Indian Defence Review

Kashmir is again on the boil. It is cyclical feature the periodicity of which is determined by political developments within the state and the vicissitudes of Pakistan state. At present a new government has been ushered in J&K and Pakistan is undergoing an existential crisis. The reverberation of these intrinsic and extrinsic events in terms of violence and stone pelting at security forces was expected as in before. All that it takes in the Valley to create ‘triggers’ is a new abysmal of already sunken human values. This time it began with the violence against nationalist students by the anti-nationals.

The international narrative went definitely in favour of the nationalists, something that unsettled the jihadi minds in the Valley. The national sentiment was aghast at the temerity of the anti-nationals in the NIT campus. After all the national flag and cheering the Indian Cricket team could not be a crime in India. Not contended, the anti-nationals ratcheted their anti-India tirade, to another level with the patent theme, i.e. ‘rape by Indian Army’. The ostensible victim was caught unawares and her innocence suffused the fabrication. Her tender heart could not lie, it triumphed over the diabolical conspiracy which the pro-Pakistan elements in the Valley are adept at. She was askance at the very suggestion of rape. Juxtaposing the video footage of the original version with the revised one says it all. Seeing the script fail, the anti-nationals threatened her mother to disown the statement by her daughter. It is not uncommon for mothers in the Valley to make such sacrifice of family honour to the whims of jihadis in the name of jihad!

The mother’s revised version extracted under duress betrayed lack of credibility and conviction. But lies, fraud and diabolism have fed militancy and separatism in Kashmir all through. In the process, the biggest hit has been taken by the present generation. Any society bereft of character of it youth has no future.

To those who are anti-India, which includes elements within as well, it must be said that the security posturing of the Indian State demonstrates clearly as to who are the perpetrators and where are the victims, who are the sinners and who are the sinned, and the direction from which the toxic winds blow. In this regard the security fencing on Indo-Pak border and Indo-Bangladesh border are crying testimonies. These fences have been erected by India not for physical security reasons alone, they also are a reaction the ideological attack that India is being constantly subjected to since partition. The partition of Indian sub-continent in 1947 has not resolved the physical and ideological security problems of India as a post-independence nation-state. Vote bank politics in India has ensured that it does not happen. Till such time self-serving politicians thrive, the nationalists will have to struggle to prevent the country from lapsing into slavery. If anyone thinks it is an alarmist view, he or she has to reflect on the hounding of Kashmiri Hindus from the Valley. The Kashmiri leaders following that exodus should have forfeited their moral right to rule J&K.

The same fencing guarded by the Indian security forces seeks to protect the people of J&K, which includes the Kashmir Valley. The Kashmir Valley would have been long overrun, if the Indian Security Forces did not defend the Ladakh region from China and Pakistan and the Jammu region from Pakistan. The Kashmiri separatists have done nothing to protect or deserve India. It is the nationalist and constitutional framework and the security provided by the Indian State that permits them to thrive. No separatist leader or his kin has served or died on Siachen (part of J&K) or on the LoC, LAC or the IB. On the other hand, son of Syed Salahuddin – Chairman of United Jihad Council was recently rescued by the Indian Army Commandos in Pampore in February this year. The militants from Pakistan in the name of jihad have brutalized women to the extent that the anti-nationals suffer no pangs of conscience in using ‘rape’ as a convenient theme. Qualms or guilt became alien to them long ago. In the prevailing environment of jihadi terror, it is a tough call for the Indian Security Forces to protect their mothers and sisters in the Valley from the demands and depredations of militants from across in the name of Jihad.

In contrast in Jammu and Ladakh region, the fraternal and nationalist bonds between the Indian Security Forces and the locals have never frayed. These two regions have essayed the most critical role in India’s nation-building. Valley on the other hand has been on a regressive mode since the 70s. The regression began with the impetus imparted to Ahle Hadith Movement, which denounced the common Kashmiri culture of Hindus and Muslims. Its accent was on separateness. The progenitor of this movement was Syed Ahmad Barelvi, who believed that the Muslims in the Indian sub-continent have suffered because of their accommodation with the non-Muslim local traditions and environment. Barelvi was killed in his Jihad against Maharaja Ranjit Singh.

