly encouraging Islamic fundamentalist forces. Such forces could strike U.S. interests too.
Panun
Kashmir delegation meets Vohra, reiterates homeland
KS
Correspondent
SRINAGAR,
Apr 25: A three-member delegation of Panun Kashmir, headed by its Chairman, Dr
Ajay Chrangoo met Mr. N.N. Vohra, the Centre's interlocutor on Kashmir, this
morning. It made a detailed presentation on Kashmir and the problems of the
displaced Pandit community. The other members of the delegation were Mr. Kuldeep
Raina, General Secretary and Mrs. Nancy Kaul, General Secretary, Daughters of
Vitasta Women's Wing of Panun Kashmir. The meeting lasted over an hour.
Homeland
Reiterated :
The
delegation told Centre's interlocutor that no serious thought was being given to
the return of Kashmiri Pandits to their homes in the Valley. The manner in which
the J&K government is addressing the question has boomranged on Kashmiri
Pandits. Dr. Chrangoo said, "The return of our community is being addressed
more as a cosmetic, non-serious exercise rather than with the seriousness such a
human problem deserves". The members impressed upon Vohra that the Kashmir
government's appeal to the Pandits to return would evoke the right response only
if a safe zone with Union Territory Status was carved out north and east of the
river Jhelum. "The Union Territory Status is essential because we want the
Indian Constitution and all the Central laws to be applicable to the places
where we live and not laws with intermediary interpretations, as happens in
Kashmir", Vohra was told.
The
delegation held that last month's Nadimarg massacre in which over two dozen
Pandits were killed was partly triggered by media reports that the Kashmir
government was mulling plans for the return of Hindus to Valley. The members
told Vohra, "It has to be a political dispensation of a far greater
magnitude than the platitudes which the Central and State governments have
become used to".
Panun
Kashmir delegation talked about the genocide against the community. It made a
strong plea for the provision of employment opportunities and improvement in the
condition of migrant camps in Jammu. It demanded that Centre should build
economic and psychological stakes for the displaced community in the state. Only
then could it return to Valley. The members demanded that in no case the ratio
of its employees should be allowed to fall below 1990 strength. It may be
recalled that there were 13000 state government employees of Pandit community in
total employee strength of 3.5 lakhs. They also referred to Centre's
indifference to their plight. One and a half year back, the Prime Minister had
announced raising of relief from Rs 2400 to Rs 3000. It has still not been
implemented. Panun Kashmir demanded that relief should be raised to Rs 5000.
The
delegation accused State government of building psychological attrition on
community and worsening its plight. It referred to PK' delegation's visit to
Sangrampora in 1997, where S.P. Budgam told them that the State government had
not taken local administration in confidence on Pandit delegation's visit. NC
government had virtually imperilled their security and BSF had come to their
rescue.
On
the policy of tokenist return of Pandit community, the delegation said the
government was trying to delegitimise the communal and subversive role of
separatists and was legitimizing the creation of monolithic Islamic state.
Return of Pandits was not possible unless it was linked with ethnic-cleansing
process and ideological contours of separatists ideology.
Dr.
Ajay Chrangoo told Mr. Vohra that no single-track approach would help retrieve
Kashmir. The Centre had to gear up social groups who were opposed to
separatists. He argued how Panun Kashmir was a valuable strategic option for
retrieval of situation.
Secular
Nation-Building:
The
Panun Kashmir delegation pleaded that the crisis in Kashmir basically reflects
the failure of the secular nation-building process. Dr. Chrangoo told Vohra that
if the solution to Kashmir problem has to be found then the communal politics
has to be defeated.
The
delegation explained how Kashmir was a military problem and in the present
Political scenario, there was no space for political dialogues. The PK Chairman
told Vohra that by responding to military problem with peace, the government was
compromising peace and surrendering peace to those who violated it.
Three
genres of secessionism:
Dilating
upon this, they explained that there were three streaks of secessionism in
Kashmir’s Muslim politics. One demanded independence, second was for
annexation of State by Pakistan while the third one, represented by NC was
demanding autonomy and a semi-sovereign state, with two constitutions. The three
variants of separatist politics only complemented one another. GOI has been
making mistakes by patronizing one variant of communal-separatist politics to
fight another.
Expressing
pessimism over Centre’s approach the members of the delegation argued that in
the absence of an alternate ideological pole of politics in Valley, the fight
against secessionists has remained hamstrung.
Outlining
various steps that need to be undertaken for setting the things right in
Kashmir, the members of the delegation presented a three point solution. One,
the Central government must desist from enacting symbolic/tokenist return, and
link it with broad aspects of the problem. Second, Centre must not succumb to
the politics of blackmail, resorted to by either mainstream Valley groups or the
separatists. In this context they upbraided Central leadership for giving long
rope to Sheikh Abdullah in earlier years and bungling of Chief Ministership
issue recently. The nation had to pay heavy price for it. In 1989-90, when Mufti
Syed was Union Home Minister, lowering down of security forces’ presence
created a situation where people in thousands came out in streets to stage
secessionist demonstrations. Again recently, Vohra was told, disbanding of STF
undermined counter-insurgency efforts. Third suggestion was the Centre must
contest and not cover up communal politics. The members minced no words in
telling Centre’s interlocutor that they were not going to legitimize
religion-based politics in the state. They asked Mr Vohra how was Centre going
to build stakes ‘high for the separatists.
The
Panun Kashmir leadership apprised Mr Vohra that they had raised similar issues
when they met Mr KC Pant in May 2001 at Srinagar. They said Kashmiri Pandits had
become civilisational and political frontline victims in the ongoing proxy-war.
In Kashmir the challenge is not correcting so-called historical wrongs but
re-establishing secular nation-building principles, they added. Referring to the
contradictions in Centre’s approach, they said “Kashmir has been projected
as the refutation of two-nation theory, but sad story was it has been governed
on two-nation principle”. They warned this contradiction will not only destroy
the J&K State but also undermine the entire polity of India.
The
delegation lamented that India had allowed itself to be cornered on the issue of
human and civil rights in Kashmir, because it allowed a selective discourse on
human rights to flourish in the country. This discourse only concerns itself
with “excesses” of the state and takes it out from the compulsions imposed
on the state by the terrorist environment. GOI failed to place Kashmiri Hindu
displacement in proper perspective. The members also referred to the role of
NHRC, which was undermining the position of patriotic victims of terrorism.
Interaction
with Media:
Later
the Panun Kashmir delegation met the representatives from Kashmir’s print and
electronic media and had lively and frank interaction with them. In the troubled
history of Kashmir, Panun Kashmir had few chances for interactions with
Valley’s media. Dr Ajay Chrangoo, head of PK answered questions, asked by
media-persons.
Q:
Doesn’t homeland demand entail a communal division of Valley?
AC:
This is the only secular political approach existing in Valley, as it links the
survival of Kashmiri identity with free flow of Indian Constitution. Kashmiri
Pandits have found, over the years, they were living in a defecto Muslim state.
They have now resolved not to be part of any political process, which promotes
or camouflages Muslim communalism.
Q:
How can the Valley Muslims be dubbed as communal? Didn’t they protest strongly
over Nadimarg massacre?
AC:
We have to understand the whole process in a balanced way. We know it very well
that the local Muslims were involved in all the major massacres that have taken
place. Why are Kashmiri Muslims trying to wish away this reality and after each
massacre trying to give an impression that only foreign mercenaries were
involved. If foreign mercenaries alone are involved, isn’t it a more serious
indictment of Kashmiri Muslim society, because a widespread societal connivance
is required for foreign terrorists to operate. We have also in mind how lakhs of
people joined Sheikh Abdullah’s funeral. After a few years only, his grave had
to be protected.
Q:
What has led to the present crisis?
AC:
It is failure of secular nation-building process. The crisis in Kashmir can be
reversed only through reversal of process of communalisation of Kashmir’s
social milieu. GOI’s emphasis has been totally misplaced.
Q:
How can a 2 percent minority lay its claim to a large chunk of land in Kashmir?
AC:
What is the basis of our demand has to be addressed? You cannot have a correct
census of our community, when violence rules the roost. The figures of
displacement, available with GOI project our population strength to be around
350 thousand. In this various diasporas of Kashmiri Pandits have not been
counted.
Q:
Doesn’t this homeland demand visualise expulsions of Muslims from the demanded
territory?
AC:
Indian Constitution and its free flow does not exclude anybody. How do you
assume that there are no Kashmiri Muslims, who want to live in such a
dispensation? Conversely, we can ask whether those, who believe in separatism,
have any dispensation for those who do not believe in autonomy, “azadi” or
outright secession. Where will these people go in case these separatist
proposals fall through?
Q:
Do you have a final solution in mind?
AC: The lesson of this century is that final solutions do not work. Final solution of jews led to the creation of Israel. Final solution for Palestine is almost on the brink. Palestinians are on the verge of getting homeland. Final solution for Kurds also failed. The reality of Kurds’ attaining homeland has become a distinct possibility. I can assure you, each massacre against Pandit community and every bullet fired at a Kashmiri Pandit will not only build the logic for homeland. It will in fact deliver it.
Panun
Kashmir delegation later flew to Jammu to brief the press about its talks with
the Centre’s inerlocutor.
Sampriti
organises seminar on ‘Literature in Exile’
KS
Correspondent
JAMMU,
Apr 30: Sampriti an organisation of displaced writers organised, a
three-day seminar here on ‘Literature-in-Exile’. The seminar was inaugurated
by the renowned art personality Kapila Vatsayan. In her inaugural remarks she
stated ‘Exile is the pain and it prepares the mind and men to make endeavors
to further realise the lost promise of Kashmir’. She said, Kashmiriyat must be
undestood in the context of exile. The eminent scholar, who too spent her
childhood and adolescent years in Kashmir, referred to the important role
Kashmir played in Indian aesthetics movement, Buddhist art and Shaivite
philosophy.
Prof.
Amitabh Mattoo, who presided over the seminar, said Dalai Lama-the spiritual
leader of Tibet had once told him that because of exile the narrow
fundamentalism has given way to pluralistic ethos.
Dr.
B.L. Koul, in his paper “Vista-pan ka purv abas in literature,”
discussed the role of Kashmiri scholars before migration. He threw light on the
contribution of Dina Nath Nadim, Vasudev Reh and Moti Lal Saqi. He said many
Kashmiri scholars had made forecasts about the events, which forced the
community to flee its homeland. Prof. Kaul said 1986 communal incidents of
Anantnag were also a premonition. He added that the pain and agony of the
displaced community will end only after it is rehabilitated in its own homeland.
Earlier,
Mr Moti Lal Kemu, a well-known theatre personality said that during the exile
150 books were written in Hindi, Kashmiri, Urdu and English. He, however,
expressed serious concern saying the threat posed to co-existence in Kashmir can
have serious repercusions as well. Prof. Omkar Koul, ex-Director, Centre of
Indian Languages said there are various achievements of the migration in the
field of literature. One is that women writers emerged, forgotten poets were
published, monumental works were written, source material was made available and
a number of literary organisations came into being.
Dr.
Om Goswami said that migration has been taking place since old times but this
time it is more metaphorical and vicious as the Pandit community was forced to
abandon its homeland under the blunt edge of the ethnic sword. Dr Bali, in his
paper said that the "Literature in Exile" has not been projected with
full might and verve but in a whispering manner. He said the main brunt of the
exile was born by old people, whose families fragmented. What can be more
painful for them that at the time of death, they can find only their spouse at
bed side and not children, Dr Bali lamented. He opined the people in exile were
not bitten by sever frost but by the venomous desperation.
Prof.
B.L. Fotedar commented that displaced writers were still apologetic in fixing
the responsibility for exodus and this had affected the quality of literature
brought out in exile.
Indo-Pak
Dialogue: No Euphoria in India
By
P.K. Kothari
India's
1800 about turn on resuming dialogue
with Pakistan and delinking it from the stoppage of cross-border terrorism as a
pre-condition, does not come as a surprise. The nation has often felt let down
by the lack of vision and absence of grit and determination, displayed by the
political leadership. Oft-repeated rhetoric on Pakistan has been unmatched by
action.The leadership has never acted decisively and boldly when necessary.
Tendency to react in a knee-jerk fashion and yielding, too often, to external
pressure has become part of strategic culture, evolved by the NDA government.
American
Pressure:
Extending
the olive branch to Pakistan, the Prime Minister, Mr Vajpayee, at the Srinagar
press conference argued: “What has happened in Iraq is a Chetavni (warning) to
the rest of the world, especially to the developing countries. India and
Pakistan should sit down and sort out their problems. Inviting a third party
will only expand the problem".
Of
late, U.S. officials have been trying to arm-twist India into opening dialogue
with Pakistan, by issuing nuanced statements. The CIA Director, George Tennet,
stated recently : “The cycles of tension between India and Pakistan are
getting shorter. Pakistan continues to support groups that resist India's
presence in Kashmir, in an effort to bring India to the negotiating table".
The
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, Richard Armitage stated that the Indo-Pakistan
situation was totally frightening and the need of the hour was to “stop the
weakening of international security architecture and put an end to the spread of
nuclear weapons". He went on to praise Musharraf, as a man of his word, who
had been able to curb the infiltration of Muslim militants from Pakistan into
Kashmir. Mr Armitage also praised his role as reliable US ally : “In the war
against terrorism, General Musharraf and his colleagues in Islamabad have been
absolutely spectacular in breaking up terrorist cells, most recently one
directed against our consul in Karachi, for which we are enormously grateful”.
Applauding America's pro-Pak tilt, Pakistani Foreign Minister, Khurshid Ahmed
Kasuri praised U.S., saying it was an “honest broker”, playing positive
role.
Ground
Reality :
The
plain fact is, really nothing has changed in Islamabad's attitude towards India
and terrorism. Since the Prime Minister's April 19 speech in Srinagar, J&K
has already witnessed four bloody 'fidayeen' attacks- at Bandipore,
Radio Kashmir (Srinagar), Tral (Pulwama) and Drug-Mullah (Kupwara). There have
been two attempts on the life of State Finance Minister, Mr Muzaffar Hussain
Beig. As per official estimates, 350 terrorists (150 alone in April) have
sneaked into Jammu during the past four months.
Fearing
another brutal summer ahead, Ambassador Lalit Man Singh, told a gathering on
Indo-U.S. relations, at the University of California, Los Angels: "Close to
100 training camps have been spotted across the LOC, holding some 3,000 trained
terrorists to be sent to India. An additional 1,500 are already on the LOC,
waiting to slip across, with the active assistance of the Pakistan armed
forces...Terrorists leaders in Pakistan have been released from detention and
are being freely allowed to mobilise funds for Jehad". Pakistan has also
begun diverting Taliban elements into Kashmir, to deflect U.S. pressure and to
replenish the terrorist ranks. It has since equipped terrorists with Anza and
many other SAMs.
Referring
to the ground reality, Stephen Cohen, a Brooklyn scholar observes: “The
structural differences between the two countries are deep. They seem to be
conspiring to make the Americans believe that they are serious”.
Compulsions
:
U.S.
pressure, Pakistan's internal compulsions, lack of grit to deal with a rogue
state and rethinking on the “rigid” stand have all figured in the
calculations that went into Vajpayee's offer. The NDA government has been quick
to sense priority to Israel-Palestine problem, North Korea and Kashmir as the
post-Iraq agenda of US.
Even
at the height of Iraqi campaign, Colin Powell, the U.S. Secretary of State told
the New York Times : “India, Pakistan and the whole of the
sub-continent problem was part of the “broader agenda” that the U.S. planned
to go back to after Iraq. Americans also warned India against pre-emptive strike
against Pakistan. Joanne Prokopowicz, the State Department Spokeswoman said :
"Any attempts to draw parallels between the Iraq and Kashmir situations are
wrong and are overwhelmed by the differences between them".
There
is a strong view in Delhi that the "rigid" stand, so far, has only
served to reduce the space for Kashmir-related diplomatic manoeuvres. Pakistan's
internal compulsions may have also figured in extending the olive branch.
Musharraf's lack of domestic credibility, slowing down of foreign direct
investment and increasing friction between U.S. and Pakistan over latter's
covert support to Al-Qaeda-Taliban elements, have all influenced the Indian
perceptions. Pakistanis believe, a dialogue with India, would help decrease U.S.
pressure over its double-faced role vis-a-vis Al-Qaeda.
In
the perceptions of the present NDA-Govt., New Delhi cannot engineer a change in
Islamabad's behaviour without help from U.S. This assessment makes Delhi yield
too often to American pressure. Manoj Joshi, a Defence expert elaborates :
"New Delhi's current predicament is palpable and in part of its own making.
Indian officials claim that the country was close to ordering its forces to go
to war at two different points of time in 2002. But the final order did not come
and a major reason for this is that India lacks the military capacity to punish
Pakistan, which continues to facilitate the work of Jehadi terrorists in the
state. India has little choice now but to lean on the U.S. to check
Pakistan".
Security
Threat:
Despite
the optimism displayed in official rhetoric on both sides recently, the mood in
India is full of scepticism and one of betrayal by Americans. Many top security
experts of the country have done well to focus on the long-term Pakistani threat
to Indian security.
In a
brilliantly researched paper, read to a distinguished gathering in New Delhi
recently, Prof. Satish Kumar stated Pakistan poses a long-term security threat
to India. He said this was inherent in the nature of Pakistan state, its
ideology, its power structure and the imperatives that determine the behaviour
of its ruling establishment. He warns: "These factors are not likely to
change in the next 20 to 30 years. India has to cope with this kind of
adversary. Its strategic capabilities and thinking, its national will and
character must respond to the situation accordingly".
