JAMMU: Kashmir has traversed a long way since early nineties when Azadi or Kashmir Banega Pakistan appeared to be a matter of days or weeks. It is, however, nowhere in sight even after twenty six years, notwithstanding rants chanting all over, especially in the rural landscape, “Hum Kya Chahte Azadi”. The euphoric youths of 1990 have turned tired, old, like the generations since 1947 which lived and perished with dream of Pakistan.
Will Kashmir ever change? The answer is horrible ‘no’, as the land is quite fertile for elements with vested interest to thrive so long as young boys are ready to become fodder of their cannons. The hot-blood spilling in the lanes and by-lanes of the Valley is actually turning out as a huge investment for politicians, separatists and now a new breed of intellectuals that has taken centre stage in romanticising death and destructions in their columns, face-book posts, tweets and other modes of communication. None, I repeat, none of their kin has ever aspired or been encouraged to take to the short route to Janat after achieving martyrdom.
The new class of activists in politics and journalism has sold each drop of blood of the ‘martyrs’ to enrich their generations. Read their columns or go through their posts, enough can be found to incentivise young lads, born post 1990. Many of them get to know as to what they were actually doing under the influence of shots-a menace, gifted by the rogue theocratic nation in the neighbourhood. Ironically, this elite segment of ‘opinion makers’ is enjoying better of both the worlds. They espouse the so-called cause of Kashmiris but remain on the pay-roll of their masters, who need not to be elaborated. Time has come for these ‘masters’ to make public the dossiers of Azadi promoters with details of money they have got from time to time with the promise of making dent in the Kashmir situation through their write ups and columns of newspapers, some owned by them. Time has also come for young children of Kashmir to ponder as to why their ‘promoters’ in the media and the politics were enjoying huge security cover. Who they were scared of, if they pretend to stand for the common cause of Kashmiris?
It is not that Kashmiris don’t know who’s who in their backyards. They know their leaders, their separatists, their intellectuals and their activists all along. They also know how multi-layered roles they have been playing. But the hate for India has blinded them so intensely that they see nothing beyond a line set by these segments with vested interest.
While the ‘murky’ role of the so-called intellectuals is dawning upon common Kashmiris, there is no secret about duplicity of the separatists and mainstreamists, which is why that the cables of the US State Department, leaked by WikiLeaks in February 2006 did not surprise many.
One cable said: “Kashmir politics is as filthy as Dal Lake”. Another cable said money from Pakistani and Indian intelligence agencies and foreign extremists had given an incentive to its leaders to perpetuate the conflict. “This river of dirty money…calls into question whether the Kashmiri elite truly want a settlement to their problems. The minute a deal is struck, some must surely worry that the funds will dry up,” the cable said.
While Pakistan is not expected to expose her lackeys in Kashmir, in the interest of keeping the Valley on boil, intelligence agencies in New Delhi must expose those who, according to WikiLeaks, were getting money in Kashmir. If these agencies want Kashmir to get back to peace, they should name the politicians, activists, separatists and journalists and shame them before the young people of the Valley who have taken to streets with stones in their hands. Remember, the so-called columnists have been glamourising the current spate of Sangbaz agitation by giving an impression as if Azadi was round the corner. The dark side of the bright Kashmir is that those who matter are virtually on sale.
WikiLeaks has catalogued the inner convulsions of this organisation over the past few years. It informs, for example, that Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, who in the past month or so has moved closer to Geelani, even sharing platforms with him, is the same man who had opposed granting a US visa to the hardliner when he was desperately ill a few years ago and needed medical treatment. And this was the same Geelani who had led funeral prayers for Osama bin Laden and called him martyr. One of the WikiLeak cables had even exposed the desire of Mirwaiz to convert the Line of Control into a border. How does he now justify the rant for Azadi and that too while being in the heavy security cover of Indian security personnel? Same is the case with Geelani and the herd of intellectuals and motivated journalists. If they are exposed by the Indian agencies, as pointed out by WikiLeaks, much of the problems in Kashmir will be over.