From a Kashmir paper. Yes...perspective...
greaterkashmir.com
PRESPECTIVE
The politics of oppression - II
Who are to be blamed? Those who oppress or those who get oppressed. S M Iqbal expatiates on this numbing paradox facing the Muslim world
Zionist terrorism in Palestine
We fail to understand on what grounds the leaders at New Delhi are coming closer to the Israeli government. They seem to have abandoned earlier sympathetic attitude of Government of India towards Palestinian people and the justice of their cause. A man with conscience would ask why so intimate relations are being established with an aggressor who has never given up acts of terror, never ceased to be an expansionist and never honoured the resolutions of the United Nations, the very organisations that created Israel in an alien land. Born of terror and international duplicity, the Zionist entity was sustained by terrorist methods and Western support. As early as 1946, Gandhi Ji had declared unequivocally, ‘what the Zionists were doing in Palestine was naked terrorism’.
After more than half a century of expansionist war and terror, in September 2000, Sharon, the remorseless sponsor of the massacres of Sabra and Shatila refugee camps, provoked the Palestinians by his aggressive entry into the sacred premises of the Dome of the Rock (Al-Aqsa Mosque). Since then the unarmed Arab civilians are being gunned down for holding demonstrations or using handy stones and silling-shots. The Israel army brutalities are now completing two years of repression, bombardment, devastation and closures, making life of three million rightful Arabs within their homeland impossible. All kinds of productive work are at standstill. The Zionists do not understand the language of peace. The Arab signatory of the peace agreement has been under continues threats of extinction. World’s peace-makers are looking at the tragedy as spectators. The United Nations that had voted for the Jewish and Arab states has failed to bridle the Zionist brutes and to do justice to the Arab part of the Partition Plan which deprived them of the most fertile lands of their own. Israel symbolises terror, racial hatred and insecurity and the democracies of the East and West are developing close relations with the oppressors. The aggressor has, therefore, its advocates and abettors. Should the wronged, and dispossessed Palestinian be called a terrorist?
Violence in Arab Africa
This writing is meant only to treat the injustice committed against the Muslim peoples throughout the world. There is no scope here to narrate the story of the colonialist terror in the whole of Africa. A few instances may help prick human conscience. Christian extremists supported by foreign missionaries have been at war in South of the Sudan. History presents the Sudani people always disposed to peace. Foreign interference made them violent. It was British imperialism that ventured to touch their independent vein. In Egypt, Najeeb and Nasser came to power with the help of Ikhwanul Muslimoon who stood for a peaceful change in Egyptian system and society. Having ousted General Najib, Col. Nasser turned against the Ikhwan and jailed or banished 60,000 of them including 2,000 females because they advocated Islamic reform in government and people. The leading lights of the respected organisation were executed. Foreign visitors to Cairo have often hesitated to pass by the places where the greatest of the Ikhwan scholars and workers were tortured in a most inhuman manner. If Islamic revival through peaceful means is countered or undone by those wielding authority, who is at fault?
In Algeria, the French colonialist government massacred a million Muslims and crippled another million and imprisoned hundreds of thousands of patriots during the course of long-drawn struggle for national liberation. Thanks to Charles de Gaul who decided on the freedom of the country. Unluckily, things did not go smooth in Algeria in the post-independence era. Eventually, Islamic Solidarity organisation emerged to safeguard Algerian integrity and promote Islamic values and institutions. Before the army takeover the Solidarity won the first round of elections and under rules it had to context the second round. This was not permitted under alien influence. The organisation was sure to get the vote reconfirming its right to form a constitutional government. Violence started but who gave birth to it; none else but the vested interests under foreign domination.
