Indian Defence Review

In February India struck Balakot because Jihadis were being programmed by JeM under the patronage of Pak military to be pumped across the Line of Control (LC) into India. Six months after, India has annulled Article 370. Thereby aggressing both the external and internal facets of the Pakistani proxy war. No sooner we made the constitutional change, Imran Khan began to indulge in nuclear saber rattling.

There was some sympathetic detonation in India as well. Some of the treacherous elements have gone to court. Amongst these elements is a retired General, a retired Air Marshal and a former Home Secretary. The General and Air Marshal are known for their pro-Pak leanings, but the stance of the former Home Secretary is shocking. The Air Marshal headed a government aided think-tank and the General has been a chronic consumer of Pakistani hospitality. Such is magnitude of the Kashmir Industry, such is the level of subversion, and such is the viciousness of treachery.

70 year journey of J&K from Sadar-e-Riyasat to Lieutenant Governor has been of treachery and tears. Treachery with the motherland and tears of Kashmiris particularly Kashmiri Hindus. There is not a region or state in India, whose sons were not martyred in fighting global jihad in Kashmir. This global jihad was masqueraded as struggle for freedom.

The Muftis and Abdullahas irrigated the land of Kashmir with blood of patriotic Indians to raise regular crop of global jihadis to facilitate Pakistan’s nefarious designs. Institutions of Wahabis, Ahle Hadis and Jamaat were facilitated to raise this crop of global jihadis to annihilate Kashmiriyat. This jihadi ecosystem comprised Abdullahas, Muftis, Azads, Hurriyat, jihadi groups like HM, JeM, LeT, and Pak ISI, and Pakistan High Commission.

The role of the some national parties in this ecosystem was exposed, when one of the leaders read the same script in Lok Sabha as the foreign minister of Pakistan, Qureshi did in the National Assembly in Pakistan. One would wonder whether that the script was handed to this leader by Pakistan High Commission!! In fact, Pakistan High Commission has been the second home for these elements.

Four years ago, I was invited for a seminar in Lucknow. The other participants in the seminar were a young politician from the National Conference, a very familiar face on television, as also the then High Commissioner of Pakistan Abdul Basit. The bonhomie between the two said it all. During the lunch time, both disappeared and reappeared after three hours.

No wonder, Farooq Abdullah had the temerity to question the people of India, ‘PoK Tumhare Baap Ka Hai’ (does PoK belong to your father?!). No wonder that Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, thanked Pakistan for successful conduct of elections. No wonder, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed had his daughter kidnapped to usher in global jihad in the Valley. No wonder that Sheikh Abdullah began to conspire with Pakistan for de-linking J&K from rest of India. No wonder that Nehru had to put Sheikh Abdullah in jail for eleven years.

It may be reiterated that Abdullah and Nehru were the architects of Article 370. The very fact that Nehru had to put his co-architect behind bars, proved how ill-conceived was Article 370. Yet, New Delhi continued to invest in the progeny of treacherous Sheikh Abdullah and Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. How could New Delhi expect nation-building with this kind of investment?

The reaction in the Pakistan establishment was bewildering. After all, how was Pakistan concerned with Article 370? How is Pakistan concerned about legislative and constitutional moves by India? The same Pakistan had in 1948 invaded Balochistan. The same Pakistan had gobbled Gilgit-Baltistan in 1949 by way of a fraud called ‘Karachi Accord’. The same Pakistan conducted Operation Zarb-e-Azab on its own people in FATA (Zarb-e-Azab means sword of Mohammad). Yet, Pakistan, after the abrogation of Article 370 has been talking about atrocities by the Indian State on Kashmiri Muslims.

If Pakistan is so concerned about the Muslims in Kashmir, then why no similar concerns for the Afghan National Government or Uighur Muslims of Xinjiang in China?

Our tragedy is that there are voices within India in support of the Pakistani position. The same voices, who support the ‘Tukre-Tukre’ gang. These personalities have been part of the Kashmir proxy war industry. They have raised the issue of Human Rights in Kashmir. They could not be more diabolical. They stand exposed because they don’t support the fact that 2.5 lakh Balmikis in the Valley will be granted citizenship of J&K and enfranchised. That nearly one million people impacted by the partition will be granted citizenship of J&K after 70 years and enfranchised, is something that they resent.

These champions of Human Rights resent that Kashmiri women married to non-Kashmiris will be entitled property rights in Kashmir. They resent that Farooq Abdullah’s daughter, married to Sachin Pilot will now be able to inherit her father’s vast properties in the Valley. For these diabolical elements, nearly half a million Hindu Kashmiris hounded from the Valley in early 1990s are not human beings.

I have never been able to comprehend as to why these elements in India are unhappy about abrogation of Article 370. What is their lament after all? The government has only carried out territorial reconfiguration, because of security and administrative reasons. This reconfiguration has given recognition to ‘Ladakhiat’, respect to the distinct sociology and culture of Jammu, and will give impetus to Kashmiriyat, killed by the jihadis and their supporters in the Valley. So what is the lament?

The Ladakhis are not lamenting, the Jammuites are not lamenting, the Shias in the Valley are not lamenting, the Gujjar Muslims are not lamenting, and the Pahari Muslims are not lamenting. These fringe groups of people suffered in silence sidelined by the polity and the active media.