Mr.
J.N. Dixit, former Foreign Secretary concurs with this assessment. Delving deep
into the official documents related to strategic planning by Pakistan concerning
its relation with India, he opines: "whatever admonitions and pressures
that the U.S. may generate on Pakistan, there is not going to be any qualitative
or positive change in Pakistan’s policies towards J&K". Arguing that
alienating J&K from India is not a limited one issue objective for it, Mr.
Dixit concludes: "The objective is the long-term strategic objective of the
Pakistani power structure to destabilise India by generating violence and
communal divisiveness and then fragmentation of India on the basis of
centrifugal, ethno religious forces, which it seeks to create, sustain and
encourage".
Mr.
Dixit dismisses Pakistan's quest for dialogue as spurious, saying "its
reiterations of insisting on a dialogue will be cover for these policy
objectives and will also be an exercise in preventing world powers from
understanding the substance of Pakistani machinations". Didn't Musharraf
himself say, a month after Lahore Summit: "Low-Intensity conflict with
India will continue even after the Kashmir issue is resolved".
Air
Marshal (Retd.) R.S. Bedi explains Pakistani Schizophrenia in these terms :
“Instead of striving to come up as an independent and powerful nation and
developing economic and cultural relations with similar India for mutual
development of both, Pakistan sought to move on an entirely different course. It
chose to challenge India. It sought military parity, started to nibble at
India’s vulnerable parts and began to patronize Indian Muslims. Ambition for
leadership and its denial to India became its core foreign policy objective.
Migrant Muslims from India who had an ideological bias against Hindu India and
who formed the ruling elite of Pakistan emerged as an important factor behind
anti-Indian stance”.
Independent
Pakistani assessments have not been different. Hussain Haqqani, former Foreign
Minister and a Carnegie scholar says, a feeling of insecurity against a much
larger and “hostile” neighbour was the original source of Pakistani
apprehensions about its nationhood. He argues that Pakistani attempts to
destabilize India have been directly related to this sense of insecurity. In his
opinion, over the years, structures of conflict have evolved, with the Pakistani
establishment as the major beneficiary of maintaining hostility. He says, “the
exclusion of Bhutto and Sharif from the political process has benefited the
Islamist political parties. Their political power makes it difficult for
politicians and intellectuals to advocate a settlement with India”.
Army-Mullah
Nexus:
The
political instability in Pakistan gave place to military bureaucracy, which
thrives on hostility to India and exports terror as its official policy. Army
dominates virtually every section of national life. There has also been growing
trends of Islamisation within Army. A western expert on Pak army, Stephen Cohen
analyses : “The present arrangement of a military-led or influenced government
will prevail indefinitely, but not transform Pakistan. Rebuilding weakened
institutions is pointless if the Central operational principles of the Pakistani
establishment remain hatred and distrust of India and intolerance of diversity
at Home”. Pak army, in fact, needs Kashmir issue for its own survival. It is a
pretext to paper over internal contradictions in Pakistan.
Absence
of any political infrastructure has led the Jehadi groups to occupy the
available space. The fundamentalist groups are collaborating with the army-led
government in fomenting subversion in India. Farrukh Saleem, a noted Pakistani
analyst observes : “The military government is now engaged in a dicey-double
stance, appeasing the Americans in the international front and using the mullahs
on the domestic front. Internal policy is all about derailing democracy and
splitting up democratic forces. External policy is nothing but India-Centric.
The Khaki and the mullahs both have an identical view of national identity and
that of national security…Both use Islam and India to distract the population
from real issues”.
Pakistan
Army’s subversive role has been supplemented by the huge Jehadi
infrastructure, built over the past two decades. It includes 40-50 thousand
madrassas. There are today 200 thousand armed Jehadis in Pakistan, backed by
over one million young people, Jehad oriented but not yet armed. According to
one estimate, Pakistan’s defence budget-at Rs 180 billion-is supplemented by
Rs 80 billion, collected by the ‘jehadi’ organizations for the “cause”.
What
is alarming is that there is widespread public endorsement of jehadis in
Pakistan. A recent poll in Pakistan showed 88% people believe that the holy
Quran and Sunnah should be the source of all laws in Pakistan. And 64% of those
polled agree that Pakistan’s security interests were served by supporting
jehadi outfits in J&K.
Pak
Intransigence:
For
many reasons, Pakistan’s military believes it can continue to bleed India.
One, India has been deterred from responding militarily to its provocations
because of fear of nuclear escalation. Haqqani observes: “The possession of
nuclear weapons has given the Pakistani elite a sense of invulnerability and has
increased its willingness to consider options of unconventional warfare”.
India’s empty rhetoric on pre-emptive strikes and failure to intimidate
Pakistan, with unprecedented mobilization of its troops along the border, and
their subsequent tame withdrawal, without achieving any of the explicitly
declared objectives, reinforced Pakistan’s conviction that its nuclear posture
had been able to put India on the defensive. Musharraf even claimed that
Pakistani armed forces were able to defeat the enemy without fighting the war.
This is an important reason for heightened terrorist activities in India lately.
U.S.
Role :
Secondly,
Pakistan army is convinced that it has the support of the U.S. not only in
ruling the country, but also in receiving U.S. economic and military assistance,
despite the provocations it indulges in against India. Pakistan, not without
justification, has a belief that the U.S. A will not really do anything
meaningful to embarrass it on cross-border terrorism.
Colin
Powell, the U.S. Secretary of State describes Pakistan’s support for its
Jehadis not as support for “terrorism” but as “infiltration”. He, no
longer, insists that infiltration has to end. Powell wants us to be satisfied if
it has been “reduced”. G. Parthasarthy laments: “By constantly speaking of
the dangers of nuclear conflict, the U.S. in effect, reinforces Pakistan’s
resort to nuclear blackmail.”
Even
while U.S. is hunting Al-Qaeda and Taliban elements, it wants to keep Jehadi
pressure on India to fulfill its narrow geo-political objectives. U.S. went out
of its way to help Pakistan-over $ 1 billion in aid, renewed IMF and World Bank
soft lending, international debt-rescheduling of over $12 billion and the
promise to write off $1 billion in U.S. debt. Against this U.S. has been trying
to put spokes in the wheel for India’s defence cooperation with Israel and
burgeoning relationship with Iran and China.
Why
U.S. still regards Pakistan as its front-line ally and overlooks Pakistan’s
double-faced policy towards Al-Qaeda Jehadis and the dangers of its nuclear
assets falling into the hands of Jehadis and other rogue states?
G.
Parthasarthy observes: “The U.S. needs Pakistan in its hunt for terrorists in
Afghanistan and in Pakistan itself. It has concluded that it should support
Musharraf and the Pakistani Army to achieve its objectives. This is a
relationship of political expediency, but one India cannot ignore”. In the
view of Farrukh Saleem, a Pak analyst : “Pakistan produces nothing that can
help America grow….our goals do not overlap America’s…America’s real
interest in Pakistan, as a consequence, is that we do not become a rogue state
and that we do not become an agent of instability in the region. No more, no
less”.
Reaction
:
However,
Americans are not taking any chances, once their direct security interests are
threatened. It has been demanding regular purges of anti-American elements in
ISI and Army. The recent air crash, in which Pak Air Chief, a known
anti-American, was killed has led to lot of speculation on conspiracy theories.
On the nuclear assets, Jane’s Intelligence Digest (March 21) says, a U.S.
contingency plan has been put in place to neutralize the threat of Pakistani
nuclear assets and technology falling into the hands of Islamic fundamentalists.
This follows revelation on the murder of Daniel Pearl, by Bernard Henry Levy, a
French security expert.
The
Prospect:
Even
as India hopes to wrest few concessions in dialogue with Pakistan, the patriotic
opinion is exercised over a number of issues-What options for pressure and
measured retaliation are available to India should the terrorist violence
escalate beyond a point? Secondly, do we have a long-term vision to deal with a
rogue army that undermines democracy at home and promotes Jehad abroad.
The present, NDA government has put all its eggs in the American basket to bail out India from the mess in Kashmir. What it can lead to-G. Parthasarthy, India’s foremost expert on Pakistan and former Ambassador warns on a prophetic note : “Nations lose their independence, self-confidence and self-respect not by importing foreign technology, goods and services, but by mortgaging their minds to foreign doctrines and concepts”.
Allama
Iqbal-Searching for Pandit Roots
Dr.
Ramesh Kumar
Sir Sheikh
Mohammad Iqbal, who subsequently became famous as Allama Mohammed Iqbal was born
in Sialkot on November 9, 1877. That Iqbal came from Kashmiri Brahmin stock was
well-known. However, there were few details on how his ancestors came to settle
down in Sialkot. The claim that Iqbal’s family originally hailed from
‘Saprain’ a village on Shopian-Kulgam road, lacks historical data. Saprus,
even if all of them hailed from this village, have been living in Srinagar city
for more than five centuries. Another difficulty to trace roots of Sapru family
in Kashmir is the lack of tradition to maintain geneology, among Kashmiri
Pandits.
It
was in 1969, Dr R.K. Parimu, the author of “History of Muslim Rule in
Kashmir”, provided a vital clue to Iqbal’s ancestory. In 1939-40, when Dr.
Parimu had been assigned the task of organizing and listing the Persian records
for the state government in the J&K State Record office in Jammu, he
stumbled upon a paper among the Persian documents. According to this document,
one Sahaz Ram Sapru was in charge of the revenue of Kashmir during the regime of
Afghan Governor, Azim Khan (1813-1819). Sapru” as per the document, had held
the revenue in arrears, having expended the money in marriages, etc. in his
family. When the report went to the Governor, he summoned him. Sahaz Ram
admitted his guilt like a brave man. He was young, charming and attractive. The
governor was moved and offered him death or Islam as a penalty. As per Dr Parimu,
Sapru accepted Islam and at the same time requested that as Muslim he would not
like to live in Kashmir. He was allowed to settle in Sialkot.
This
view is discounted by Moulvi Hassan and rightly so. Pandit Sahaz Ram was first
appointed as revenue collector in 1796 by Afghan Governor, Abdullah Khan Alkozai
(1796-1800). Sahaz Ram was appointed Dewan in 1806 by the new Governor, Ata
Mohammad Khan Barakzai (1806-13). The Governor was a just and generous ruler and
led a simple life. In 1813 when Azim Khan became Governor, (1813-19) Pandit
Sahaz Ram Sapru, was reappointed as Governor’s Dewan. Pandit Sahaz Ram
Sapru’s loyalty and ability had stood him in good stead. He had been in
Governor’s service since 1796. The same Azim Khan had lynched Pandit Hara Dass
Tiku, brother of Dewan Nand Ram Tiku.
When
Sikh victory seemed imminent, Azim Khan hurriedly left Kashmir in 1819. He left
his family and the huge treasure of one crore in cash and kind in the custody of
his loyal official, Pandit Sahaz Ram Sapru to follow him. Pandit Sahaz Ram
escorted Azim Khan’s family and wealth to Kabul.
Fearing
persecution at the hands of new Sikh rulers, for his extreme loyalty, to Azim
Khan Pandit Sahaz Ram Sapru decided to settle down in Sialkot, a town just 14
kms from Jammu. He acquired lot of lands.
Family
Tree:
The
genelogy of Iqbal’s family so meticulously prepared by Mrs. Rajkishori Rawal
(nee Sapru), daughter of Pandit Amarnath Sapru, Ist cousin of Iqbal’s father,
starts with Birbal Sapru, father of Iqbal’s grandfather Kanhai Lal. There are
enough reasons to believe Pandit Sahaz Ram Sapru was father of Birbal Sapru.
Birbal Sapru’s family settled in Sialkot around the time Sahaz Ram left
Kashmir.
In
nineteenth century there were just four Kashmiri Pandit families in Sialkot
town. One was Ram Narain Handoo and his brother Hriday Narain Handoo, the
maternal uncles of A.K. Hangal, the film actor. Second one was Birbal Sapru
family. Third family was that of Mohan Zutshi. The fourth one was that of
Damodar Pandit. All these Pandit families were related to one another. Damodar
Pandit, a leading astrologer, who taught Sanskrit at Govt. High School, Sialkot
had two daughters. One was married to Ram Narain. Handoo’s father and second
to Pandit Radhakrishan Sapru, the son of Birbal Sapru. Mohan Zutshi’s grandson
Gopi Krishan Zutshi was married to Ram Narain’s sister.
Birbal
Sapru:
Pandit
Birbal Sapru had inherited lot of lands, located in Punjab Gujarat- Sobha Singh
Ka Kila and Kuja. Despite the affluence, Sapru family of Sialkot did not form
part of the upper class elite of the Pandit community in Punjab. This family
disliked services and led simple life. Tragedies struck the family too
frequently. The only male survivor of the clan was Pandit Amarnath Sapru, who
died decades ago.
Pandit
Birbal Sapru had one daughter Gango and five sons-Ganga Bishan, Thakur Dass,
Kanhai Lal, Mukand Lal and Radha Krishan. Gango had two sons-Dina Nath and Amar
Nath, besides six daughters. Dina Nath’s wife died too young, leaving behind a
son, Kailash. Kailash completed college education and died soon after. Amar Nath
went to study abroad and married an English lady. He took the name of Amar Nath
Purbi and attained the top post of Director customs in J&K State government.
He enjoyed great popularity among officials and the people. After the death of
Amar Nath Purbi, his wife returned to England alongwith her lone daughter.
Ganga
Bishan and Thakur Dass looked after the family lands. Ganga Bishan was married
to Vedna but the two lived an unhappy married life. Vedna died young. Thakur
Dass married Bhagvanti. They did not have any child. He adopted his youngest
brother, Radhakrikshan as his son.
Kanahai
Lal :
Kanhai
Lal, Allama Iqbal’s grandfather was the fourth child of his parents. He was
married to ‘Poshi’. In-laws had named her ‘Indrani’. Three sons and five
daughters were born to them. The three sons were Ratan Lal, Iqbal’s father,
Behari Lal and Nand Lal. Ratan Lal fell in love with a Muslim girl in the
neighbourhood and married her. The family disowned him and Ratan Lal converted
to Islam.
Behari
Lal’s birth has an interesting story behind it. One day, Indrani who was
carrying Behari Lal, was enjoying siesta after lunch. In dream, she saw a big
snake crawling over her body and heard it saying, “Indrani. I am going to take
birth from you in the form of a son and will destroy all your three houses”.
Drowned in fear, Indrani opened her eyes and saw a snake actually moving over
her body. Indrani subsequently turned short-tempered. After giving birth to
Behari Lal, she gave him in adoption to Imberzali, her sister-in-law.
It
was Nand Lal, who was the darling of his parents. He developed a unique
personality, which combined simplicity with concern for others’ welfare. He
would just survive on milk and bread and did not marry.
Kanhai
Lal’s four daughters died quite early. His last surviving daughter Prano was
married to Ram Prashad Sopori in Amritsar. After Prano’s death, Nand Lal took
full care of his nephew ‘Srikrishan’. It were the efforts of Nand Lal that
Srikrishan passed Matriculation with good marks. After he was admitted to
college, Nand Lal was consumed by Plague. Now Indrani had to assume the full
responsibility for looking after Sri Krishan. He joined police service and after
a training course at Sagar got a good post. Srikrishan was married to Senapati,
a girl from Bakshi Kashmiri family, settled in Jammu. She was named Chand Rani
by Indrani. Chand Rani took her sister’s son in adoption, who too joined
police.
‘Kunwari-Bahu’:
Mukand
Lal Sparu was the fourth son of Birbal Sapru. He was married to a beautiful
girl, Rajo. Her mother-in-law enamoured of her great beauty had named her
Imberzali. It is the name of a flower, that grows in Kashmir Valley. Once Mukand
Lal fell ill. All cures failed. His mother brought an astrologer, who told her
that her daughter-in-law was the cause of Mukand’s illness. He advised that if
she desired good health for her son, Mukand should not even see the shadow of
his wife. The astrologer asked Mukand’s mother to keep her daughter-in-law
under strict veil. Imberzali, who was still in her teens, faced torture from her
mother-in-law. She would be overworked and frequently subjected to assaults. No
family member would even intervene. At times she would be denied food and even
turned out from the house. She came to be known as ‘Kunwari Bahu’.
Mukand
Lal passed matric from Punjab University . Only three students had passed the
examination and he had stood first. He became a judge in Amritsar. Mukand had a
sterling character and was never overwhelmed by the fame he achieved.
To
pass their time, drowned in sorrow, both Indrani and Imberzali had taken to
spinning the wheel. Imberzali’s mother-in-law had given Indrani’s son,
Behari Lal in adoption to her. Sapru family celebrated the Yagneopavit ceremony
of Behari Lal with great pomp and show. He was seven years of age then. It was
around this time Mukand Lal passed away. Behari Lal was married to Chanda, who
was named Brij Rani. Only five months after her marriage, Behari Lal left this
world. Imberzali was crest fallen. Few months later Brij Rani gave birth to Shiv
Nandan at Sialkot. At his Kahnethar (naming ceremony), ceremony, the entire
Pandit Baradari of Sialkot had been invited. Indrani, Imberzali and Brij Rani
performed mundane ceremony also at Sialkot. Few months after the mundan
ceremony, Shiva Nandan fell seriously ill and death snatched him.