The tragedy of Kashmir
Now we turn to Kashmir imbroglio that has cost so much in terms of people’s life and assets, sacrifices, and the resources wasted in the name of national sovereignty. Giving out that the Maharaja of the State had made a ‘decision’ (October 26, 1947), Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru, the Prime Minister of India pledged repeatedly to the people of Kashmir at the historic places of the Valley that their say in accepting or rejecting the State’s accession with India would be final. On November 2, 1947, he announced from the Radio House, New Delhi, that there would be a plebiscite under international supervision through which Kashmiris would determine their country’s future. Meanwhile, in January 1948, the Government of India submitted a complaint to the United Nations Security Council against Pakistan. The world body discussed the Issue and heard the arguments of the Chief Delegates of India and Pakistan. A truce between the two countries was arranged and it was resolved unanimously that a plebiscite be held under the auspices of the UNO and an Administrator (Admiral Nimitz) was instantly appointed to take over charge in Jammu and Kashmir. The implementation of the Resolutions of the Security Council was blocked when India refused to agree to the stationing of Pakistani army division in the state during the Plebiscite Season. For ten full years the UN was actively involved in Kashmir case. Other attempts at a solution were made by the British Commonwealth and other statesmen. More important is the fact that Pt. Nehru signed a solemn agreement with his Pakistani counterpart Muhammad Ali Bogra, on the settlement of Kashmir. In 1962, he even offered division of Kashmir Valley to President Ayub Khan and this under the pressure of the Chinese advance. Early in 1964, he sent a proposal of confederation to the President of Pakistan.
We regret that all the multi-lateral and bi-lateral efforts and accords extending over a period of fifteen years came to nothing. The two countries fought three wars and the fourth one is looming large in the bewildered region at the end of forty years of acute tension. It is unfortunate that politico-territorial ambitions have blinded the mighty planners towards the havoc that the delay in a just settlement of the Issue has worked with the life, assets and the rights of the people immediately concerned. The irreparable losses sustained by them through decades of the struggle, the overall decline in the basic economic activity, and the inability of the predominant majority to make its due contribution to general good of humanity, is all due to the stalemate. While two sections of the State population (in Jammu and Ladakh) are basking in the sunshine of extraordinary development and other discriminatory benefits, the remaining millions find no hope of salvation. Exasperated, their youthful generations have become violent. And violence we believe is the outcome of continuous violations of the rights of the community as a whole. Their sufferings and disabilities have multiplied because of the long-standing political problem. They are getting killed when the peacemakers and the security guards of the world have turned unsympathetic.
The question is simple: why was it that the state of Jammu and Kashmir alone became a problem, a bone of contention? Why not the Princely States numbering 562 all of whom, with few exceptions, were made to join (and then merge with) India. Again, why the pledges of pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru and his Delegates at the United Nations, the decisive Resolutions of the Security Council, and the solemn agreements between Pakistan and India should have been reduced to insignificances, thus rejecting the values and norms of international law and morality. We deserve an answer, convincing indeed, from the think-tank of the world’s largest democracy!
Gujarat Carnage
It is, finally, shocking to note, nearer home, terrorism of the extremists within the Union of India, appearing in a new garb after half a century’s democratic functioning. We mean the genocide of the Gujarati Muslims the royalty and munificence of whose King, Muzaffar Shah (during early Mughal conquest) in still remembered by the students of history. The two communities had been living amicably until the ascendancy of the British colonial power. We know it on grounds of authentic evidence that the South-Indian communities for 1300 years, the people of Sindh, South Punjab and Baluchistan for 1100 years, and the Hindus and Muslims in the north, east and central India for 800 years lived together in peace and security. True, the British imperialism, by its methods of divide and rule caused communal unrest in the empire. However, there could be no reason for giving a brutal treatment to Muslims and minorities after the establishment of the Republic of India with a Constitution that was said to be based on high democratic ideals, justice, and equality despite the fact that Dr. Ambedkar, the Chairman of the Drafting Committee, denounced the constitutional marvel of the Union in which he had his share. The series of tragic incidents that occurred in the wake of independence culminated in massacres, demolition of historic mosques, injustice to the deserving, and carnages ending with Gujarat, have reduced the stature of the Union in the eyes of peaceful nations. The reason why Muslims have become targets of extremism is because they are found in trouble everywhere, with their economic interests, religion, natural wealth and territories under threat of occupation.
