Dost Khan
JAMMU: Are egos more sacrosanct or the national interest? For ‘super-patriot’ BJP it is the former. In a face-off between Delhi Lt Governor and the Kejriwal Government, an AAP minister was arrested, made to resign and remanded to four day police custody for possessing fake degrees. So far so good! Law has taken its course and rightly so. But why double standards? If Delhi Law Minister’s arrest was carried out to satiate political and personal egos, why national interest in Kashmir has been put into back-burner only to show Atal Behari Vajpayee’s humane face, contained in the so-called doctrine of ‘Insanyaat Ke Dayre Mein’. Did Vajpayee actually mean what the coalition PDP-BJP has interpreted and inserted in the ‘Agenda of Alliance’? This is debatable, as the former Prime Minister is not in a position to spell out what he had intended? However, it can be stated with certainty that Vajpayee would have never even remotely thought of diluting Kashmir’s position in Indian domain or allowing anti-national elements to roam freely to mock, bruise and abuse national symbols and the stature.
The malicious and anti-national tirade launched by Syed Ali Geelani, Yasin Malik and Mirwaiz Umar, after the ‘installation’ of PDP-BJP Government in Jammu and Kashmir has crossed all previous records. The elements like Masarat Alam and Asiya Andrabi are openly challenging Indian sovereignty. Gellani is offering one after another provocation and daring Narendra Modi’s Government in New Delhi to dare arrest them. The question arises why it takes so long for the investigating agencies in verifying charges against the Kashmiri secessionist. Again, why the governments at the Centre and in Srinagar are feeling apologetic in taking action against them?
Delhi Law Minister’s arrest has again established rule of law in the world’s largest democracy. In fact, judicial dispensation has always triumphed over the myopic political considerations. But ultimately it is the executive that has to assist the judiciary in dispensing justice. In case of Kashmir; successive governments, popular as also gubernatorial, have failed to proceed against chronic anti-national elements, India bashers, terrorists and all those who have been openly promoting sedition. None of them has been brought to justice. In certain cases, the Judges were constrained to indict the prosecuting agencies for failing to establish their cases on the basis of evidence. A judgment by a Principal Sessions Judge on 17th January 2013 is a telling tale of how the prosecution is tackling terror related cases. The Judge had observed that the case was investigated recklessly by the investigating agency. Therefore, there can be only two theories on terrorists being arrested and prosecuted; either the held up guys are innocent or the investigations of cases are being carried out ‘casually’. In both these cases, the onus lays on the investigation agencies, in this case the police and the prosecution.
Jammu and Kashmir has been reeling under terrorism for nearly two and a half decades. In nearly eleven years between January 1990 and October 2001, 51,588 ‘terrorists’ were arrested, according to a non-governmental agency, as there is no official website on terror-related incidents in the State. Therefore dependence on independent sources and agencies is an unavoidable compulsion. Assuming these figures as genuine, the issue arises as to what is the status of cases of those arrested? The judgments on very few cases speak volumes about the agencies taking these to their logical conclusions. The judgment cited hereinabove reflects the attitude of prosecuting agencies in seeking conviction of dreaded militants, who have unleashed havoc across the State over the years. In certain cases the investigations take such a long time that the purpose of punishing the guilty gets defeated. Certain high profile cases like coercing innocent people, extorting money and indulging in money laundering for promoting terrorism are either in the process of investigations or forgotten altogether. There have been genuine concerns in a segment of population over the alleged killers of innocent people roaming free as ‘respectable’ citizens. They have been vociferously seeking the dispensation of justice in respect of gruesome and selective killings, mostly during the onset of Pak sponsored militancy in the Valley. Pannun Kashmir, a KP organisation, had specifically made a mention about Yasin Malik, saying: “Yasin Malik, the terrorist of yesteryears, who himself has acknowledged having gunned down four personnel of Air Force in Srinagar Kashmir in 1987, is an open mock of our law, order and dispensation of justice”. Yasin Malik is the only entity, who enjoys a unique style and status in the morbid Indian polity. Alleged of having killed several innocent persons, he enjoys such a great clout in New Delhi, holds an Indian Passport and travels continents to preach sedition. Malik has several cases pending in the Courts or craving for investigations, so has his senior secessionist hawk Geelani. The Central or the State Governments have not been so far able to prove their involvement at least in Hawala cases, if not murders or inciting murderers.
The heralding of Modi era had rekindled a hope of trying and punishing, per law, Kashmir’s hardcore elements by establishing fast track Courts but instead they have been provided an unconditional license to promote anti-India sentiment in the Valley. Now it is spreading its tentacles beyond the Banihal Tunnel.
