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I am Azadi Khan. It is 2030. A lot has changed in the past decade.
Ladakh has made great progress. Jammu has prospered. Kashmir has regressed. It
has now gone through eight decades of suffering. Where are we going? I wonder. When Article 370 was abrogated all
established leaders never got back into the mainstream. The militant leadership
with Pakistani links were ruthlessly pursued by law. There was a huge vacuum.
Masses could not be mobilized due to lack of leadership. A
restive Kashmir was in an uneasy state of calm. I was studying in Bengaluru at
that time. I was parachuted into a leadership role to lead the Intifada. I was
made the leader of the intifada, I decided that it should be nonviolent and be
based on Gandhiji’s principles of satyagraha. We will then achieve Azadi at all
costs. I convinced our backers in Pakistan that they should help me in my
nonviolent Intifada. Initially they did
so. However, they soon formed new radical groups once the FATF yoke was shaken
off, thanks to Chinese help. However, the combination of the nonviolent
struggle I spear headed and the instigated violence by Pakistan had a deadly
effect on the Government of India. They kept trying to normalize the situation
by one means or the other and we kept making it worse. All development
initiatives came to a naught. This
continued for five years with Pakistan’s support.
Pakistani support started
becoming counterproductive as India grew stronger. At this juncture, Indian
leadership changed. The current young leadership came with fresh ideas. I felt
that there was hope for a resolution. I went to them with an out of box idea. Let
us get back to basics. Give us five years of political autonomy in which only defense,
external affairs and communication would be with the Central Government. The
rest would be with Kashmir. People in Jammu did not agree. As a result, the
state went through another split. Jammu and Kashmir were again bifurcated on a
mutual agreement basis. Jammu is now fully integrated with India. We stuck to Azadi.
We made a deal with the Centre. They
gave us three years of self-rule akin to Azadi. After that, we were to take a
call jointly to see how to take it forward. Before I proceed further it is
relevant that we look at the larger Indo Pakistan picture.
Pakistan went from bad to worse in
the past decade. India took its share of Indus Waters legally. Climate change took
its toll. Result. Pakistan is now a fully water stressed state. Agriculture
nearly collapsed. People flocked to cities for nonexistent employment. Cities
became huge slums. Unchecked population growth left Pakistan dizzy. Its economy
is haphazard and contracting. More of a militarized macro political economy
with gross inequalities of wealth. It has a monumental debt it can never repay.
Two subsequent IMF bailouts have put it through cycles of currency
depreciation, new inflation peaks, higher trade and fiscal deficits. China now owns all CPEC projects. Pakistan has
number of expanding “Little Chinas”. There is a huge expat Chinese community
living in fully independent Chinese enclaves. Pakistan is a dictatorship of a military
nominated democracy. Political institutions have Khaki overlords. Pakistan is
on a three-front deployment with only enemies all around. There is severe social
and ethnic turmoil. The Baloch, the Sindhi, the Seraiki, the Hazara, the Balti,
the Pakthun, the Gilgiti, and even the Pujnabi is in distress. The people of
POK want freedom from Pakistan. The writ of the Government does not go beyond Islamabad.
Pakistan now has 220 million radicalized young people with failed expectations in
a perpetual crisis. It is a basket case. It is an international pariah which resembles
Somalia of 2019. We realized that Pakistan wants to fight for Kashmir till the
last Kashmiri. It wants to take revenge on India through us and then loot us. It
has been unsuccessful in both. Around
2025 we started distancing ourselves from it. All those who wanted to be part
of Pakistan have been purged from our system. We have only two options. Either be
part of India or Independent.
India, on the other hand, has grown from strength to
strength. It has the third largest GDP. Very recently India had a major
scientific breakthrough. It harnessed the abundant Thorium it has. As per
estimates it is on its way to become a superpower which is energy surplus. All
social indicators are moving in the right direction. Poverty eradication has
been phenomenal. Smart cites are developing. People travel in bullet trains. Most
transactions are cashless. It is an information superpower. It has put in a
strong bid for the next Olympics. India now has the highest number of Muslims
and they are prospering. It learnt from the problems Chennai faced a decade
back and started harnessing its water resources to combat climate change. Its
democracy has grown stronger at grass roots. It still has huge problems but can
manage them. People are increasingly looking at India for a greater role in
world affairs.
Well, back to Kashmir. I took over the Intifada in 2020 with Pakistani
support. Even India ended up indirectly supporting us through its misplaced desire
to buy us off. We slept with Pakistan and co-habited with India. We exploited
all loopholes. The flaws of democracy helped us to skim India. Human Rights Organizations
were our great allies. We plunged into
the Jihad call from Pakistan whole heartedly. All efforts to develop the Valley
were thwarted by one method or the other. There was great anticipation and determination.
We were sure we will “achieve Azadi at others expense”. The initial
years were euphoric. However, I once went to my college in Bengaluru to meet
friends. I saw change. Everyone was better off even though they were not being
developed or subsidized by the Government. I heard of new technologies being
deployed in Leh and Ladakh to improve people’s lives. Lot of my friends had
visited that area as tourists. When I checked, I found that even Jammu had made
alternate tourist destinations. Tourists
were going to Leh and Jammu area as never before but not to Kashmir. What
started as shooting down a truck driver cascaded. There were strikes by drivers
outside. Goods stopped coming into the area. The apple industry and the dry fruit industry collapsed.