Blaming Pakistan for each domestic incident and attributing each issue, malady and crime to the establishment of Pakistan is at once unwarranted, unjust and unrealistic. The birth of an independent Muslim State in the North-West of the subcontinent was inevitable in the twentieth century. It was to be considered a panacea for the ills of the Muslim majorities in the concerned British Provinces. If the Western statesmanship could divide Christendom in 26 and Africa in more than 50 countries, how could Pakistan be prevented from appearing on the political map of the globe.
Meaning of Independence
It’s the need of time that India, Pakistan and other states in South and West Asia should respect the principle of co-existence. Pretensions to disturb the balance of power and unprovoked acts won’t help my country whatever its military might. Long-pending Issues have to be addressed and settled in accordance with justice and realism. Above all, the fathers of Indian Independence had assumed the responsibility of improving the lot of the aspirant masses, offering them protection against want and insecurity and ensuring them an honourable future. Their successors seem to have cast the undertaking and mission so vital to winds, and, our particular generation (that became grey with the futile freedom), has with regrets noted half a century’s time and resources having been wasted in unnecessary army build-up. A nation wishing to be great, democratic and truly prosperous cannot realize the dream if half of it were living in utter destitution and the other half having doubts about a secure and contented future. As for the rulers, whoever they be, they can hardly contribute anything worthwhile towards international peace if they fail to protect the lives of innocent citizens inside the country against the assaults of the extremists. Those who kill women, men and minors indiscriminately and destroy their belongings must feel ashamed. The Gujarat carnage is a stain on the fair name of Indian nationhood. The power of the tyrant and the jugglery of the politician has never perpetuated on God’s earth. This historic truth the self-appointed judges of mankind and of ‘guarantors’ of security have to recognize for all time to come.
(Concluded)
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Omen above you
The tragedy that befell three men in the form of electrocution warns those who are indifferent towards these perils. Farooq Ahmad points towards the criminal negligence
Last week’s shocking accident at Soura in which three persons lost their lives due to electrocution should serve as an eye opener to the powers that be. That a low velocity wind could snap the 11 KV line, which did not trip with it, only lays bare the fact that the valley’s power system and operations aren’t being looked after properly. It is not for the first time that the worn out conductors or supply lines have snapped resulting in loss of precious life. It is happening and has happened in Kashmir. It is a bitter truth that even a slight drizzle or a low velocity wind brings the power supply systems crumbling down plunging entire localities into darkness besides inflicting damage to life and property. For years together the supply lines and systems haven’t been maintained as very little attention has been paid to it. The mandarins of power haven’t bothered to improve the supply system even as transmission losses have been causing concern to them. The breakdown of machines like transformers at substations, receiving stations and grid stations has attained rampantcy during last five years. It is more often than not that the power supply systems are overloaded and therefore remain prone to breakdowns. Again the fault lies with the engineers running the department. What use are the surveys on load conducted by the Power Development Department unless these are followed by replacement of under capacity transformers/conductors wherever and whenever found necessary. The supply lines laid decades ago haven’t been changed even as these are sagging dangerously at places or have lost tensile strength due to weathering effects or overloading. Then there are places where transmission lines like 133 K.V, 33 K.V or 11 K.V lines pass through highly congested localities. And the populations remain under perpetual threat. The power development department has simply neglected the threat. In next few years we could expect more such disastrous accidents, if the things remain unchanged. The government wakes up to the situations only when some mishap occurs. The power lords are very much in know of the ground realities. However, they appear least concerned about the deterioration in the systems. The ill maintenance of the supply system is not only causing a great deal of hardships of the consumers but is also taking human life. Today the PDD has pressed into service its men and materials to replace the snapped conductor at Soura. Had the department taken timely steps, the loss of life could have been averted. All is not well with the systems and operations, which the government can not afford to ignore. The criminal negligence shown by the department has so far cost several human lives besides immense hardships to the people.
Lives lost can not be had back, but caution is to be taken in the future. The blazing need of the moment is to take immediate steps. So that such mishaps can be averted. |