Iqbal’s
return :
Around
this time, Indrani had come to Amritsar to stay with Imberzali. One day there
was a gentle knock at the door. When Brij Rani opened the door, a
young boy entered. Bowing his head in reverence, he wished Namaskar to
the two old ladies and sat down near them. Astonished by the boy’s grace, the
old ladies in a single voice asked him, “Who are you? Where from have you
come?”
The
boy, in a moving tone told them, “Amma Jan, Don’t treat me as a stranger. I
am Iqbal, the son of your own Ratan Lal. Your and Sapru family’s blood runs in
my Veins, Amma! When father came to know about the tragedies that have struck
this family, he felt humiliated and worried. He has sent me to you. He is
confident, that you will accept me as your own. I am a part of your body. I am
your own grandson, Dadi Jan”.
Indrani
got lost in her thoughts. Her flial love for her grandson had to contend with
the decadent social code of the time. Izzat of the family depended on the
community consensus. The Kashmiri Pandit Samaj of those days was bitterly
divided by the polemics exchanged between Bishan Sabha and Dharam Sabha. Indrani
had already lost her Ratan Lal, fearing for family Izzat. Indrani could not
speak anything. Ratan Lal had sent Iqbal for family rapproachment.
Imberzali
could not restrain herself and told the young boy, “Iqbal, you have been born
to a Muslim mother. Neither our family nor our biradari will accept you again.
It is impossible. You better return”.
Iqbal
still wanted to take a chance. He told Indrani, “Dadi Jan. Father does not
care for us. He is all the time lost in his own world. Ammi is also worried. I
have come with a firm belief that you won’t disown me because I am your
own”. Indrani was all tears. This account is based on the family history
maintained by Sapru family.
For
many days after Iqbal had left, Indrani continued to feel as if he was sitting
besides her.
Radha
Krishan :
Pandit
Radha Krishan Sapru was the youngest child of Birbal Sapru. A model of honesty
and loyalty, he was deeply religious too. He was married to Parvati, the
daughter of renowned Sanskrit teacher, Damodar Pandit. She was called Rajrani at
in-law’s house. Her marriage was performed at the famous shrine of Dhuni Saab,
Mansa Razdan, at Killa Darpan in Punjab Gujarat. Father had bequeathed to her
his varied learning. She was a good poet and composed around eighty poems, most
of these in Punjabi. She also wrote few poems in Urdu. She could recite Shiv
Mahima-Sutr, Indrani, Hanuman Chalisa, Vishnu Sahasarnama etc without any aid.
Her knowledge of Ramayan, Mahabharat, Yog Vashisht, Gita, Upanishad was
proverbial. Radha Krishan knew Urdu and Persian. He served in Sialkot district
office.
Radha
Krishan and Rajrani had one son, Amarnath and three daughters Jainti, Rupo and
Shamo. Jainti was married in Khar family. She had two daughters Rameshwari and
Gouri. The latter died quite young in Multan. Rameshwari had two daughters-Bimla
Koul and Khema. Bimla was wife of Late Pandit Kashyap Bandu, the well-known
Pandit leader. Shamo was married to Bal Krishan Gurtoo, son of Pandit Gopi Nath
Gurtu. Shamo had one daughter Kameshwari (Kamandedi-born in 1901) and one son,
Santosh Gurtu. Kameshwari was married to Inder Krishan Koul, younger brother of
Pandit Ganga Ram Kaul. He died only a year after the marriage. Santosh Gurtu, is
a well known journalist, who once edited “The Pratap”.
Rupo
was married to Ram Nath Karwanyu (Pandit). She had three sons Pran Nath, Iqbal
Nath and Omkar Nath. Pran Nath’s one son, Opinder Nath is settled in Holland
and teaches chemistry at the University. The other son, Prof. Ravinder Kumar,
who died recently, was a foremost scholar on Colonial India. He served for many
years as Director Nehru Memorial Museum and Library. Rupo’s only daughter was
married in Thutha (Atal) family. Dr Jagat Mohini and Dr. Chand Atal, a
well-known scientist and art collector are grand children of Rupo. Pran Nath
Karwanyu also tried his hand at poetry. He once wrote, “Abhi Ruk Jaye
Pandit Ka Janaza, Mujhe Kooch Puchna Hai Jism Aur Jan Se.”
Amar
Nath, the son of Pandit Radha
Krishan also imbibed the best traditions of the family. After matriculation, he
joined service as Accounts officer in Army. At the age of 18, he was married to
Brij Kishori, who belonged to Kashmiri family, Thola. They had one daughter, Raj
Kishori (born-1910) who was married to Pandit Jeevan Nath Rawal. Brij Kishori
died at the age of 29 years in 1920.
Pandit
Amar Nath:
Pandit
Amar Nath served for a few years in Iran as well. He knew Urdu, Persian and
Sanskrit. Intensely proud of his Kashmiri Pandit heritage, he translated Vaakhs
of Lalleshwari, Kashmir’s patron saintess, into Hindi, Urdu and Punjabi,
without any fault. Pandit Amar Nath also authored Kashmiriyon Me Vam Marg and
Poshpuza, which were widely acknowledged. He wrote hundreds of poems. His
entire poetical collection, as per his family, lies with Prof. C.L. Sapru. His
manuscript, Sahita, remains unpublished.
Pt.
Amar Nath Sapru was a Yogi of high order and followed Arya Samaj tenets. He
donated his entire property and rich collection of books to Gurukul Kangri,
Hardiwar, where he passed his last days.
*The author is a keen researcher on Kashmir's History and Culture.
Blackwill
contests U.S. policy on cross-border terrorism
Our
Diplomatic Correspondent
Ambassador
Blackwill's forthright support to India's stand on cross-border terrorism has
cost him his job. He leaves the country as a great friend of this ancient
nation. The ambassador challenged the State department, arguing how its
dangerous policies vis-a-vis cross-border terrorism were preparing the ground
for a renewed, more lethal phase of Islamist terrorism. The state department,
which is seen as a part of the problem in this country, how could it stomach its
own ambassador reminding it, "the fight against international terrorism
will not be won until terrorism against India ends permanently. There can be no
other legitimate stance by the US, no American compromise whatever on this
elemental geopolitical and moral truth. US, India and all civilised nations must
have zero tolerance for terrorism".
The
state department, which is pursuing 'Brezinski line' in achieving geo-political
objectives, brushed aside concerns and the assessment of Ambassador Blackwill.
He warned that Pakistan having nuclear weapons in its armoury, might Jeopardise
the American interests. In an article on the theme, "An action agenda to
strengthen America's alliances in Asia", he forecast that the adverse
impact may start coming to the fore in the next five years. He feared that
Pakistan was on the verge of joining the category of a “failed
state” and a fragmented nation, dominated by Islamic fundamentalists. Besides
risking an Indo-Pak war Islamabad ran the risk of passing on the nuclear
technology and fissile materials to a few other equally fanatic Muslim states.
Ambassador
Blackwill reminded the state department how it was a mistake on its part to have
viewed India " through the prism of its confrontation, with
Pakistan". Also, the US fixation with India's nuclear programme, at the
expense of a broader strategic approach, was not a correct one, he added.
The
state department's obsession of a possible war over Kashmir and its blatant
support to Pakistan in seeking parity with India, has only led to greater Jehadi
intransigence and keeps South Asia smouldering.
Ambassador
Blackwill did not believe that India has to hold a dialogue with Pakistan before
terrorism comes to an end, a view clearly not endorsed by Christina Rocca, who
authored the infamous statement after Nadimarg advocating a dialogue. Blackwill
did not give to Hurriyat the political attention they craved for and refused to
meet them on his two visits to Kashmir. He cancelled his only scheduled meeting
with them, when APHC announced establishment of an "election
commission" to monitor the poll in the state. At a briefing at 15 Corps
Headquarters, Blackwill even interrupted when the word "militants" was
used. He declared, "There is no such thing as militants. They are plain and
simple terrorists". Ambassador also refrained from lecturing India on the
issue of communal violence in Gujarat.
In
early February this year, Rocca, known for her anti-Indian stance confronted Mr
Kapil Sibal, Indian Foreign Secretary, accusing New Delhi of deliberately
turning up the tension with Pakistan by threatening to take "strong
measures". She also strongly believed that it was in US's interest to give
General Musharraf whether over Kashmir or Afghanistan--a longer and longer rope.
The pro-Pak lobby in state department was joined by the non-proliferation hawks
to unleash a patently pro-Pakistan policy. There was an American demarche that
told India to back off on Afghanistan. It was done to keep Pakistan in good
humour. The non-proliferation lobby sought to put brakes on the Trinity issues
(civilian nuclear, high-tech transfers, space) on which the transformed
relationship between India and the US is not reflected. The State Department's
recent policies to de-emphasis the need for Pakistan to fulfill its commitment
on cross-border terrorism; and the increased emphasis on dialogue have put a
spanner in the anti-terrorist campaign. In this scenario, Ambassador Blackwill
was becoming increasingly irrelevant. With growing tension between Pentagon and
the State Department, neither George Bush nor Condelizza Rice could help him out
This left no options for Blackwill.
Ambassador
Blackwill had previously spent 14 years teaching at Harvard and 22 more years as
a career foreign service officer. He taught International Security at Harvard
and was a specialist on Chinese affairs. His knowledge about China and Russia is
phenomenal. At the time of his posting to India, he had left an ambassadorship
to NATO. He preferred India, believing he could inject substance into the
Indo-US relations.
He established a close rapport with Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani. His interactions with Indian bureaucrats and politicians made him more sensitive to Indian concerns. Blackwill didn't allow India to fall of the agenda and assiduously reminded top U.S. policy makers of the need to carry Indo-US relationship to a higher pedestal. He used his personal clout to push things forward. Among his major accomplishments was pushing for easing curbs on high-tech trade to India, increasing both the quality and quantity of senior US visitors, enhancing the military relationship and organising an Indo-US strategy group at the respected Aspen Institute. The problem the ambassador faced with the State Department was not merely on the pace of the India-US relationship but the sequencing of actions vis-a-vis Pakistan.
Blackwill's
departure is a big loss to India. Selig Harrison, an expert on India at the
Centre for International policy in Washington, said he believed relations
between the two democracies were at a stalemate. He added the hopes for progress
for strengthening ties that were aroused when president George W. Bush came to
office had not borne fruit.
George
Tanham--A Great Friend of India
KS
Correspondent
April
has been bad news for India. It lost two great friends. One, Ambassador Robert
Blackwill’s spirited defence of India on the issue of cross-border terrorism
cost him his job. Secondly, George K. Tanham (1922-2003), who passed away
recently, was more concerned about India than India's own strategic elite.
Prof.
George K. Tanham, associated with Rand Corporation, was a longtime friend and
scholar on India. He died on March 29, in Washington, after a prolonged cardiac
illness.
George
and Kathleen Tanham saw India as their second home. His home in Strasburg,
Virginia was often visited by India's elite. Tanham was deeply concerned about
lack of strategic culture in India. This made India vulnerable to proxy-wars and
frequent imperialist blackmail. It also retarded its march as a rising global
power.
George
Tanham, in a seminal essay, "Indian Strategic Thought: An Interpretive
Essay", published in 1992, had tried to explore the reasons which denied
India its strategic culture. He made a study of cultural and historical factors
that shaped Indian strategic thinking. He found Indian elites, "show little
evidence of having thought coherently and systematically about national
strategy".
Prof.
Tanham believed history was a poor guide for understanding Indian strategic
thought because "Indian history is often dimly perceived and poorly
recorded". He added until fairly recently "Indians knew little of
their national history and seemed uninterested in it".
George
Tanham outlined four key elements, which influenced Indian perceptions on power
and security. The experience of the British colonial rule nurtured in Indian
thinkers a pre-disposition toward a predominantly defensive, land-dominated
strategic orientation. Geography lent Indian thinking an "insular
perspective and a tradition of localism and particularism". The discovery
of history by Indian elites in the past 150 years have also influenced Indian
strategic thinking. Lastly, a key element in Indian elite thinking has been the
primacy culture in its world-view and the "assumed superiority" of
this culture. This path-breaking study has been republished in a
volume--Securing India.
Prof.
Tanham, born in Englewood, New Jersey, was trained as a historian at the
universities of Princeton and Stanford. He took part in action during second
world war. After the war, he joined the teaching staff at the California
Institute of Technology. In 1955, he moved to the prestigious Rand Corporation,
which he served till his death. He distinguished himself by bringing out an
excellent study on the dynamics of Counter-Insurgency warfare.
104
SPOs desert their posts
KS
Correspondent
JAMMU,
May 1: After disbanding of Special Task Force (SOG), Are SPOs and VDCs the next
target? The security forces and the patriotic sections are worried at why the
Central government is destroying its own instruments to counter the terrorists.
In a situation, where internal subversion and lack of local support made
counter-insurgency operations a non-starter, there was need for innovative
instruments and strategies. The gap was filled by creating SPOs, launching VDCs
and raising an elite force--SOG (STF).
When
the proxy-war engulfed the Jammu province and the minorities became the target
for ethnic-cleansing campaign, formation of VDCs became a dire compulsion. It
not only pre-empted the exodus of Hindus from the strategic district, Doda but
also lent a sharp edge to the counter-insurgency campaigns in the district. Doda
region has often come under international scanner in map-making subversion.
Both
the State government and the Central government have bungled in handling local
instruments to counter insurgency. With the success of VDCs, the concept was
extended to other regions and involved other religious groups as well. There are
over 15,000 VDC members at present. They are given a pittance of Rs 200 per
head. In terms of arms and communication equipment also they continued to get a
raw deal. The erstwhile NC government ran a sinister campaign against VDCs.
The
scheme of SPOs (Special Police Officers) was started by Union Home Ministry with
the three objectives. One, to lure the militants to surrender. Second, to use
them to fight terrorists, in lieu of their knowledge of militant outfits.
Lastly, the semi-police job offered them protection again reprisal by the
terrorists whom they deserted. This scheme was further extended to the
unemployed youth, to keep them away from joining terrorists. There are presently
23,000 SPOs, who get a monthly salary of Rs 1500 a month. Most of them belong to
poor families of the militancy-affected districts of Jammu province.
These
SPOs were raised by the state police along with material and training support of
the Army. Security forces' commanders describe SPOs as "our best force
multipliers", who serve as PSOs and go out on counter-terrorist operations.
Many
SPOs recruited belonged to those families, whose kith and kin were killed by
terrorists. Naturally they had higher motivation, knew local language and
treacherous terrain. They were physically and psychologically fit to take up
arms in war against terror.
The
PDP government, which has been
engaged in populism on security-related issues, failed to comprehend the
fall-out of its ill-conceived policies. Senior police officers say that while
the State government was keen to weed out the Ikhwani elements-the surrendered
militants--the SPOs became a natural target.
Why
the Union Home Ministry delayed the release of funds earmarked for the wages of
VDC members and SPOs, has intrigued the observers here. Even if it is true, that
some of the SPOs. Were being deployed in houses of bureaucrats and politicians
for doing domestic chores or that they have been raised without prior approval,
then who is to be blamed? Why does not Union Home Ministry have its own
monitoring mechanism? Why are VDCs and SPOs receiving a raw deal in ex-gratia
relief, when they are killed in operations?
The
recent indiscipline in the ranks of SPOs in Doda districts needs to be viewed
seriously. During the past week, more than 104 SPOs have mutinied in Doda
district, in protest against the inordinate delay in the release of their
monthly wages. The first batch of 40 SPOs had revolted in Police Lines in Doda
on April 23. They had walked out, informing the authorities that were going to
take on terrorists. The deserters had carried their weapons, ammunition and
wireless sets. For two full days they walked to distant places, including Arnoda,
Bharat and after crossing river Chenab camped at Shiva mountain belt. How SPOs
were allowed to move out of the police lines on the pretext of carrying out
operations against militants, with no senior police official heading them, too
remains a mystery. All these SPOs were unemployed youth and not surrendered
militants. After five days of negotiations, the deserters joined back. Many of
them had not received wages for 5-6 months.
The
batch had not yet reached the police lines in Doda, when another batch of 24
SPOs mutinied in Bhaderwah and its adjoining areas. Official sources said, a
group of SPOs, equipped with sophisticated weapons, left the police post at
Bhaderwah. They were joined by other colleagues at Sardhangal and Phanala posts.
After traversing mountain ranges for two days, the deserters reached Padri Dar,
on 28 April morning. Being the highest mountain-belt in the area, the senior
police authorities were yet to reach them.
On April 28, another group of 30 SPOs from Gandhov, Bartha and Changa, deserted their posts, carrying alongwith them weapons and wireless sets. Their whereabouts remain unknown.
Though
an inquiry into revolt has been ordered, it remains to be seen what its impact
would be on VDCs and SPOs, engaged in counter-insurgency operations. The
decision of the state government to allow only matriculates into the police has
SPOs staring at a bleak future. At a time, when centre has decided to give new
teeth to counter-insurgency operations by re-designating the combined
Unified Headquarters in J&K on the pattern of Unified Command in
Assam, the developments in Doda demand beter vision on the part of Union
government.
