Covid lockdown is seen as a cover for
Jammu and Kashmir (Indian Express)
Mains Paper 2: Polity
Prelims level: UAPA
Mains level: Intellectual, political, constitutional, strategic and moral
dimensions of the lockdowns
Context:
- On August 5, 2019, the republic of India was supposed to have brought
the bright light of Indian constitutionalism to Kashmir. Instead, it has
created an even more ominous darkness.
- The light of Indian constitutionalism is itself dimming. The latest
exhibit is the Supreme Court’s order in the petitions asking for restoration
of 4G access in Kashmir.
- By referring the matter back to a committee led by the home ministry,
the court has violated all principles of natural justice. It has created a
new evil. It implies that the home ministry can be plaintiff, judge,
executioner, jury in its own cause. It will not be held to account when it
abridges the liberties of Indian citizens.
- But the order, and the cowardly lack of outrage amongst India’s legal
luminaries and elites, will convince every Kashmiri — if any convincing was
required — that Indian constitutionalism will not provide any redress.
- The judges were offensively inhumane. They also proved that, for
Kashmir, the Indian Constitution is not a portal of hope, but the oppressive
dead end.
Policy failure:
- The silver lining in the pantomime proceedings in the Supreme Court was
this.
- The government’s case rested on admitting something we are rarely
allowed to say out aloud: That our Kashmir policy is pretty much a failure.
The government was itself, in effect, saying that Kashmir needs to be
treated ..................................
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UAPA:
- Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act is an Indian law aimed at effective
prevention of unlawful activities associations in India. Its main objective
was to make powers available for dealing with activities directed against
the integrity and sovereignty of India.
- The use of the UAPA against journalists is a new low in a state where
censorship has been the norm. The message the state wants to send out is
clear. Even the slightest transgression from the line of the Indian state,
and you will be treated like a terrorist.
- Think of the chilling effect it has on a profession where you could be
branded a terrorist for simply doing your job, or worse, even an odd tweet.
That the UAPA is now being used in other states is not a comforting thought;
it is simply a reminder that the authoritarianism we perfect in Kashmir will
destroy all of us.
Narrative being Janus-faced:
- The Indian government is itself tacitly admitting militancy is growing
again, now in new areas like north Kashmir. But our narrative is
Janus-faced.
- To pronounce domestic policy as a success we attribute the rise in
militancy to Pakistan; to pronounce foreign policy as a success we say this
is home-grown. All the old fissures are coming back again with a vengeance.
- A young man dies, ostensibly at the
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No defensible articulation:
- There is no defensible articulation of our endgame in Kashmir. If it is
to make available freedoms and rights of all Indian citizens, then
censorship and constitutional humiliation communicate the contrary.
- If the endgame is engineered demographic change, through brute coercion,
we are setting ourselves up for a long and violent war. If the endgame is a
normal democratic political process, then we seem to be too clever by half.
- The Centre is trying to engineer “pro Delhi” political forces, perhaps
backroom deals with older mainstream politicians. But so long as Kashmir
remains a municipality of Delhi, the humiliation of August 2019 will
continue to rankle.
Security as yardstick:
- After all, the government is itself saying that the footprint of
cross-border terrorism has not gone down. All indications are it is likely
to increase as summer approaches. You cannot solve Kashmir without a
Pakistan .........................
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Conclusion:
- There are no easy solutions. But the triumphal silence in which we have
enveloped the challenge in Kashmir is a measure of our delusions.
- The COVID lockdown may have been precipitated by a virus. But the
intellectual, political, constitutional, strategic and moral lockdown with
which we are imprisoning Kashmir will produce more violence. It is also a
harbinger of the future of the rest of India.