In the Valley, the intellectual class that emerged post-1947 became adherents to this concept. The Jamait-e-Islami (JeI) through its schools began to fan this movement with ‘do or die’ fervor. It may be instructive to know that few years back when the High Court in Bangladesh cancelled registration of JeI as a political party, the major arguments against it were that it did not recognize people as all source of power, and also that Jammat is a chapter of foreign organization born in India with units all over the world. The phenomenon persists. Like many other parts of the world the Valley seems to subsist on who is and who not is a Muslim, and what is true Islam and what is heresy.

The tragedy of J&K is that the mainstream parties of J&K, essentially the Valley-centric, have done nothing for nation-building, it includes the National Conference (NC) and the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP). It includes the Muftis and the Abdullahs. They never tried to correct the narrative of anti- nationalism. Ambivalence suits them because separatism in the Valley is a thriving political and economic industry. The Pakistani and Chinese inputs to this industry are substantial.

It is evidenced by the fact that while Indian students were beaten up for waving national flag at the NIT, the same wrath is not displayed by the police when after Friday prayers Pakistani and ISIS flags are brandished. It may be explicable if some people in Kashmir Valley are sentimental about their heritage or their ancestors, but why should they be hysterical about new entities like ISIS or Pakistan, a ‘failed state’. The answer obviously is known but is not considered to be politically correct to vent natural expression.

The separatists or pro-Pak elements in Valley have not protested against the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) that has mutilated the land of J&K. Recently, China banned Burqas in Urmuqi in Xinjiang province saying that it is not a traditional dress of the region. There have been no protests in the Valley. They dare not, because sensibilities and interests of Pakistan are involved.

A segment of people living in the Kashmir Valley, which constitutes only eight percent of the total area of J&K with no border sensitivities, with no sacrifices for India, enjoying the protection of Indian Armed Forces deployed in Siachen, Kargil, Ladakh and Jammu are calling the shots. They alone dominate the J&K narrative as if the entire Ladakh and Jammu regions are vassal states run by them on behalf of Pakistan. It is time that they are reminded that their environmental security, specially water security; communication security and economic security are predicated on benign attitude of the two Indian regions. Pakistan can do nothing to supplant this. In fact Pakistan can be made to gasp for want of water if it persists with the nuclear threat in conduct of its proxy war. Any such ‘water fencing’ from India will prove disastrous for Pakistan. This water fencing as opposed to barbed wire fencing will function to prevent egress as ordained by nature. Human beings can survive without religion but not without water. The sponsors of Jihadi terrorism against India must realize that it is not open-ended.

The separatist segment in Kashmir also must decide which segment of Pakistan they would prefer—Maulana Masood Azhar’s JeM segment or Hafeez Saeed’s segment or TTP segment—because one thing is certain – Pakistan is splintering. As it is Jihadi terrorists do not believe in territoriality as they consider it repugnant to Islam.

China’ strategic thrust in the Persian Gulf by way of Gwadar port through PoK as part of CPEC has exacerbated its stakes in Pak sponsored proxy war through jihadi outfits in Kashmir and rest of India. Thus in deference to its strategy, it prevented the proscription of JeM and Masood Azhar, by exercising its veto. India is therefore subjected to two pronged proxy war by two different proxies i.e. Maoists and Jihadis by China and Pakistan respectively. The two front war is very much on. The Chinese veto at the UN symbolized the explicit meeting between the two proxies, something which have been fermenting for long due to the exertions of ISI.

The bane of India are not the sponsors of proxy war, India’s weakness lies in dealing with the proxies at home. Usage of hackneyed revolutionary slogans or English language is enough to befuddle the government and the society about the inimical import of the proxy soldiers. It is these proxy soldiers who engineered the meeting of the Maoist and Jihadi proxy streams JNU in the Capital, Hyderabad University in South, Jhadavpur University in the East, NIT in the North and FTII in the West. It was conspicuous; amongst all slogans , there were no slogans to the effect’ Jihad se Azadi’ or ‘Maowad se Azadi’. Who could predict that Kashmir separatism could acquire such a pan Indian dimension through Jihadi and Maoist over- ground sympathizers. As it is most terrorist attacks in India including 26/11 had Kashmiri militant footprints.

It is not within the capability of any Central Government to change the religious discourse in Kashmir but it certainly within their decision-making to alter the demographic discourse, for which the imperative would be abolition of Article 370. In that case the entire country specially people living in 95 percent of J&K territory will celebrate.