'Pandits
will return only if they get a separate homeland'
Dr Ajay Chrungoo, the Jammu-based
chairman of "Panun Kashmir", a representative body of displaced
Kashmiri Pandits, was in Srinagar to meet New Delhi's interlocutor Mr N.N. Vohra
to put across views on various issues facing the community. Shortly before the
two sides closeted at a guest house on the banks of the Jhelum. Yusuf Jameel
spoke to Dr Chrungoo, Excerpts:
Q:
You are meeting Mr N.N. Vohra. What would you tell him?
A:
The first and foremost issue we are going to raise before him is that the
Nadimarg massacre has reinforced our belief that a separate homeland for the
displaced Kashmiri Pandits ought to be carved out within the Valley where there
would a free flow of the Indian Constitution. Where those who identify
themselves with the Indian Constitution can live as free citizens in peace. It
would have a Union Territory status. This has been the main demand of Panun
Kashmir and other sections of the Pandit community. We will tell him that no
other solution can prove lasting. We'll also put across our view that in the
prevailing circumstances, the displaced Kashmiri Pandits will not return to the
Valley unless it means a passage into the homeland mapped by Panun Kashmir.
Q:
One believes Panun (Our Own) Kashmir is to be drawn along the northern and
eastern sides of Jhelum and involves a vast area in the districts of Anantnag,
Pulwama and Srinagar.
A:
Yes, it does.
Q:
It seems a dream unlikely to come true...
A: It
will become a reality some day.
Q:
What would Panun Kashmir's contribution and that of the Pandit community as a
whole be towards resolving the Kashmir issue amicably?
A:
Some people try to link the Kashmir problem with the partition of India and its
aftermath. The first thing we want to convey to the Kashmiris, to our own people
and other victims of terrorism, is, the problem of Kashmir is actually an
outcome of the failure of secular nation-building. The way the issues were dealt
with in free India with Kashmir being accorded exceptionality, a communalisation
process started. For the last 15 years we have only seen its militarisation in
Kashmir. A vicious situation has developed here. To retrieve Kashmir will be
very difficult, even if its entire population wants it, unless the
decommunalisation process starts in more than one way. One has to address some
fundamental issues within the Kashmiri community. No political party or
institution seems to be concerned about Panun Kashmir. We link a solution of
Kashmir basically to reverse the process of communalisation and militarisation
in the state. Unless this happens, peace will not return to Kashmir.
Q:
You spoke about a vicious circle. The growing feeling in Kashmir is that vested
interests on all sides are preventing a peaceful solution to the imbroglio. Do
you agree?
A:
I do.
Q:
Many people also believe that the Nadimarg massacre was an attempt to stall the
process of Hindu expatriates returning to the Valley. What do you think?
A:
This is the state government's viewpoint. It wants to pronounce that the ground
situation had improved and it had a control over things and, therefore, was all
set to bring the Pandits back.
We
believe that the violence against the minorities right from the start of
militancy in 1989 is part of a bigger ideological campaign. It would be a grave
mistake on one's part to delink it from that. We will not be able to tackle it
if we see the violence against minorities as a local aberration. For many years,
we have maintained that any attempt or effort to separate the religious
cleansing from the overall ideological contours of the separatist movement is
bound to fail. To raise a religious moralist has been the major imperative of
the separatist campaign in Kashmir. To a great extent they have succeeded in
their design. I believe what has happened at Nadimarg, and earlier elsewhere, is
a strategic butchering. Like in any religious cleansing process, some people
stay back in certain pockets, as stands true about today's Kashmir. From time to
time they shall fall victim. Mufti Sahib (the chief minister) has sought to draw
a link between the Nadimarg massacre and the so-called return process. But I see
it only as an attempt on his part to underline his claim that he has control
over the ground situation. He does not have any. The terrorist regime has made
it emphatically clear to him that it is their writ that runs. The recent spurt
in violence reflects an upgradation of terrorist violence following the setting
up of a joint jihad council. You must have heard about and seen a series of
terrorist attacks taking place in Poonch and Rajouri. As many as 37 houses of
the minorities were torched at one place alone. The police was repeatedly
targeted. Even Muslims who do not fall in line with terrorists were attacked. In
a broader perspective, Nadimarg is part of that upgradation and game plan.
Q:
If this is the ground situation, can Kashmiri Pandits really think of returning?
A:
The lesson of the past 100 years is, final solutions don't work now. In the name
of final solution, the English eliminated the indigenous population after
descending on American soil. In Australia also, the indigenous population was
got rid of in a similar fashion. The final solution plan for the Jews failed,
the Palestine problem remains unresolved even after the eviction of millions of
indigenous Palestinians from their land, the indirect solution to tackle the
Kurdish problem also did not work. Until a few years ago, the view held was that
the Kurds are virtually a hostage ethnic group that would perish with the
passage of time. They have resurfaced with a big bang. A community facing an
onslaught and extermination like we Pandits do, builds a logic to ensure its
comprehensive protection which in our case is possible only in our own homeland.
Q:
And that would be within the Valley? You will not agree to the expatriates'
returning to the Valley and again mingling with the majority community?
A:
There have been several migrations of Kashmiri Pandits in the past. There are
instances of the migrants returning to their hearth and home after many years.
We'll never forget Kashmir. We just can't live without Kashmir. No one can
separate the two permanently.
Q:
The areas you intend to bring on Panun Kashmir map have a huge Muslim
population. What will happen to them? Will they be asked to leave? Will that not
amount to a replication of Partition, and hence, defeat the very concept of
India?
A:
Look, when we talk about homeland and refer to its political demand, we have
three main aspects in mind. Firstly, we want to bring back all those people who
fled from the Valley and settle them in the homeland across the northern and
eastern sides of Jhelum. Secondly, the relationship of the homeland with the
rest of the country will be of a Union Territory. Thirdly, there will be a free
flow of Indian Constitution without any restrictions or impediments. We
basically talk about a political alternative that would link Kashmir's destiny
with the free flow of the Constitution. Whosoever identifies himself with this
kind of an arrangement can come and live in this homeland. We don't talk about a
religious enclave. We are keen on a genuine secular constituency--an area where
politics will not be done in the name of religious identity. Where there will be
no issue of Muslim majority status or Hindu majority status. In the true sense
of the term it would be a place where religious-identity politics will be
delegitimised as was envisaged by the founding fathers of this country called
India.
Q:
And the indigenous population of these areas can stay back?
A: We don't visualise an expulsion of people. We visualise people living in a dispensation where there is a free flow of the Indian Constitution.
Courtesy: The Asian Age: 5/5/2003
Raise
The Costs High For Pakistan's Terrorist War
By
Sumer Kaul
It
looks like a re-run of an old movie. The Prime Minister, as is his wont,
suddenly waves an olive branch at Pakistan, Pakistan calls it a positive
development, we call Pakistan's reaction a positive development and, across the
seas, Washington and London see all this as a positive development and, lo and
behold, there is an overnight change in the atmospherics and a palpable sense of
optimism in the corridors of power in Delhi.
Taking
a cue from this, certain pompous editorialists and commentators are building
their usual castles in the musty air of their ivory towers, industrial and trade
circles are happily speculating on what all they can cheaply import from and
profitably export to Pakistan, and the big chiefs of the mercenary-minded
cricket board are smacking their lips at the mega-bucks they will make from the
anticipated resumption of India-Pakistan matches.
I
find it difficult to share the optimism. After all, we have been here before,
haven't we? The French call it deja vu, a feeling of something tediously
familiar. Forget Tashkent and never mind even Simla, we have the all-too-recent
testimonies of Wagah and Agra to the likely fate of such unilateral spasms of
statesmanship.
So
what is behind Mr Vajpayee's latest Noble-minded initiative? (The capital N and
phonetic pun are not unintended). He says this his third (and "the last in
my lifetime") attempt at sub-continental reconciliation is dictated by the
transformed world situation post-Iraq, that all developing countries must wake
up to the new threat, and that India and Pakistan in particular need to hear the
"khatre ki ghanti", forget past acrimonies, enter into an
honest dialogue and bury the hatchet, and presumably do so before the global
hatchetmen conjure up some pretext or other and bury us both, a la Iraq.
Satya
Vachan (as they say in those TV
mythologicals), for there is no knowing what sinister designs the global
overlords have up their sleeves. In fact, the prospect of a more muscled
Anglo-American interest in the subcontinent came ominously to the fore even as
their war machines were still pounding Iraq. The communique after the Bush-Blair
summit clearly mentioned their intention to turn their attention to the
India-Pakistan "flash-point". The series of meetings, already held or
planned between American functionaries and their Indian and Pakistani
counterparts underline the US-UK resolve to step in.
One
wouldn't necessarily view this as a calamity if only the Anglo-American
motivations were above-board and altruistic. But this has never been the case
and if there were any doubts on this score they stand demolished in the light of
their now openly proclaimed policy of undertaking invasive intervention wherever
they fancy. It is perhaps in this light that some commentators see Mr Vajpayee's
peace overture to Pakistan as a master stroke of pre-emptive diplomacy.
But
is it really that? Given New Delhi's 'ji hazoori' to Washington on all
matters and especially in regard to our actions and non-actions on Kashmir
vis-a-vis Pakistan's jehadi terror, one tends to suspect that India's peace
offer has been blueprinted elsewhere. In fact, considering that both India and
Pakistan have virtually ceded the captaincy of their policies as well as the
umpiring to the U.S., there may well be some kind of 'match fixing' going on
here.
I
hope I am wrong. I hope our leaders have at last woken up to the dangers of
letting the Americans take 'interest' in our affairs. In other words, I hope Mr
Vajpayee's olive branch is homegrown and that he will prove third time
successful in reversing the half-century-long tide of India-Pakistan hostility.
But having said that I cannot help the feeling that this is hoping against hope.
Resuming
full diplomatic ties and overflights and train and bus services is all very
well. So is the desire to establish full and open trade and sporting links and
other people-to-people exchanges. But let us face it: while it would be
desirable to do all this, the absence of such relations is not the cause but the
result of our troubles with Pakistan.
In
the ultimate analysis these troubles are traceable to the infirmities of
Pakistan's foundational ethos, infirmities which its successive rulers, instead
of correcting, have further perverted. Simply because Kashmir is a Muslim
majority area Pakistan wants it (or rather that part which it failed to seize in
1947-48). That this two-nation obsession brazenly ignores the fact that
historically and legally the state is an integral part of India and that there
are more Muslims in India than in Pakistan is obviously of no import to the
jackboot-jehadi regime ruling the roost in that country. In fact, this rabid and
powerful combine has developed a deep vested interest in keeping the issue
boiling and bleeding.
This
situation is not going to change because of any emotional rhetoric for peace and
friendship from India. As I see it there are only two ways in which it can
change. One is if the United States decides to bring about a "regime
change" in Islamabad. But given the original divide-and-rule imperialist
mischief and the long-standing and still largely unchanged Anglo-American tilt
towards the inherently more malleable Pakistan, I don't see them doing an Iraq
in Pakistan, at least not in the immediate future.
The other way is for India to go all out to defeat Pakistan's bloody game without further delay or dither. Periodic diplomatic dramabazi just won't do. We must hit back with all means at our command. This should entail not only a ruthless operation against the terrorists and their local agents in Kashmir but paying back in kind their masters and mentors in their own country. We must raise the costs of Pakistan's terrorist war so high for them that the people of Pakistan feel impelled to oust the military-mullah dispensation, and thereby join the people of India to establish peace and harmony in our subcontinent.
The
author is a veteran Journalists, based in Delhi.
Kashmiri
Pandits Demand Action
KS
Correspondent
JAMMU,
May 5: Nadimarg massacre has jolted 5,000 strong remnants of the Pandit
community, still living in Valley. They have decided to give three months notice
the State government to address their security concerns and reverse anti-Pandit
policies. An extraordinary meeting, attended by 75 representatives from
different parts of the Valley was held in the precincts of Ramji temple, Sathu
on May 4. They have threatened fast unto death.
The
President of Hindu Welfare Society, Moti Lal Bhat, put three demands. One, to
set up clusters of Pandit community homes in different districts of the Valley
to ensure security. Second, quick rehabilitation of displaced members who had to
move out of their homes in far off villages. Lastly, employment of its youth to
hold the community back from leaving the Valley. The urgency for the meeting was
attributed to the security concerns demonstrated by Ganderbal and Mattan Pandits.
The spokesperson of the society lambasted Mufti government giving false promises
in the wake of Nadimarg massacre.
It
may be recalled that five days after the Nadimarg massacre, the State government
had intercepted a convoy of fleeing survivors on their way out of Valley and
impressed, on them to stay back. Unconvinced by the government's assurances, a
week later the survivors moved out to Jammu.
Addressing
the concerns of Pandit community continues to remain Achilles heel for the Mufti
government. The Pandit community is strongly annoyed over government's response
to protection of its property, left over in Valley, apathy towards those
displaced in the wake of massacre and failure to nab the Nadimarg culprits.
Demolition of shops in the upcoming yatri Niwas at Durga Nag temple drew strong
protests from Pandit community in the Valley. The State government also acquired
66.12 kanals of land at Batapora Shopian, belonging to Pandit community and
notified it for the Bus Stand. The affected families countered, saying on one
hand State government was claiming it was committed to create conditions for
Pandits return, while on the other, it was dispossessing them of their left-over
properties.
The
State government has been harassing the recently displaced Pandits and dodging
them registration as migrants. While the State government was quite generous in
doling out appointment orders to the militancy victims, belonging to other
communities, it has treated such cases from Pandit community with stark
indifference. The families of late Shiban Lal Koul and Rohit Sadhu of Tang Marg
and Bansi Lal of Gulabagh continue to wait for the "healing touch".
Displaced
Pandit community is also sore over governments' failure to nab culprits,
involved in Nadimarg massacre. On April 10,2003 DGP, A.K. Suri identified Zia
Mustafa R/o Rawalkot (PoK) as the chief culprit. Lashkar-e-Toiba claimed Zia was
arrested on March 16 from his hideout in Anantnag. Other reports said the nine
police officials at Nadimarg picket were being interrogated for their direct
complicity in the incident. Two terrorists, as per these reports, had visited
the picket regularly over the past six months, often stopping for a meal or
staying the night. They watched the recent world cup cricket series at the
picket and even on March 21 stayed there. On the night of the massacre, the two
terrorists were joined by six others, who actually carried out the massacre.
Constable Abdul Rashid was sent alone to call the victims. His failure to warn
the victims, call for help and even escape raised suspicions about involvement
of policeman posted at the picket. Head constable Ghulam Ahmed War had applied
for leave on the morning of massacre. It was refused. Not only he deserted the
post but has also since disappeared. Repeated raids on his home in Kupwara have
failed to locate him.
Praveen
Swami, the noted columnist comments on the sad state of affairs, "while it
seems probable that the Nadimarg killings involved the active collusion of
police personnel on duty there, the fact remains that their failure is part of a
larger pattern of security force dysfunction for which Chief Minister Mufti
Mohammad Syed is directly responsible. Also, the failure of the PDP, the
Congress-I and for that matter the NC to organise any real mass mobilisation
against the killings is a matter of concern". On the priorities of
mainstream Valley political groups, Swami ruefully adds, "All the major
parties joined in a protest strike on March 24, originally called by APHC to
protest the war on Iraq. None saw it fit to hold any public rallies to condemn
the killings. Nor has there been any meaningful action to assist the victims of
terrorist violence".
Meanwhile, the Sikh community too has voiced fears over their security following recent developments. R.S. Bali, who was working as station engineer in Srinagar Doordarshan was kidnapped on March 22 during his visit to Bandipora. On April 4, his dead body was fished out of Jhelum river at Uri. This provoked strong resentment in the community. Subsequently a high-powered delegation of Sikh leadership of the state met the chief minister, and demanded fool-proof security. There has been direct incitement by LeT chief to kill Pandits and a number of Pandit villages were attacked after Nadimarg massacre.
Though
State government has put on hold the so-called return plan and suggested few
measures like night lodging arrangements in government accommodations, relief in
cash and kind on the pattern of relief given to the Kashmiri Pandit migrants and
job to at least one member of each Kashmiri Pandit family. All these remain an
paper. The State government has also claimed that it was not trying to push
Pandits to camps at Tulmulla and Mattan. Rs 10-crore was being demanded to
beautify these holy places, it added. The displaced Pandit community continues
to wait for clear vision and national will
to restore them their homes and end the genocidal attrition.
Onkar
Aima was a pure soul
By
J.L. Manwati, Mumbai
If
I were a poet I would pour my heart out and compose an ‘elegy’, If I was a
Pastor I would sing a ‘requiem’ and if I were a painter I would paint a full
canvass potraying the multifaceted personality of Kashmir’s proud and beloved
son, Onkar Aima, who breathed his last on 28th September 2002, But,
unfortunately, I am neither a poet nor a Pastor nor a painter, so I take refuge
in the Canto (1) of the seventh chapter of Bhagavad Gita which, in my humble
opinion, broadly encompasses the personality of Aima Saheb. Lord Krishna
enunciates thus the virtues of Godly persons with divine nature in this Canto,
which, undoubtedly Onkar was: -
“Fearless,
purification of ones existence, inquisitiveness of spiritual knowledge, charity,
austerity, simplicity, truthfulness, freedom from anger, compassion, fortitude,
cleanliness, passion for honour. These are the transcendental qualities of Godly
men with divine nature O-partha”.