Prices of goods and essentials coming into the Valley skyrocketed. All artisans
went off to Jammu which became the Handicraft center. When all this was
happening, some subsidies were withdrawn to get us at par with the rest of
India. Outsiders stopped coming. No investments no jobs. Our local households
were impoverished without money or employment. We were isolated. The Gulf
economies were down due to oil prices at new lows. When we turned to Pakistan,
we saw only a begging bowl and ruthless greed. No one else was bothered about a
70 x 50 km Valley. Our youth, which did not know how to work had to learn how
to work. So, youth started working for a
living to feed our families and babies and mothers and old people. The Central
Government started an assured work scheme for Kashmiris who were prepared to work
outside the state. Some even went to Bihar
to get work under this scheme. People who went out and worked hard were the
better off in our society. Soon people started migrating into other parts of
India for better prospects.
Then came the flood. One day the skies opened. The Jhelum swelled.
The whole Valley was flooded once again. As usual the Army came to help us. As usual,
some of our youth responded by stone pelting those who came to their aid. They
even threw stones at helicopters. This time the Army filmed all these events
and telecasted our actions live to the world. We came across as an ungrateful
lot who bite the hand that feeds. In view of the hostility of the population,
the Army halted all Aid and Disaster Relief Operations. We were in panic. The
Security personnel refused to carry out aid operations till such time Kashmiris
were part of the relief operations. We were not to be pampered any more. Media
started saying that Army personnel too had human rights. From that day world
opinion changed. I was called to BB Cantt and told that unless the Intifada
leaders and rank and file participated in relief operations nothing would be
done. Pakistanis had already shown us a begging bowl full of holes. All these years,
the capacities which could not be built due to our actions were coming to haunt
us when we needed them. We then formed disaster relief teams based on Villages
and Mohallas with security forces. Aid and relief operations restarted. I realize
that it takes more than slogans and demonstrations to give real Azadi to
people. I wondered as to why a Tamilian or a Naga soldier was helping us when
we were stoning and preventing him from doing so? My world view started
changing.
Anyway, I soon took over the Administration of the Valley State
under the new self-rule scheme. The first thing I found out - corruption was
deep rooted. Everyone in the state administration had a hand in the till. They
were not outsiders but own Kashmiris who were looting us. I went to the Army to
ask for “Sadbhavana” projects. GOC 15 Corps told me that the scheme was closed.
Army would be responsible only for defense of the LOC. I went to the Centre. I
was told that they would look after Defense, External affairs and
Communication. They pointed out that the borders were secure, Communications
were fine and the external affairs from Pakistan were taken care of. The rest was my baby – Self Rule akin to
Azadi. I could raise funds through taxes. But whom could I tax? There was no
revenue even to pay government salaries. I went to the industry. No one was
interested in setting up factories there. I offered land. They said ‘NO thank
you”. On the other hand, Jammu and Leh regions had a booming industrial
corridor. Some software majors had set up AI parks there. Young educated girls
were earning thrice our youth. New universities had come up. New colonies were
shining. Leh was a special tourist destination totally dependent on the Upshi-Manali
route. We were not even earning some transit revenue. In comparison, Srinagar
looked drab. Education was down. Youth graduating from our colleges could not
be employed even in our mosques. Medical facilities were dwindling. Diseases were
rampant. Where we to go? I recently went to a village on the death of a
relative. An old lady at the funeral spat on me and asked me “Is this Azadi?”.
That day I realized that we were wrong all along.
Azadi is freedom from disease. Azadi is freedom from hunger.
Azadi is being well educated. Azadi is equal rights to women. Azadi is being part of a developing society like
India and not a pestilence ridden country called Pakistan. Kashmir cannot be
Azad on its own. It simply lacks any capacity. Our Azadi lies in being part of
India. We are going to sign an instrument to make Kashmir an irrevocable part
of India with a proviso – amalgamate POK into Kashmir and give Azadi to all Kashmiris.
I don't think that kashmiris are so stupid. So far they were encouraged by Nehru's philosophy. Very soon they would join Main Stream.
ReplyDeleteYour imagination for Jammu, Ladhak and Kashmir seems very accurate. For Pakistan the situation may become even worse. Their Army might end up as security providers for the CPEC projects and as back up for Civil Government. It will remain a nation only for name sake.
ReplyDeleteJust please check how kashmir compares with other so called main stream states on various development parameters.if Kashmiris are our brother Indians, how many of us shared their pain of two months of lock down and the threat to their identity ?We military men ought to know what a group identity means-our men actually die for it.
ReplyDeleteDid their troubles stir our conscience in the just concluded elections?
In47/50 we chose a different form of nationhood that respected diversity of every colour and creed, than the fundamentalist Islamic state opposing us. That choice of ours reflects in the state of two countries70 years later. We out not to have diluted that strength.
Wish the general had rested his case on hard facts and data that what and how things will change , demography yes.
Regards for his views.