The three regions, i.e. Jammu, Valley and Ladakh are totally disparate in evolutionary process. The separate identity of Ladakh was dwelt upon emphatically by the young MP from Ladakh Jamyang Tsering Namgyal in his brilliant intervention in the Lok Sabha. He spoke about a memorandum, which was submitted by the Ladakhis to Nehru under the leadership of Cheewang Rigzin in 1949. In the memorandum it was pleaded that New Delhi should directly govern Ladakh or should be merged with Hindu majority Jammu to create a separate province.

The memorandum clarified that direct rule from New Delhi was desirable because the Indian State had replaced Hari Singh, in whom (the monarchy) they enjoyed confidence, since it was Hari Singh’s grandfather who had amalgamated Kashmir into his kingdom. Alternatively the memorandum proposed that Ladakh would be pleased to join Hindu majority Jammu because of cultural affinity.

Moreover, Raja Gulab Singh had conquered Ladakh in 1833 with Dogra soldiers. This was when Kashmir was not even part of the Dogra Kingdom. The Valley of Kashmir was conquered 13 years later in 1846. Failing the two proposals, the third proposal was that Ladakh should be allowed to join Tibet, but described it as ‘proposal of despair’, because though they enjoyed religious and cultural affinities with Tibet, they believed that the region was regressive. The memorandum categorically stated that under no circumstances, they are prepared to be part of Muslim majority Kashmir. The memorandum invoked that if the Congress could persuade itself to agree to Pakistan on the basis that Muslims constituted a separate nation, then the same yardstick should apply to the Ladakhis.

These anti-India elements within the country also failed to suggest as to what should be the alternative model. If these elements are so much concerned about Kashmiriyat, then how were the Kashmiri Hindus forced to flee the Valley by Kashmiri Muslims? In fact, that very occasion demanded revocation of Article 370. If these elements are so concerned about Kashmiriyat then how have Rohingyas been allowed to settle in the vicinity of most sensitive security installations in the State?

The Abdullahas, the Muftis and the Hurriyat were actively engaged in Islamization of Jammu and Ladakh. Installation of Sheikh Abdullah as the Chief Minister heralded the process. It also heralded Islamic Rule over entire J&K, even though the Kashmir Valley constitutes only 7 percent of the total area of the State. The young MP from Ladakh lamented against this internal colonization by the Kashmiri rulers. It is the same Islamic colonial mindset that did not allow semi-permanent structures for Amarnath Yatra. It was the Islamic agenda under which Mehbooba brought in the Roshni Act to literally gift land in the Jammu region to Bakkarwals and Gujjar Muslims. The Islamic colonization has definitely suffered a setback.

The biggest sufferers under the Article 370 were the security forces. The Abdullahas and the Muftis enjoyed the protection of the security forces, but at the same time treated them as enemies. They never supported actions against jihadis honestly. Each one of them decried the killing of Burhan Wani. Several security personnel were hounded for legitimate actions they took during operations. The J&K government was adversarial to the security forces.

Under their very leadership, the state police was sought to be politicized, communalized and demoralized. The jihadis in the recent times were selectively targeting police personnel, who also were Kashmiri Muslims. The Thanas (Police Station) had become defunct, as a result nobody knew as to what was happening in the ghettos. Now with Article 370 gone, the police would be directly controlled from Delhi. The Prime Minister in his address to the nation assured the policemen that the same pay allowances and benefits would be extended to the police personnel of J&K as in Delhi. It may be mentioned that J&K police was critical to intelligence gathering in the ongoing proxy war.

The prime minister in his address to the nation said that the citizens of J&K will now have the same duties and same responsibilities as other citizens of India. He said that Article 370 and 35A promoted separatism, terrorism and family-ism. India has lost more than 42000 citizens in defence of Kashmir. He spoke about a slew of benefits and programmes that would make J&K and Ladakh secure and prosperous.

The same anti-India elements are now planting apprehensions and doubts in the minds of the people of India. They are also feeding into the international press. They are trying to exploit certain preventive measures that the State has taken in a very small part of J&K. They are bewailing about lack of communications, entertainment and education in the Valley. They never bewailed when the Hurriyat issued calendar for stone-pelters. They bemoaned about the fact that Cinema Halls in the Valley have been shut for last so many years. They never bemoaned when the LeT issued a diktat in Shopian that women should don burqas wherein nothing except eyes are exposed.

Global jihad is not going to disappear from the Valley in a few days’ time. The challenge is daunting. It involves purging Arab colonization and global from the Valley, and to restore Kashmiriyat. Humans can live without religion, but not without culture. The architecture of culture is has heritage, ancestry, language, literature, environment and music as building blocks. Most religions do not come with this architecture and therefore are at constant war with ethnicity.

Kashmiris were dying without Kashmiriyat. Kashmiris were killing Kashmiris. Article 370 enabled Pakistan to push both Kashmiris and Kashmiris to the brink of death. It was Article 370 which ‘de-territorlized’ Kashmiri Hindus reducing them to ‘diaspora’ within their own country. Removal of Article 370 would gradually asphyxiate jihad. Certainly there will be inconveniences but, it should be acceptable, because the gain would be redeeming rather epoch-making, i.e. integration of mother India.