Born
in a venerable family of ‘Datatreya Kaul-Gotra’ Aima was the nickname
acquired by the family as it is said, the family was gifted with a boon to be
osteopaths (Waatangaer) who provide healing touch to people with orthopedic
dislocations. At their Fateh Kadal joint family compound, it is believed, long
queues of people with orthopedic ailments would be attended to by the family
elders who were gifted thus. Onkar may not have inherited or practicised
osteopathy of his elders, but surely he had imbibed in abundance the art of
providing ‘healing touch’, of harmony and friendliness which was evident by
his exemplary behaviour.
Having
been endowed with an impressive tall personality with chiseled Aryan features
Onkar was born with masculine charm. This God gifted body of exquisite physical
features had been enveloped by Aima Saheb by his conscious effort with virtues
of a ‘human being’ which made him the most lovable person.
In
the post Independence era when the cultural renaissance threw up talents in the
field of art and aesthetics in the Valley, naturally Aima Saheb with his
handsome personality and irresistible befriending qualities emerged as unanimous
choice for spearheading the cultural movement. Drawn into the cultural vortex he
soon found himself leading the cultural movement of the time. This movement not
only revived the folk and traditional theatre of Kashmir but with the passage of
time the movement became ‘Progressive Think Tank’ of the post-independence
era of Kashmir.
By
this time Aima Saheb had mastered the art of friendship which remained most
amazing characteristic of his personality. Friendship to him meant life long
bond even in the vicissitudes of life - a rare quality in the present day
shifting-loyalties scenario.
In
those days the siblings from the ruling clan Viz. Bakshi Saheb’s family were
his contemporaries. They could also not resist Aima Saheb’s infection of
friendship. The friendship in the following years grew so much that Onkar became
part of the family. Any other person in his place would have exploited the
relationship for his personal benefits, as was, sorry to say, wont of many of
our Kashmiri Pandits of the time but Aima Saheb with his passion for his honour
and self respect knew where to draw the line between friendship and overbearance.
This trait of his character endeared him more to his friends and he was
considered as a true selfless friend.
When
political exigencies forced his politically connected friends to take a
different political stance on various burning issues, Aima fearlessly did give
vent to his feelings, but it did not create any chasm in the friendship-in fact
it continued and became more cohesive. Now that Onkar is gone, the bond I am
sure, shall always remain with his bereaved family.
When
the history of cultural upsurge in Kashmir would be documented it would be
mentioned loud and clear that Onkar Aima was the lead actor in the first ever
made Kashmiri film ‘Menziraat’, which bagged the President’s silver medal
as the best regional film in 1964.
Being
an ardent student of aesthetics his passion to satisfy his creative talent
brought him to Bombay in 1965 to pursue his career in film industry, leaving his
lucrative government gazetted job. The industry was quite receptive and offered
this new face a lot of chances and Aima Saheb played different roles under
famous banners of that era. But the irrepressible creative artiste in him
remained restive. Here, the composite epicurean traits of Onkar, like the
refined and discriminating taste, like subtlety of conduct, like exposition of
beauty within, like sartorial preferences, like sobriety of approach and the
finesse in all walks of life came to his rescue and he was drawn into modeling
which he made his profession. In the mid 70’s he rose on the horizon of
modeling and rubbed shoulders with the famous models of the time not only
rivaling them but at times excelling them-a cut above. He continued modeling
till the end of his life.
When
television made its foray in Bombay in 1972, Aima Saheb was perhaps the among
the first few who played important roles in the Sitcoms which were featured by
the Bombay Doordarshan then. Yet the creative bug in him did not sit idle and it
made him write, produce and direct many a popular morning shows for Doordashan.
While
he was pursuing his successful modeling career in Bombay, Sadiq Saheb, the then
Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir formalized plans for his pet project of
making a film on Mahjoor-the poet laureate of Kashmir. Prabhat Mukherjee was
commissioned to produce and direct the film. The choice of playing Mahjoor
naturally fell on Onkar who played with aplomb the role of Mahjoor. ‘Mahjoor’,
incidentally was the first bilingual film which was made in Kashmiri and Hindi
versions.
The
film may not have done well commercially but it fortified the belief of Onkar
that film medium could well project the essence of ‘Kashmiriyat’, of which
he was an ardent advocate. As a sensitive artiste, Aima strongly believed that
‘Kashmiriyat’ was quintessence of harmony which, according to him, had its
origin in Kashmir Shaivism, in the Vakhs of Lalla-Ded and the Shrukhs of Nund
Resh which taught Kashmiris never to discriminate between the Muslims and the
Pandits. Aima would often quote Lalla-Ded’s Vakhs to prove the point.
Naturally,
for such a peace loving person the ethnic-cleansing of Kashmiri Pandits by their
Muslim brethren from their homeland lacerated the innocent heart of Onkar and he
nearly gasped for breath of harmony. The problem faced by the community in the
wake of this turmoil agonized him beyond measure. To help the community members
he joined Kashmiri Pandits’ Association-a nonpolitical, social organization
and put his mite in mitigating the miseries of the uprooted youth and provided
them whatever succour through the Association.
The
diaspora of Kashmiri Pandits, he felt, would wean away Kashmiri youth from their
culture and ethos and they would gradually get usurped by the alien culture and
in the process Kashmiris would loose their identity. Aima Saheb felt that the
least the youth could do to safeguard their identity would be to preserve their
language. For this purpose he instituted “Mohan Lal Aima Music Award’ in the
memory of his brother, Mohan Lal Aima-the doyen of Kashmiri Music, under the
auspices of Kashmiri Pandits’ Association. Under the scheme Kashmiri youth
upto the age group of 18 years are given cash awards to sing in Kashmiri. The
underlying idea is to inculcate interest in Kashmiri language through music.
Notwithstanding
the turmoil of 12 years in Kashmir, being an optimistic to the core, Onkar
firmly believed that things would turn in his ‘Reshwaer’ and he would often
quote Nadim Saheb’s famous verse :
Me
Chah Aash Paghaeh
Pagah
Sholi Duniya He
(I
hope for a better tomorrow)
To
the dozens of youngsters who had landed up in Mumbai after the Pandit exodus, to
pursue their career in the field of films, Aima Saheb was a father figure for
them. He would befriend them irrespective of their age, encourage them and give
them tips and share his experiences with them. In fact he was to them a friend,
philosopher and guide.
From
the family point of view Aima Saheb was not only a loving husband but caring and
understanding too. They had long years of separation when Shakuntaljai was
working for State Education Department in Kashmir and Aima Saheb was struggling
to make his mark in Bombay. It was their caring attitude for each other which
fortified their relationship. Finally when Shakuntalaji retired and joined her
husband in Bombay, the understanding nature of the couple won the hearts of the
Mumbai Biradari and they were rightly christened ‘made for each other’. As a
doting father, Onkar always treated his two lovable sons as his friends. He
believed that if the children are given good Sanskars they would grow in the
right direction.
Onkar
is survived by his wife Shakuntala, Aloke-son, his wife Lakshmi, grand-daughter
Rahel, son-Abhay and his wife Radha. I am sure Sanskars of the family would keep
Onkar’s name always alive.
Rich tributes have been paid to Onkar Aima throughout Jammu and Kashmir by his admirers and contemporaries. A lot of e-mails have been received from abroad lamenting the sad demise of Kashmir's noble and proud son. But the fittest tribute, I presume, has been paid through his last modeling assignment of Bharat Petroleum which he completed midway through his chemotherapy treatment braving the monstrous disease. The bottomline of the advertisement was “Pure for Sure”-“Surely” Aima Saheb was a “Pure Soul”, and such souls rarely treated this earth.
The
author has remained President of Kashmiri Pandit Association, Mumbai and worked
closely with late Onkar Aima.
Blackwill's
Vision of India
The
following is a statement by the U.S. Ambassador to India, Robert D. Blackwill,
announcing his desire to leave his post and return to academic career at the
Harvard University.
The following is
a statement by the U.S. Ambassador to India, Robert D. Blackwill, announcing his
desire to leave his post and return to academic career at the Harvard
University.
This
past January while in Washington, I informed President Bush, Secretary of State
Powell, Secretary of Defence Rumsfeld and National Security Adviser Rice that I
would be going back to the faculty at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy
School of Government near the end of this summer to
continue my academic career, I will thus join my illustrious colleague,
John Kenneth Galbraith, in proudly representing my country for two years as
American Ambassador to India, and then returning to Harvard to teach and to
write.
It
has been a special privilege to serve the President over the past four years,
first during the 2000 Presidential Campaign, and then as the U.S. Ambassador to
India. In naming me as his envoy to this magnificent country, President Bush did
me a great honour. I have tried to justify his confidence by energetically
promoting his vision of India as a rising great power of the 21st century, and
his primary goal of the world’s oldest and largest democratics operating
together to transform their relations, to forge concentrated strategic
collaboration for the decades ahead.
Under
the leadership of President Bush and Prime Minister Vajpayee, Washington and New
Delhi have made enormous strides to achieve this aim. I said in my Senate
confirmation hearings that international peace, prosperity and freedom would be
further advanced if the relationship between the United States and India were
fundamentally transformed. In partnership with an accomplished Mission staff of
Americans and Indians, I can say with certainty that this is occurring
powerfully each day between the two nations.
Before
the U.S.-India transformation began, it was rare for members of a President’s
Cabinet and senior American officials to visit India. Almost a hundred have come
in the past two years. Two years ago, there were economic sanctions applied by
the United States against India related to its 1998 nuclear tests. Today, those
sanctions are long gone. Two years ago, the American and Indian militaries
conducted no joint operations. Today, they have completed six major training
exercises, and our defence cooperation flourishes. American and Indian
counterparts now intensively engage across a broad spectrum of other essential
subjects: fighting terrorism, diplomatic collaboration, intelligence exchange,
law enforcement, development assistance, the global environment, HIV/AIDS and
other public health problems. Two years ago, American and Indian policy-makers
did not address together the important issues of cooperative high technology
trade, civil space activity and civilian nuclear power. Today, all three are
under continuing bilateral discussion. And in addition, there has been crisis
management from time to time along the way concerning tensions in South Asia.
With
President Bush and Prime Minister Vajpayee showing the route and buttressed by
the Indian American community in the United States and the U.S. Congress, our
consistently troubled bilateral past is behind us. In my view, close and
cooperative relations between the United States and India will thrive in the
decades ahead most crucially because of the convergence of common democratic
values and vital national interests. We have overlapping vital national
interests in promoting peace and freedom in Asia, slowing the spread of Weapons
of Mass Destruction, and combating international terrorism.
With
respect to the global war on terrorism, President Bush emphasizes that this
scourage threatens both our values and our interests. As I have said many times
during my stay in India the fight against international terrorism will not be
won until terrorism against India ends permanently. There can be no other
legitimate stance by the United States, no American compromise whatever on this
elemental geopolitical and moral truth. The United States, India and all
civilised nations must have zero tolerance for terrorism. Otherwise we sink into
a swamp of moral relativism and strategic myopia.
As
was so often the case, the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan put it best, “reason
and careful moral reflection…teach us that there are times when the first and
the most important reply to evil is to stop it.”
There
is another issue on which together we must try harder.
As I
used to teach students in my course on strategy at Harvard University and will
soon do so again, national economic strength is a prerequisite for sustained
diplomatic influence and military muscle.
Therefore,
I hope for a robust India economic performance in the years ahead, and for a
sharp increase in U.S.-India trade and American investment in India. Promoting
U.S. business has been one of my major preoccupations while Ambassador to India.
The
U.S-India relationship has a glittering future. To play a part in advancing this
cause under President Bush’s direction has been my duty, my pleasure and my
encompassing strategic conviction.
In
that context, I particularly thank senior members of the Indian Government for
their unfailing generosity to me as I have carried out my official duties.
I
especially have in mind Prime Minister Vajpayee, Deputy Prime Minister Advani,
Finance Minister Singh, External Affairs Minister Sinha, Defence Minister
Fernandes, and Principal Secretary and National Security Adviser Mishra. I would
also like to express my appreciation to the Leader of the Opposition, Mrs
Gandhi, for her many courtesies to me.
Around
this vast land, I have met men and women of superlative talent, of consummate
entrepreneurial and political skill, individuals committed to helping their
fellow citizens. Countless Indians from every part of society have given me
their assistance, their views, and their hopes and dreams for stronger bonds
between our two nations. I am grateful to them as we all recognize that
people-to-people ties are at the heart of the U.S-India relationship.
For
my wife Wera Hilderbrand and myself, getting to know something about this
fabulous country has been one of life’s pinnacles. From North Block and South
Block to the Valleys of Assam to the spare splendour of Rajasthan’s deserts
and Mumbai’s exuberance, from the mountains of Kashmir to the Golden Temple to
Kutch and Bangalore’s IT dynamism, all that is India compels us.
How
could it not, for to quote Mark Twain.
“India
is,
the
creadle of the human race,
the
birthplace of human speech,
the
mother of history,
the
grandmother of legend,
and
the great grand mother of tradition.
Our
most valuable and most instructive materials in the history of man
are
treasured up in India”.
But we miss our five children in the United States. We have one grandchild there and, praise be, two more on the way. We are attached to our home in Cambridge and to our friends in America. Harvard beckons. So during this coming New England winter, our vivid and lasting memories of India-its people, its culture, its beauty-will warm us as we face the snows.
Mother
India has marked us deeply and only for the better-for all time.
The
secular conspiracy
By
Balbir K.Punj
The
formation of Pakistan was a "momentous" episode in the history of the
subcontinent, though executed in a faulty manner. But we neither fully
comprehended the forces behind this epoch nor raised the ideological and
political bulwark needed to counter its long-time consequences.
Two
recent events of unequal magnitude enforced in mind this problem we refused to
fix in 1947. One was Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's call from Srinagar
for bilateral dialogue with Pakistan. And the other was the formal release of a
book by deputy prime minister LK Advani. Titled Religious Demography of
India, it was brought out by the Centre for Policy Studies, Chennai.
Making
his recent visit to Srinagar an occasion, the Prime Minister extended an olive
branch to Pakistan. The gesture has seemingly gone down well with both Islamabad
and the NDA including the BJP. If there is anything against us, it is the past
involving the two countries. Such talks, so far, have ended in failure,
exacerbating the situation. India has been stabbed in the back by Pakistan
whenever it has taken well-meaning measures like Prime Minister Vajpayee's
Lahore bus-ride in 1999 and the 2001 ceasefire. But, we must be optimistic.
Though
the issues are inter-twined, the solution to the Kashmir problem is no longer a
priority as is the "peace in the Valley". It used to be so when the
unrest of the eighties followed by the militancy of the nineties had not reared
its ugly head in the Valley. Today, the government's priority is to put an end
to the cross-LoC terrorism and the Pakistan sponsored proxy war with a heavy
hand and disseminate the fruits of development in the Valley.
India
won a military victory against Pakistan at Dhaka in 1971, but could not
capitalise on that advantage to bring an end to the Kashmir problem. That was
the only occasion when Kashmir was really a bilateral issue between India and
Pakistan. At that time Pakistan, handicapped by a US arms embargo (for genocide
by the Pakistan Army in Bangladesh), faced the real threat of not only losing
Kashmir but also disintegrating into several splinter states like Sindh,
Balochistan and Pakhtunkhwa. The mock-chivalry of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's speeches
in those days only highlighted how real his fear was.
But
which Kashmir do we refer to when we speak of Kashmiri peace? The total area of
J&K is 222,236 sq kms, out of which 78,114 sq kms are illegally occupied by
Pakistan and 42,685 sq kms by China, of which Pakistan illegally handed over
5,130 sq kms to China. However, for all practical purposes we have given up our
hopes of reclaiming that territory from Pakistan and China. The Indian
government or the media never raises the issue of the independence movement in
Balwaristan (in PoK), thinking, it would irk Islamabad further.
All
that we are fighting for, rather defending, is the Kashmir we still retain.
After thousands of their fellow men and women were killed, the 300,000 Kashmiri
Pandits expelled from the Valley are leading a sub-human life in the refugee
camps of Jammu and Delhi. Their properties have been legally undersold or
illegally occupied in a manner similar to Bangladesh's Enemy Property. The
well-planned Nadimarg (Pulwama) massacre of March 23, is prompting the exodus of
the residual Hindus from the Valley. The local Muslim populace has declined to
guarantee their safety. The message is quite clear: "Sir, kindly leave and
leave every square inch of your land-space for the cause of Dar-ul-Islam."
But
when we talk of "Kashmir peace" or "Kashmir solution" we do
not take into consideration the Kashmiri Pandits. With their ancestral
properties gone, their return and rehabilitation is quite unlikely. The exodus
of the Kashmiri Pandits is not only a human tragedy but also a civilisational
holocaust. They were the original and culturally unalloyed inheritors of
Kashmir. If Muslims could be a part of the "Kashmiriyat" of
Hindus- which is as old as the land itself- why could Hindus not be a part of
the "Kashmiriyat" of Muslims? Can one think of Hindus expelling
Muslims from a place where the latter are in a minority? Then, there would not
have been any Muslim left in India. Article 370 was meant to "protect the
uniqueness of the state". This Article has been protected at every cost and
pretext but the true inheritors of Kashmir are languishing unprotected in the
refugee camps of Jammu and Delhi. What an irony!
Since
ancient times Kashmir has been a centre of the Shaiva tradition and a famed seat
of Vedic learning, it is for this reason alone all Kashmir Hindus are referred
to as Pandits (or scholars). Thus Kashmiri Pandits are the original and
culturally unalloyed people of the land. Their exit thus marks the loss of
Kashmir's soul. Moreover, it also raises the question that if Hindus are not
safe as a community even in India where else will they be? The Muslims of
Kashmir are the descendants of those Kashmiri Pandits who converted to Islam
mostly under the threat of sword or in the hope of gaining some favour during
the Muslim era. Sheikh Abdullah admits in his autobiography, Atis-e-Chinar
(Fire amongst Chinar), that his great-grandfather was a Kashmiri Pandit, Bal
Mukund Kaul. But this great-grandson of a converted Kashmiri Pandit refuses to
identify himself as an Indian. He always referred to himself only as a Kashmiri.
In league with another Kaul viz. Nehru, who was ashamed of his Hindu identity,
he turned Kashmir into his personal fiefdom.
But
are we also not a party to this tragedy? Jagmohan pithily observes in his highly
acclaimed book My Frozen Turbulence in Kashmir. "We denounced the
Two-Nation theory, proclaimed to the world that in India religion did not
constitute the basis of separation or distinction. Ironically, it is we who are
applying the Two-Nation theory in Kashmir. And we are doing it in the most
suicidal manner. Pakistan, which owes its birth to the Two-Nation theory,
exists, after all, with its own resources. But here in Kashmir, Article 370 and
the issue of autonomy are designed to be manipulated in such a way that a
virtual Sheikhdom or Sultanate, or mini-Pakistan, has been nurtured with Indian
money. Unfortunately, we have neither the inclination nor the depth of
perception to see through the game."
But
where are the imperceptible roots of this palpable tragedy? Braving the
secession of East Pakistan, Zulfikar Bhutto said in 1971, "Pakistan is an
ideal. It will last even if it is physically destroyed. We are prepared for the
decimation of 120 million people. We will then begin anew and build a new
Pakistan." Thus he comes very close to saying that Pakistan exists first in
people's minds then as a political unit. The concretization of the political
vision of Pakistan took place in the Thirties and the Forties. But tragedy has
its roots in the negation of Indianism. Not even one percent of Indian Muslims
came from outside India, say Arabia or Central Asia, but are converts from
Hinduism and Buddhism, mostly under duress. But on conversion their mindset
became a chain reaction of the Arab imperialism. That is the reason why several
thousand Indian Muslims quitting British India (a Dar-ul-Harab or land of the
enemy) had chosen to migrate (hijrat) to Dar-ul-Islam Afghanistan, out of
which only 20,000 were allowed to settle. A large number of Shias from Lucknow,
including the descendants of the Nawab of Awadh, chose to migrate to Karbala
(now Iraq). At the root of this is the denial of a pre-Islamic identity.
The
second event was the formal release by deputy prime minister LK Advani on April
20, of a highly statistical book, Religious Demography of India. It is a
mammoth study of the census available for 110 years (1881-1991) of the
subcontinent by A.P. Joshi, M.D. Srinivas and J.K. Bajaj for the Centre for
Policy Studies, Chennai. Advani, however, did not agree with the authors'
categorisation of religions as Indian religions and others (like Christianity,
Islam) and said that the Indian nationhood had suffered no devalorisation due to
the "unfortunate" Partition.
Generally,
we treat Partition as unfortunate. But let's see how "fortunate"
Hindus would have ended up if there were no Partition in 1947. The study
observes: "The proportion of Indian religionists in the population of India
(Indian subcontinent) has declined by 11 percentage points during the period of
110 years for which census information is available. Indian religionists formed
79.32 percent of the population in 1881 and 68.03 percent in 1991. This
is an extraordinary high decline to take place
in just about a century; at the peak of Mughal rule at the time of Akbar, after
nearly 400 years of Islamic domination, number of Muslims in India was said to
be no more than one-sixth of the population. If the trend of decline seen during
1881-1991 continues, then the proportion of Indian religionists in India is
likely to fall below 50 percent early in the latter half of 21st century."
So, is the fear misplaced that if there were no Partition India would have
become a Lebanon for Hindus? India remains secular and pluralistic because the
decisive majority comprises Hindus.
So,
Partition in a way staved off the Islamisation of India. But how does one now
cope with the large-scale infiltration of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants into
West Bengal and Assam, people who could turn these provinces to "Greater
Bangladesh"? The deputy PM has rightly called for the repealing of the IMDT
Act, which in effect is a "secular" conspiracy of dismember and
Islamise India in parts, progressively. And notably, in an Islamic state,
secularism or communism will also have no place. A typical example of this are
the communists who actively worked towards the formation of Pakistan in the
Forties, provided Jinnah all the intellectual arsenal he ever needed, but were
themselves cleansed from the Islamic state which was contemptuous of an impure
object.
*Balbir
K.Punj is a Rajya Sabha MP and the convener of BJP's think tank and can be
contacted at bpunj@email.com
*Source:
The Asian Age
Kashmiri
Pandits: Are they not made in India?
By
J.N. Raina
It is prime time
for India to abrogate Article 370 of the Constitution, to stop mass
extermination of the Hindu minority community in Kashmir and restore the
Valley’s demographic character to its original form, that existed at the time
of partition, or even prior to that period.
Brave
nations do not seek permission from other countries, however powerful, to enact
laws, which are in the best interests of its people. It is the Union
Government’s bounden duty under the Constitution to provide security to its
citizens, irrespective of caste, creed and religion.
Enough
of precious blood has been shed, that has flowed down the holy Vitasta river,
meandering through the Valley, whose nomenclature, without any government
effort, has changed to “Hell upon this earth” from what famous Persian poet
Firdous had described as “Heaven upon this earth”.
The
carnage of 25 Kashmiri Hindu Pandits in village Nadimarg in Pulwama district,
should not be treated as an isolated event. It is not an ordinary murder. It is
a coward act of ethnic cleansing, committed by foreign mercenaries at the
instance of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence ISI0 agency, against the
will of the Muslim majority community.
The
minority Hindu community is on the verge of extinction in their original abode.
Exiled Pandits living as refugees in their own country, have been bereft of
their cultural moorings. When Islamic militants and Muslim fundamentalists, led
by Jamaite-Islami, resorted to "jihad" in 1988-89, to establish what
they had said "Nizam-e-Mustafa" (Islamic way of life) in Jammu and
Kashmir, an estimated 3,50,000 Hindus were forced to leave at gun point. They
migrated only after a few hundred people of the community were mercilessly
killed, when women were raped and murdered, when their dwellings were looted and
set afire. But despite all this, some 10,000 to 15,000 Hindus had opted to stay
back.
However,
over 200 Hindus were butchered since 1996 in 28 gruesome incidents of ethnic
cleansing. Will there be an end to Islamic barbarity? The victims had been
living shoulder-to-shoulder with their Muslim brethren.
Secularism,
the hallmark of the Indian Constitution (Jammu and Kashmir has a separate
Constitution under Article 370, guaranteeing a special status to the state), has
been rendered irrelevant for the hapless minority community. The Pandits have
been forcibly exiled. This is the worst kind of human rights violation.
Following
are some of the recorded incidents of ethnic cleansing:
On
January 25, 1997, twenty five Kashmiri Hindu Pandits were killed at
Wandhama-Ganderbal. On March 20, the same year, seven Pandits were killed at
Sangrampora. On April 18, 1998, twenty seven Hindus were killed at Prankote in
Udhampur district. On January 19, same year, 25 Hindus were killed at Chapnari
in Doda district. On July 28, sixteen Hindus were killed in two villages of Doda.
On March 20, 2000, thirty five Sikhs were killed at Chatisinghpora in Anantnag
district. On August 1, that year, 31 people, including many Amarnath pilgrims
were killed at Pahalgam.
Should
India wait for the Islamic terrorists to snatch catastrophic weapons of mass
destruction from rogue countries like Pakistan and North Korea to create hell in
India? How long should India wait and watch the recrudescence of terrorist
violence? Sometimes in a fit of rage, we talk of "aar par ki ladai".
Should we seek permission from the US to make suitable laws aimed at
providing secure life to its people? Should we continue to allow militants to
create mayhem in Jammu and Kashmir? Rather, India should copy the US model in
dealing with its enemy.
An
impression is gaining ground around the globe that India is a weak country. The
United States has unilaterally abrogated the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty
with Russia, pressed ahead with the development of the national missile defence
system and ignored the wide international consensus on the monitoring of the
1972 Biological weapons conventions. The US has also refused to accept the
jurisdiction of the international criminal court and rejected the international
protocol on climate change (Kyoto Agreement). The Americans did all this in the
best interests of the nation. What is is doing in Iraq today, it considers, it
is doing so in national interest. And who has raised a finger?
The
US is dictating India not to take pre-emptive action against Pakistan because of
our neighbour's "export of terrorism" and its threat to use weapons of
mass destruction. Washington has restrained India from punishing Pakistan for
engineering cross-border terrorism. Is the Bush administration justified in
launching full-scale war on Iraq on the mere pretext that it possesses weapons
of mass destruction?
Why
should India feel shy of enacting laws, which can empower the government to
devise ways and means, so that all communities can live in perfect harmony?
Article 370 has brought ruin to the people of Jammu and Kashmir. What is the
point in retaining a temporary article? Circumstances have drastically changed
over the years. What has autonomy given to the Kashmiris, who do not bother
about it now. They laugh at it.
Late
Kashmir leader Sheikh Abdullah had once likened the Valley to a garden, in which
flowers of all hue could bloom. Even Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayed has
remarked recently that a garden, in which flowers to only one colour bloom, does
not look beautiful.
Without
touching upon Article 370, there can be a law, which can enable people of
different ethnic groups to settle in the Valley, provided all political parties
are above board and help in framing such a law. Besides Muslims and Hindus,
other communities like the Buddhists, Christians, Sikhs, Jains and Parsis should
be allowed to settle there, which can definitely lead to a congenial atmosphere.
If demographic character is maintained properly, not only in the Valley but also
elsewhere in the country, I am sanguine, there can hardly be any communal
trouble.
Sheikh
Abdullah had dreamed of making the Kashmir valley a model state and a real
paradise, but his dream remained unfulfilled.
The
same formula can be applied in the country’s communally sensitive areas. If
the people of different ethnicity are ‘forced’ to live together, communal
peace can be surely maintained.
Army
and paramilitary forces personnel should be settled near the borders when they
retire, to ensure security in the area and check infiltration. In fact, it is
for the Valley’s Muslims to realize the past
mistakes and seek abrogation of Article 370. They should themselves take
the lead. If fifteen crore of Muslims can live in India peacefully, what is the
problem with just fifty lakh Muslims residing in the Valley? Pakistan wants to
marginalize those Kashmiri Muslims who want peace with India.
It is
time for Indian leadership to shun away its idiotic policy of depending on
foreign support on Kashmir. Why should we ask the US to declare Pakistan a
terrorist country when India has granted our petulant neighbour the most-favoured
nation status? Why should the US do it for India?
India
should repudiate the Sindh Water treaty with Pakistan, if it does not honour the
Shimla agreement. India is a formidable power and should not get scared of
Pakistan. Militants recently chopped off noses of six persons, including that of
a woman in Rajouri district. When Ravana's sister Shrupnakha was dishonoured
similarly, the demon king Ravana did not tolerate it and kidnapped Sita, leading
to war and consequent destruction of Lanka.
If
the Centre continues to act in a lackadaisical manner, it might give rise to a
revolution and anarchy. Had not Jayaprakash Narayan (JP) during emergency, told
army jawans to look into their conscience first before firing a shot? That was
the outcome of wrong policies.
Kashmiri
Pandits and the healing touch
By
B.M. Kohli
The
ethnic cleaning of a particular community by the militants against started in
Kashmir and other areas within four months of Mufti’s assuming power. It
clearly indicates that nothing is in his control and the reigns are being pulled
only from the other side of the border. The only difference, of course, is that
such acts are being participated less by the locals and more by the mercenaries.
The trend began much earlier before election but the support of locals has not
receded probably due to the danger of gun. There is no doubt now that this
massacre of Nadimarg, killing fifty percent minority population of the area in
one stretch, has derailed completely the process of re-habilitation of Kashmiri
Pandits in Kashmir. The helpless and innocent Pandits, who chose to stay back in
their home-land inspite of all odds, were killed after being paraded in rows in
the heart of the village by the militants in Army uniform. This time the chief
minister may not be in know how of the reduced strength of security to minority
class in Nadimarg but the police officers cannot escape their responsibility,
leaving doubts that such heinous crimes are being committed with their
connivance in one way or the other by surrendering before the militants without
resistance and handing over their arms to them to accomplish their job. As per
Star news more than 600 policemen have been suspended for showing cowardice in
the discharge of their duties but many of them have been re-instated after
manipulated enquiries. But the that remains that Kashmiri Pandits now are more
afraid to visit Kashmir, not to speak of resettling there. Such selected
massacres of one community and failure of successive Governments to protect them
has resulted into complete frustration and mistrust on the assurances made to
them. As per a survey conducted in migrant camps and those who are living in
their own accommodation, none is willing to return to Kashmir inspite of the
difficulties they are facing in the camps and changed circumstances. Some of
them were bold enough to say “We were not fools to leave our homes, land and
every thing in Kashmir We have done it to save our lives. The Govt. has no
control and can provide only lip service.” The feeling of loosing their home
land and their acquaintance always reminds them of miseries which they faced for
no fault of theirs. The recent incidents at Sunder Bani and Mahore etc. are
glaring examples and Police as well as the Govt never feel tired of repeating
the same dialogue of healing touch that action shall be taken against the
defaulters and the sufferers shall be granted ex-gratia relief”. The militants
earlier were seen moving around in the area by the inhabitants continuously for
few days and then no action taken by the police or the administration until the
militants accomplish their job of killing the innocent villagers, is another
example to demonstrate the non seriousness of the authorities, whether Central
or State, in such matters Either the resources available with our forces are not
sufficient to cope with such emergencies or there is lack of co-ordination
between them and the administration. An immediate action in Sunder Bani could
have saved the lives of innocent victims, had the authorities taken it
seriously. One is at a loss to understand how the concerned officers slept
peacefully after the dreaded militants were seen roaming in the area when any
body including they themselves whether revenue or policemen could be their
victims. A leading national newspaper revealed that two Pakistanis have been
found recruited in J&K police. Disbanding of SOG and some VDCs are again
going to increase such incidents in future. The Central Govt. is continuously
expressing its concern over such matters but initiative has to be taken by the
State Govt. like that in UP by the Mayawati Govt. by arresting the anti-national
students with out caring for the appeasement of any individual. The healing
touch policy no doubt is impressive and required to bring the indirect sufferers
to the main stream by making them to realize that the Govt. cares for them. A
care has to be taken not to provide
balm to the militant first and to the sufferers later. Already Pakistan is
exploiting the youth in Kashmir and in other Muslim countries by luring them
with money or all the comforts they are going to receive in heaven. The need of
the hour is to educate them to get the most of it in the present world, where
all of us are living with our kith and kin and should work for making it a
peaceful world and rest is a bonus in case we get it, which no body has seen so
far.
Chronology
of Events
April 5,
2003 to May 4, 2003
Apr
5:
Four jawans and two civilians were injured in a blast in Tral while five
HM terrorists were arrested in Srinagar city. Three terrorists were killed in
Doda district.
Apr
6:
Eight terrorists including six infiltrators were killed and a mercenary
apprehended by people in Rajouri district. Security forces gunned down a HUM
terrorist in Aharbal area; terrorists killed a lady SPO at Lassipora, Pulwama
and a civilian of Kharbatpora, Kulgam while a civilian injured in a blast in
Tral earlier succumbed to his injuries. Two soldiers were injured in an
encounter in Dhano-Kandimarg.
Apr
7:
Security forces gunned down five terrorists in Poonch-Udhampur while two
boys were killed in an IED blast at Bafiaz, Surankote. Three terrorists were
killed while planting an IED in Shopian while three more terrorists were killed
by security forces in Kashmir valley. A former terrorist turned cable operator
was killed by terrorists in Srinagar city.
Apr
8:
Security forces killed two terrorists in Pattan and a terrorist and a
civilian were injured in a blast in Srinagar. Two civilians including a woman
were killed and three others injured in different incidents in Poonch-Udhampur.
Police recovered arms looted from Ind Police Station and a terrorist surrendered
in Ramban area.
Apr
9:
Four terrorists were killed and a jawan and a civilian were injured in
Rajouri and Doda districts. A JUM terrorist,
a PDP activist and a former terrorist were killed in Kashmir valley.
Apr
10:
Forces busted a terrorist hideout in Khanetar forests in Poonch and
recovered arms while five VDC members were robbed of their weapons in Pouni,
Reasi. Police produced a LeT Commander Zia Mustafa before media persons and
described him master mind of Nadimarg massacre.
Apr
11:
Security forces gunned down five terrorists while terrorists kidnapped
and latter slaughtered a cop of J&K Auxilary in Kashmir valley. Army killed
two infiltrators in Mendhar sector while three civilians were injured in a blast
in Surankote.
Apr
12:
An HM Commdr was killed in Pulwama while a physician was killed and 45
others injured in different blasts triggered by terrorists in South Kashmir. A
terrorist was killed in Kalakote, Rajouri while terrorists again attacked PS
Ind.
Apr
13:
Terrorists gunned down a woman and injured her husband at Kasalbari,
Mendhar, injured a CRPF jawan at Faisalabad, Surankote and kidnapped an SPO in
Darhal, Rajouri.
Apr
14:
An LeT terrorist was killed in Banihal and five more terrorists were
killed in Poonch district; terrorists attacked residence of MP Jammu in Rajouri.
Three people were injured in a blast outside Nishat garden while four more
people were injured in yet another blast in civil-lines Srinagar; a soldier died
in an encounter in Lolab valley.
Apr
15:
Terrorists gunned down a Congress-I leader at Topa, Mendhar while an HM
terrorist was killed in Gandoh, Doda. A terrorist was killed in Kokernag area.
An army havaldar and a woman were killed and two others injured in Pak shelling
in Nowshera sector.
Apr
16:
Forces gunned down two terrorists in Kokernag area; terrorists gunned
down a civilian at Hassanwani, Pulwama and a constable injured earlier succumbed
to his injuries. A youth was detained under PSA in Rajouri and a jawan was
killed in as mine explosion in Ramgarh sector.
Apr
17:
A policeman was killed and 25 people including 13 civilians injured in
terrorism related incidents in Kashmir valley. Terrorists again attacked Police
Post Ind killing an IRP jawan and injuring one another; a terrorist was killed
in Thannamandi, Rajouri and an SPO was injured in Gandoh Doda.
Apr
18:
Four terrorists and a Delhi fruit merchant were killed in Kashmir valley.
Two terrorists, a police cop and a civilian were killed and ears, nose, tongue
of a civilian chopped off in Jammu division.
Apr
19:
Security forces gunned down five terrorists while terrorists killed a
civilian in Kashmir valley. Six terrorists surrendered in Gandoh, Doda.
Apr
20:
11 terrorists, including nine infiltrators and an SPO were killed in
Poonch-Rajouri. Three terrorists, reportedly involved in Nadimarg massacre were
killed at Yaripora, Kulgam.
Apr
21:
Terrorists gunned down a forest guard in Gool, Udhampur. Of the nine
infiltrators killed in Poonch, one happened to be a PHE employees BSF arrested
two groups of HM and Al-Jehad terrorists and recovered arms and ammunition from
them in Srinagar city.
Apr
22:
14 top terrorists and a jawan were killed in an encounter in Hill Kaka,
Surankote. Six civilians were killed and 12 others injured in a blast in Tral
while nine BSF jawans were injured in yet another blast in Lower Munda, Qazigund.
A terrorist was killed in Brariangam while a CRPF jawan was killed and another
injured as terrorists attacked escort of SDPO Shopian.
Apr
23:
Death toll in Hill Kaka, Surankote encounter rose to 18 with killing of
four more terrorists. Two former militants engaged as SPOs were disengaged for
alleged rape in Surankote area. Terrorists gunned down two Hindus in captivity
in Gandoh, Doda. An exfiltrator was killed while two others managed to cross
over to Pok in Poonch sector. Three terrorists and a jawan were killed in
Kashmir valley.
Apr
24:
A cop was killed and three others injured in an IED blasts in Tral. A boy
was killed and another injured in blast in Rajdhani School in Thannamandi and
two jawans were injured in an explosion in Ramban. Three terrorists were killed
in Poonch.
Apr
25:
An Army Major, four soldiers, two PDP activists were among 16 killed and
38 others injured in Kashmir valley. Four terrorists and three jawans were
killed in Jammu region.
Apr
26:
Three terrorists and two paramilitary personnel were killed in a fidayeen
attack on Radio Kashmir; terrorists killed five soldiers in Kupwara and made
an abortive attempt to kill finance minister Muzaffar Beig in an IED blast in
which 14 civilians were injured. Four terrorists were killed in Handwara and
Kokernag. Security forces recovered huge cache of arms including solar rockets
in Poonch-Rajouri and rescued two kidnapped boys in Doda.
Apr
27:
Security forces killed four HM militants in Zainageer, Sopore. A
mother-son duo were found dead in Digwar Madana, Poonch while two kidnapped boys
were rescued from terrorists in Pangi, Thannamandi.
Apr
28:
Eight terrorist and an Army jawan were killed in different operations in
Doda and Poonch. A terrorist and a civilian were killed in Kulgam.
Apr
29:
20 people-13 terrorists, six jawans and a civilian-were killed in Bharat,
Doda. A terrorist of HM surrendered in Poonch. Two fidayeen were killed
as they tried to sneak into any Army camp in Kupwara; terrorists also caused two
IED blasts in Pulwama district.
Apr
30:
Five terrorists and four civilians were killed in Kashmir valley.
Terrorists attacked NC activists returning after attending Omar's rally at
Surankote killing an NC Sarpanch and injuring four others. Terrorists also
blasted a Telephone Exchange in Darhal Rajouri and injured five children at Kala
Wachi, Kishtwar with an explosion.
May
1:
A fidayeen was killed in Tral while a youth was killed by forces
at Nowgam, in outskirts of Srinagar. Forces described the youth as
"militant" while people protested saying the youth was innocent.
May
2:
Army eliminated two LeT terrorists at Kalali Morha, Surankote.
May
3:
Security forces killed a terrorist in Handwara while 15 civilians were
injured in a grenade explosion at Anantnag.
May
4:
Four terrorists and a civilian were killed in Kashmir valley. Four
terrorists were killed in Rajouri and a cop was injured in Banihal.
Those Who
Left Us
Kashmir
Sentinel and Panun Kashmir Foundation mourn their sad demise and pray for the
peace to the departed souls.
1. Dr. Kashi Nath R/o
Kramdigam Anantnag; presently at 112, Jadi Phase-II Community Hall Nagrota
Migrant Camp. 1/3/2003
2. Smt. Gonavati W/o Sh.
Mahadev Bhat R/o Devar, Tral Kmr; presently at H.No: 44/45 Lane No: 2, Gole
Pully Shyam Vihar Talab Tillo, Jammu. 1/3/2003
4. Sh. Jawahar Lal Raina S/o
Sh. Sarwarand Raina, R/o Machipora Handwara; presently at Muthi Camp/Police Line
Gandhi Nagar, Jammu. 1/3/2003
5. Sh. Bhushan Lal Kaul S/o
Late Sh. Kashi Nath Koul, R/o 271-Jawahar Nagar, Sgr; presently at B-438, Sector
No: 51, Kendriya Vihar Noida (UP). 2/3/2003
6. Smt. Gunawati W/o Late
Sarwanand Raina, R/o Vill. Deri Distt. Pulwama Kmr; presently at H.No: 1604,
Phase-5, Mohali Chandigarh. 2/3/2003
7. Sh. Jaggar Nath Bhat S/o Late
Sona Kak Bhat, R/o Bagdagi Rainawari; presently at Fire Station Canal Road,
Jammu. 3/3/2003
8. Sh. Hari Krishan Zutshi S/o
Lt. Pt. Nand Lal Zutshi, R/o Chalpan Kocha Bohri Kadal, Sgr; presently at Jorhat
(Assam). 3/3/2003
9. Sh. Krishen Dass Mahnoori
S/o Lt. Pt. Ganesh Dass, R/o Mahnoor Chodura Kmr; presently at House No: 9,
Sector 6, Trikuta Nagar, Jammu. 4/3/2003
10. Sh. Ramesh Kumar Mattoo S/o Sh. G.L.
Mattoo R/o 683 B/A Block Gandhi Nagar, Jammu. 4/3/2003
11. Sh. Triloki Nath Bhat S/o Late Sh.
Sudershan Bhat, R/o Bhagwanpora Sgr; presently at H.No: 332, Sector-2, Durga
Nagar, Jammu. 5/3/2003
12. Sh. Badri Nath Bhan R/o 77, Jawahar
Nagar, Sgr; presently at 50-A, Sector-13, Lane No: 1 Nanak Nagar Jammu. 5/3/2003
13. Smt. Vijay Lakshimi Dhar W/o Sh.
Bhupendra Nath Dhar, R/o 384-A, Gandhi Nagar, Jammu. 7/3/2003
14. Sh. Kashi Nath Razdan S/o Late Sh.
Anand Joo Razdan, R/o Kharyar, Habba Kadal; presently at H.No: 9, Vinayak Vihar,
Mohalla Khazuria Paloura. 7/3/2003
15. Smt. Shobawati W/o Lt. Shredar Bhat,
R/o Lalpora Lolab Kupwara; presently at Qtr. No: 166, Phase-Ist Mig Camp Purkhoo.
7/3/2003
16. Sh. Arzan Nath Wali R/o 48-B-Indira
Nagar Sgr; presently at near Peer Baba Satwari Jammu Cantt. 8/3/2003
17. Sh. Dina Nath S/o Lt. Rajav Ram Raina,
R/o Mahind Bijbehara Kmr; presently at Qtr. No: 8, Sailan Talab Udhampur.
8/3/2003
18. Sh. ON Koul S/o Late Sh. Gopi Nath Koul,
R/o Bul-Bul Lankar Ali Kadal Sgr; presently at H.No: 47, Ambedkar Nagar Old
Janipur Jammu. 8/3/2003
19. Sh. Jawahar Lal Koul S/o Lt. Nila Kanth
Koul, R/o Sholipora, Badgam; presently at Hydrabab. 9/3/2003
20. Sh. Jagar Nath Dhar S/o Lt. Sh. Amar
Chand Dhar R/o 906, Subash Nagar Jammu. 10/3/2003
21. Smt. Tarawati W/o Lt. Darshan Koul, R/o
Brariangan Anantnag; presently at Hotel Sushila in B.R. Shopping Complex Gole
Market Udhampur. 10/3/2003
22. Smt. Sarojni Bhat W/o Sh. Shadi Lal
Bhat, R/o Kalusa Bandipora; presently at D-23, Paryavaran Complex Saket. IGNOU
Road New Delhi. 10/3/2003
23. Sh. Mahishwar Ntah Bhat S/o Lt. Shiv
Jee Bhat, R/o Khrew Pulwama, Kmr; presently at 170 Rehari Colony Jammu.
10/3/2003
24. Sh. Bushan Lal Koul S/o Lt. Sh. Kanth
Koul, R/o A-11, Bharat Nagar, Talab Tillo Jammu. 11/3/2003
25. Sh. S.N. Pandita S/o Late Pt. Nilakanth
Koul R/o 4/R, Trilokpur Road Gole Gujral Jammu/42/AIIMS Apartments, Mayur Kunj,
Vasundra Enclave New Delhi. 11/3/2003
26. Sh. Ved Lal Koul S/o Late Prasad Koul,
R/o Lookbown Anantnag; presently at Qtr. No: 251 Phase 3rd Block U Purkhoo Camp
Jammu. 11/3/2003
27. Sh. Janki Nath Koul S/o Lt. Sh. Jia Lal
Koul, R/o Hanjura Teh. Chadoora; presently at H.No: 152-A, Sector-3 Durga Nagar
Jammu. 12/3/2003
28. Sh. Kishen Ji Sharma S/o Late Pt.
Madhusudan Shastri, R/o Kharyar Habba Kadal Sgr; presently at 57-A, Type-II AG's
Colony Shakti Nagar, Jammu. 12/3/2003
29. Smt. Tulsi Razdan W/o Lt. Sh. Ram Chand
Razdan R/o Malyar Nai-Sarak Sgr; presently at H.No: 378 Subash Nagar Jammu.
12/3/2003
30. Sh. R.K. Matoo, R/o Chinkral Mohalla
Habba Kadal Sgr; presently at 234-C, LIG Flats East of Loni Road Delhi.
13/3/2003
31. Smt. Sooma Wati W/o Sh. R.N. Malla, R/o
Babapora Habba Kadal Sgr; presently at H.No: 80/2 Roop Nagar Enclave-A Jammu.
13/3/2003
32. Smt. Lachhkuji W/o Raghunath Malla.
13/3/2003
33. Smt. Sona Kumari W/o Sh. Soom Nath
Pandita, R/o Mattan Anantnag, Kmr; presently at Near Soap Factory Paloura Jammu.
14/3/2003
34. Sh. Hirday Nath Pandita S/o Lt. Sh.
Nand Lal Pandita, R/o Chandpora, Habba Kadal Sgr; presently at 11RH-18 HIG
Duplex, Rajinder Nagar Sector-2, Sahibabad UP. 14/3/2003
35. Sh. Shamboo Nath Raina S/o Sh Aftab Ram
Raina, R/o Goshbug Pattan Baramulla, Kmr; presently at Flat No: 27, Delux App.
D-5, Vasundra Enclave Delhi. 14/3/2003
36. Sh. Prem Nath Raina S/o Late Pt.
Bhagwan Dass Raina, R/o Levedora, Qazigund, Anantnag; presently at H.No: 12,
Sector-2, EWS Colony Roop Nagar Jammu. 16/3/2003
37. Mrs. Suneeta Koul W/o Sh. Salil Koul
R/o Gurgaon, Jammu. 16/3/2003
38. Smt. Chuni Pandita W/o Sh. Gopi Nath
Pandita, R/o New Colony Sopore; presently at 569, Pocket-2 Sector-19, Dwarika
New Delhi. 16/3/2003
39. Smt. Kamlawati Pandita W/o Lt. Sh. Rugh
Nath Pandita, R/o Khayar Anantnag; presently at 209/4, Channi Himmat Jammu.
17/3/2003
40. Sh. Bansi Lal Razdan R/o 6-Bhawani
Nagra Gole Pully, Talab Tillo, Jammu. 18/3/2003
41. Sh. Devki Nandan Durani S/o Late Sh.
Brij Lal Durani R/o Sathu Bar-Bar Shah Sgr; presently at 6/104, Sector-2
Rajinder Nagar, Sahibabad UP. 18/3/2003
42. Sh. Chuni Lal Khosa S/o Sh. S.N Khosa,
R/o D-331, Shiv Nagar Near Women's Polytechnic Jammu. 19/3/2003
43. Sh. Jawahar Lal Kotha S/o Late Sh. Bola
Nath Kotha, R/o Bagh Jogi Lankar Rainawari Sgr; presently at H.No: 170/2,
Pamposh Colony Janipur Jammu. 20/3/2003
44. Sh. Dina Nath Tickoo S/o Lt. Pt. Ragav
Ram Tickoo, R/o Batapora Kulgam Kmr; presently at H.No: 34, Lane No: 5, Kothia
Netar Lower Barnai Jammu. 20/3/2003
45. Smt. Janak Rani Kak W/o Late Sh. Janki
Nath Kak, R/o Narpirastan Sgr; presently at 467 Sector-17, Faridabad. 22/3/2003
46. Sh. Radha Krishan Koul, R/o Raj Ghat
Baramulla; presently at G-136 Sector-2
Durga Nagar P.O. Roop Nagar Jammu. 22/3/2003
47. Sh. D.K. Razdan R/o Razdan Lane Bana
Mohalla Sgr; presently at 68-Apartment, Seschachal Colony, Warradpally West
Secunderabad AP. 23/3/2003
48. Smt. Soomawati Vaishnavi Wo Lt. Sh.
Gopi Nath Vaishnavi R/o Bagi Sunderbala Chattabal Sgr; presently at Qtr. No: 534
Sector-9, R.K. Puram Delhi. 23/3/2003
49. Sh. Bushan Lal Koul S/o Late Pt.
Bishambar Nath Koul, R/o Bulbul Lanka Ali Kadal Sgr; presently at Gawalior.
23/3/2003
50. Smt. Shyam Rani Bhat W/o Sh. Shyam Lal
Bhat R/o Ladhoo Batapora, Kmr; presently at near Raina’s School Mandlik Nagar,
B.S.F. Quarters, Paloura, Jammu. 25/3/2003
51. Sh. Badri Nath Kuchroo R/o Dewan Bagh
Baramulla Kmr; presently at 53, Patoli Mangotrian Jammu. 26/3/2003
52. Sh. Nath Ji Raina S/o Late Sh. Thakur
Raina, R/o Gotanga Kupwara; presently at Qtr. No: 131, Phase-Ist Purkhoo Camp
Jammu. 28/3/2003
53. Sh. Narayan Joo Wali S/o Sh. Rishi Ram
Wali, R/o Brah (Ranipora|) Anantnag; presently at Battal Ballian Camp, Udhampur.
28/3/2003
54. Sh. Makhan Lal Bhat S/o Late Sh. Anand
Ram Bhat, R/o Drangbal Pampore Kmr; presently at H.No: 52 Tophsherkhania Jammu.
29/3/2003
55. Smt. Raj Rani Bhat W/o Lt. Sh.
Mahishwar Nath Bhat, R/o Rohmoo Pulwama at H.No: 61, Aman Vihar Gobind Nagar
Gole Gujral Jammu. 31/3/2003
56. Smt. Sheela Trisal W/o Sh. Shuban Lal
Trisal, R/o Trichal Pulwama; presently at 103 GH-12, Paschim Vihar Delhi.
31/3/2003
57. Smt. Dhanwati Mattoo W/o Sh. Niranjan
Nath Mattoo R/o Waskura Ganderbal Kmr; presently at Dhayansar Bari Brahmana
aJammu. 31/3/2003
58. Sh. Shamboo Nath Koul S/o Lt. Arjan
Nath Koul R/o Badshah Nagar Natipora Sgr; presently at H.No: 22, Sector-1A,
Parwanoo (HP). 31/3/2003
59. Smt. Roopawati W/o Lt. Shamboo Nath
Koul R/o Badshah Nagar Natipora Sgr; presently at H.No: 22, Sector-1A, Parwanoo
(HP). 31/3/2003
60. Sh. Pushkar Nath Sharma S/o Late Sh.
Gash Lal Sharma, R/o Kulgam Kmr; presently at H.No: 117, L.No: 4, Anand Nagar
Bohri, Jammu. 1/4/2003
61. Sh. Niranjan Nath Kaul S/o Sh Prasad
Koul. 1/4/2003
62. Sh. Shayam Lal Bhat S/o Late Swami Ved
Lal Bhat, R/o Village Gund Gushi Kupwara Kmr; presently at Rewari Haryana.
2/4/2003
63. Smt. Laxmishoree Koul W/o Late Sh.
Kashi Nath Koul, R/o Narpiristan Fateh Kadal Sgr; presently at E-19/66 Sector-3,
Rohini, New Delhi. 3/4/2003
64. Sh. Hari Krishan Ganjoo S/o Late Sh.
Srikanth Ganjoo, R/o Sathu Barbar Shah Sgr. 4/4/2003
65. Sh. Vishnath Dhar S/o Late Prasad Dhar,
R/o Hugam Anantnag; presently at 1/107 Vikas Nagar Sarwal Jammu. 4/4/2003.
4/4/2003
66. Smt. Shyam Rani W/o Lt. Pitambar Nath
Mawa R/o Chalpan Kocha Bohri Kadal, Sgr; presently at 2/127 Shant Nagar Old
Janipur Jammu. 5/4/2003
67. Smt. Shanta Dhar W/o Lt. Sarwanand Dhar
R/o Tulmulla Kmr; presently at Deena Nagar Barnaie, Jammu. 6/4/2003
68. Dr. Bal Kishen Razdan S/o Late Sh.
Bishambar Nath Razdan, R/o Shaliyar Habba Kadal Sgr; presently at 15 Peel Place,
The Avenue Liford, Essex IG50-PS, England. 7/4/2003
69. Smt. Durga Wanchoo W/o Sh. P.N. Wanchoo,
R/o 74, Samrat Apts. Vasundra Enclave Delhi. 7/4/2003
70. Sh. Vijay Kumar Drabu S/o Late Pt. Gopi
Nath Drabu R/o Dabiyar Habba Kadal Sgr; presently at 2/19, Pamposh Colony,
Janipur. 8/4/2003
71. Smt. Veena Raina W/o Sh. R.L. Raina,
R/o Alikadal Sgr; present at Flat No: 44 Sector No: 7, Rashi Apts. Dawarka
Delhi. 8/4/2003
72. Romesh Koul S/o Lt. Sh Raju Nath Koul
R/o Sathu Naqashpora Sgr; presently at H.No: 3, Sector-4, Pandoka Colony Patoli
Jammu. 9/4/2003
77. Sh. Janki Nath Koul S/o Lt. Raghu Ram
Koul, R/o Trishal Pulwama Kmr; presently at H.No: 385 Sector-2 Gangyal Jammu.
9/4/2003
78. Smt. Koushalya Devi W/o Lt. Sh. Gulab
Ram Mantoo, R/o Sangrampora Sopore Kmr; presently at 21/3-C Om Nagar Udhaywala
Bohri Jammu. 9/4/2003
79. Sh. Shamboo Nath Pandita S/o Sh. Anand
Joo Pandita, R/o Purshiyar Habba Kadal Sgr; presently at 226 Old Janipur, Jammu.
10/4/2003
80. Sh. Prem Nath Tak S/o Sh. Narayan Joo
Tak, R/o Qaziyar Zainakadal Sgr; presently at 150-151, G-1, Sector-16, Rohini
Delhi. 10/4/2003
81. Sh. Jawahar Lal Pandita S/o Sh. Lt. D.N.
Pandita, R/o Dalhasanyar R.N. Mandir Habba Kadal Sgr; presently at H.No: 156-F,
Door Darshan Lane No: 2, Tali Morh Old Janipur, Jammu. 10/4/2003
82. Smt. Ichawati W/o Sh. Late Jotishi Tika
Lal Dutta R/o Upper Sathoo Barbar Shah Sgr; presently at Qtr No: 303 P Block
Toph Sharkhanian Subash Nagar Jammu. 10/4/2003
83. Smt. Kishni Bhat W/o Sh. Hirday Nath
Bhat R/o Danow Bogund Kulgam Kmr; presently at Lower Muthi Opposite Poultry Farm
Jammu. 11/4/2003
84. Smt. Chuni Devi W/o Lt. A.N. Raina, R/o
135/4, SBI Lane Pamposh Colony Janipur Jammu. 12/4/2003
85. Sh. Soom Nath Kabu S/o Lt. Sh. Arzan
Nath Kabu R/o Lal Nagar Chanpora Sgr; presently at H.No: 3 Lane No: 2A, Adarsh
Nagar Bantalab Jammu. 12/4/2003
86. Sh. Mohan Lal Saraf S/o Late Pt. Shri
Kanth Saraf R/o Karan Nagar Sgr; presently at H.No: 329 Sector-3 Extension
Trikuta Nagar, Jammu. 12/4/2003
87. Sh. Amar Nath Sapru R/o Safriyar Habba
Kadal Sgr; presently at H.No: 50 Vishnoo Enclave Opp. Gate No: 2 Govindpuram
Gaziabad UP. 12/4/2003
88. Mrs. Saroj Kaul W/o Shri Avtar Krishan
Koul R/o Bagh, Jogi Lankar Rainawari; presently at 16, Cassia Marg, DLF City 11
Gurgaon Haryana. 12/4/2003
89. Sh. Shyam Lal Raina S/o Amar Nath
Razdan R/o Maharaj Ganj Sgr; presently at 1/134, Indira Vihar, Old Janipur
Jammu. 13/4/2003
90. Smt. Kamla Pajnoo W/o Lt. Sh. H.N.
Pajnoo R/o H.No: 55, Shalimar Garden Hazuri Bagh Lane No: 5 Bohri Talab Tillo.
14/4/2003
91. Smt. Pushkuji W/o Lt. Sh. Nanak Chand
Bhat, R/o Khrew Kmr; presently at 50-D Pocket-F Dilshad Garden Delhi. 14/4/2003
92. Sh. Raj Nath Dhar R/o Hugam; presently
at Gaziabad. 15/4/2003
93. Smt. Uma Shori W/o Sh. Rattan Lal Bhat
R/o Hardu Tusu Anantnag; presently at Lala-de-Bagh Opp. K.V. 16/4/2003
94. Smt. Arundati Kuchroo W/o Lt. Arzan
Nath Kuchroo, R/o Raj Ghat, Baramulla; presently at A-3, Police Housing Colony
Channi Himmat Jammu. 16/4/2003
95. Sh. Mohan Lal Dhar S/o Sh. Gwashlal
Dhar, R/o Budhgair Ali Kadal Sgr; presently at H.No: 20, Lane No: 2, Roop Nagar
Enclave Jammu. 17/4/2003
96. Smt. Nancy Bambroo W/o Sh. Inder
Krishan Bambroo, R/o Akoora Distt. Anantnag; presently at Qtr. No: 2, Block-1
PWD Staff, Qtrs. Exchange Road, Jammu. 17/4/2003
97. Sh. Moti Lal Kak S/o Sh. Late Prem Nath
Kak R/o Bagdaj Rainawari Sgr; presently at F0765/A Rehari. 17/4/2003
98. Sh. Moti Lal Ganjoo S/o Late Krishna
Joo Ganjoo R/o Bagh Jogi Lankar Rainawari; presently at H.No: 6, Lane No: 1,
Upper Laxmi Nagar Sarwal Jammu. 17/4/2003
99. Pt. Prem Nath Dhar R/o Shalayar Habba
Kadal Sgr; presently at 38-A, Small plots Gandhi Nagar Jammu. 18/4/2003
100. Sh. Shamboo Nath Raina R/o Peth Bugh Dialagam
Anantnag; presently at H.No: 56, Lane No: 2, Adarsh Nagar Bantalab Jammu.
18/4/2003
101. Sh. Nand Lal Kaw S/o Pt. Shyam Lal Kaw R/o Bagh,
Jogi Lankar Rainawari Sgr; presently at 165/A, Indira Colony Excelsior Lane
Janipur Jammu. 18/4/2003.
102. Sh. Lassa Kaul S/o Late Sh. Neil Kant R/o Kral Khud
Habba Kadal; presently at Qtr. No: 480, Phase-Ist Muthi Camp Jammu. 18/4/2003
103. Smt. Tarawati W/o Late Sh. Tara Chand Pandita, R/o
Paryavaran Complex Saket Delhi. 18/4/2003
104. Smt. Jai Kishori Raina W/o Lt. Dina Nath Raina, R/o
Wussan Ganderbal; presently at Sharda Colony Patoli Brahmna Jammu. 18/4/2003
105. Sh. Lass Lal Raina S/o Lt. Sh. Srider Joo Raina,
R/o Vill. Avil Kulgam; presently at 228/Ext. Housing Colony Jammu. 19/4/2003
106. Sh. Niranjan Nath Tickoo R/o Hugam Anantnag;
presently at 207, Elephanta Heights Sector No: 10/41 Dwarika New Delhi.
20/4/2003
107. Sh. Prem Nath Thaploo, R/o Heera Mohalla Anantnag;
presently at B-20 Harmukh Aptts. Sector Alpha-1 Greater Noida. 21/4/2003
108. Sh. Niranjan Nath Tickoo S/o Sh. Shridar Tickoo,
R/o Hugam Anantnag; presently at 207, Elephanta Heights Sector-10, Plot No: 41,
Phase-1, Dwarika New Delhi. 21/4/2003
109. Sh. Jagar Nath Dhar S/o Lt. Sh Ram Joo Dhar R/o
Bagh Jogi Lankar Rainawari; presently at H.No: 567, Near Post Office, Subash
Nagar Jammu. 22/4/2003
110. Smt. Sati Jigri W/o Sh. N.N. Pandita, R/o Anantnag;
presently at 159 A/M Shalimar Bagh Delhi. 22/4/2003
111. Sh. Kanya Lal Mantoo, R/o Sangrampora Sopore Kmr;
presently at H.No: 10, Lane No: 12, Hazuri Bagh Bohri Jammu. 22/4/2003
112. Sh. Durga Nath Bhat, R/o Newa Pulwama; presently at
H.No: 65, Sector-1, JAA, Colony Bantalab Jammu. 23/4/2003
113. Smt. Shanta Koul W/o Lt. Mohan Lal Koul, R/o
Babapora Habba Kadal, Sgr; presently at Qtr. No: 10, Irrigation Colony Akhnoor.
24/4/2003
114. Sh. Kashi Nath Pandit S/o Lt. Shankar Pandit, R/o
Village Krangsoo, Anantnag; presently at H.No: 212 Vinayak Nagar Sector-I, Muthi
Jammu. 24/4/2003
115. Sh. Prem Nath Bhat S/o Sona Bhat R/o Sirhama;
presently at Buta Nagar Lane No: 6, Near Police Station Post Muthi Morh, Jammu.
25/4/2003
116. Sh. Chuni Lal Mattoo S/o Lt. Sh. Bagwan Dass Mattoo,
R/o Jawahar Nagar, Sgr; presently at B-18, 4rd Floor East Uttam Nagar New Delhi.
25/4/2003
117. Smt. Shobawati Koul W/o Lt. Sh. Vishambar Nath Kaul,
R/o Lagripora Anantnag; presently at H.No: 118, Lane No: 10, Laxmi Nagra Muthi
Jammu. 25/4/2003
118. Smt. Soom Rani Wakhloo W/o Sh. S.N. Wakhlu R/o Bana
Mohalla Narsingh Pora Sgr; presently at 2/1A, Trikuta Nagar East Extension
Jammu. 25/4/2003
119. Sh. Ved Lal Koul S/o Late Govind Koul R/o Noorpora
Tral Kmr; presently at Chinore Jammu. 25/4/2003
120. Pran Nath Koul S/o Sh. Meheswar Nath Koul, R/o
Broadway Sgr; presently at JK Colony Paloura. 25/4/2003
121. Sh. D.N. Watal, R/o 10 Wazir Bagh Sgr; presently at
Banglow No: 9, NCL Cooperative Housing Society Panchwati Pashan Pune. 25/4/2003
122. Sh. Soom Nath Bhat S/o Lt. Anand Bhat, R/o Ali
Kadal Sgr; presently at Vinayak Vihar Paloura. 25/4/2003
123. Smt. Gunwati W/o Late Sh. Lambordar Bhat, R/o
Broadway Sgr; presently at Noida. 24/5/2003
124. Smt. Arandati Koul W/o Lt. Gopi Nath Koul, R/o
Zainapora Shopian; presently at H.No: 415 Sector-2nd, Vinayak Nagar Muthi.
26/4/2003
125. Sh. J.N. Tickoo, R/o Peeth Kanihama Magam;
presently at 158/2 E.W.S. Colony Roop Nagar Jammu. 26/4/2003
126. Smt. Shobawati Raina W/o Lt. Tika Lal Raina, R/o
Purshayar Habba Kadal Sgr; presently at D-11, Doordarshan Staff Qtrs Bagwan
Mahvir Marg Jallandhar Punjab. 26/4/2003
127. Sh. Girdhari Lal Raina, R/o Nai Sarak Sgr;
presently at H.No: 259 Block-D, Lane No: 10, Laxmi Nagar Delhi. 26/4/2003
128. Sh. Manohar Nath Tickoo S/o Lt. Sh. Ram Chand
Tickoo, R/o Drabiya Habba Kadal Sgr; presently at 214P, Sector-1, Ext. Trikuta
Nagar Jammu. 26/4/2003
129. Sh. Kashi Nath Koul, R/o Bagadaji Rainawari Sgr;
presently at H.No: 30A, Neelam Colony Top Morh Patoli Jammu. 27/4/2003
130. Sh. Manohar Nath Tickoo S/o Lt. Ram Chand Tickoo,
R/o H.No: 214 P Mandir Lane, Near Tubewell Sector-I, Ext. Trikuta Nagar Jammu.
27/4/2003
131. Sh. Rattan Lal Tiku S/o Lt. Sh. Dina Nath Tiku, R/o
Kanikadal Sgr; presently at 78-A, Shastri Nagar, Jammu. 27/4/2003
132. Sh. Prithvi Nath Muthoo S/o Late Sh. Prakash Joo
Muthoo, R/o Malik Angan, Fateh Kadal Sgr; presently at Shiva Enclave Lane No: 3
Roop Nagar Jammu. 27/4/2003
133. Sh. Radha Krishan Gareeb S/o Late Sh. Sarvanand
Gareeb R/o Sopore Kmr; presently at H.No: 76, Lane No:2, Anand Nagar Bohri
Jammu. 27/4/2003
134. Sh. Amar Nath Koul S/o Late Sh. Shudar Koul, R/o
House No: 7, Sharda Lane Luxmi Puram Chinore Jammu. 28/4/2003
135. Sh. Arzan Nath Zutshi S/o Pandit Narayan Joo, R/o
Shalyar Habba Kadal Sgr; presently at Sector-F, H.No: 123 Sainik Colony Jammu.
28/4/2003
136. Smt. Rajni Dhar W/o Sh. Vijay Dhar R/o 64-Amar
Palli Appts. Patparganj Near Depot Delhi. 29/4/2003
137. Sh. Gwash Lal Raina, R/o Kathwar Budgam; presently
at Vill. Kalyanpora Jehri. 29/4/2003
138. Smt. Jaya Koul W/o Sh. Nand Lal Koul R/o Budgam
Kulgam Kmr; presently at 471-A, Sector-2, Vinayak Nagar Muthi. 30/4/2003
139. Smt. Shanta Pyaree R/o Siligam Phalgam; presently at H.No: 696, Sector-3, Muthi, Vinayak Nagar, Jammu. 30/4/2003
140. Sh. M.K. Dhar S/o Sh. Kashi Nath Dhar, R/o 361 Jawahar Nagar Sgr; presently at Basant Nagar Janipur F.No:427, Sector-17 Block-E, Vasundara Gaziabad UP. 30/4/2003
Letter
‘Official
Apathy’
Dear
Editor,
I
desire to make it clear that the root cause of most of our misfortunes, which if
not corrected, forebodes serious disorders in the future, is the growth of an
unsympathetic and illiberal spirit in the bureaucracy towards the age old
downcast people. The bureaucracy with its vested interests, its dominating
habits, its old traditions of absolute and unquestionable authority and averse
to innovation like very close corporation, cut off from the people by its racial
exclusiveness is antagonistic to the age old persons. The present bureaucracy as
a body has never been in sympathy with the aspirations of Kashmiri Hindu age old
migrants.
The
main aim of bureaucracy is the preservation of the class privileges and the
vested interests of pampered groups.
The
classical example of such bureaucracy is that more than 10 months passed that
under his letter no: Admn 1/Audit/155(48) 2002-2003/694 dated 27/6/2002, the
Accountant General (Audit), Jammu and Kashmir, Srinagar, forwarded my case to
the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, New Delhi for seeking his advice
and approval as to how my pension could be regulated on 1/4/1986 (i.e. the date
when my pension was fixed and authorised in the pre-1986 pay scale), when my
personal pension also stands stopped; but till date the Comptroller and Auditor
General of India, New Delhi did not take any action in the matter, though 17
reminders were issued to him from A.G. J&K, Srinagar, Bank of India, Satara
and myself.
This
is the height of bureaucracy. May God save us from such bureaucracy!
--Man
Mohan Nath Ambardar
'Rachana', Sadar Bazar,
Satara
415 001