J&K: A BJP 'recipe' for conditional, tamed, controlled political activity, like some charity

Ram Madhav, Anuradha Bhasin Jamwal

Counterview Desk
Counting Days – Kashmir, a Pakistan-India Peoples' Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD) initiative, has released an article by chief editor of a top Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) media house Kashmir Times, Anuradha Bhasin Jamwal, to respond to BJP's national general secretary Ram Madhav’s article ‘It is time to allow J&K full-fledged political activity’, published in the Indian Express (May 23, 2020).
Madhav in his article had reasons that today the region is “largely quiet”. Criticizing “detractors” who attribute this calm to the excessive presence of security forces and arrests of leaders, he says, “Except for half-a-dozen senior leaders, most politicians have been released. The presence of security forces too has been rolled back significantly. Even then, people are not on the streets pelting stones and shouting azadi.”
Madhav believes, given this situation, “It is time the state administration appreciates this and pays the people handsomely for their openness. Certain harsh measures like denial of 4G services, which were necessary under special circumstances, can now be done away with, as the state administration and security apparatus are capable of handling difficult situations.”

Jamwal responds:

“Political activity” means the freedom to promote a political ideology, liberty to speak, dissent and intervene in social, political, administrative decisions and actions. No political activity exists without the freedom to exercise options and freedom to express ideas.
What does political activity mean in Kashmir? What does it mean in a place ruled by military jackboots and concertina wires?
Hundreds of political activists of all hues faced months of detention. Some released on conditional bonds that forbid them to speak on certain matters including the dilution of the special status of Jammu & Kashmir and its reorganization, some continue to be jailed and many also placed under house arrest.
Tens of hundreds of ordinary men -- activists, traders and lawyers -- continue to be in prison in distant lands. Journalists are summoned by Cyber Police for their reports and social media comments and three are facing criminal charges under draconian laws. These rules of engagement are reinforced with regular surveillance and methods of control. Summon! Intimidate! Detain! Demonise!
So, when Ram Madhav writes about time being ripe for introducing “full-fledged political activity”, it could only mean a euphemism for politics that is certified, endorsed and stamped by New Delhi and his party.
The idea of political activity in fetters is not only being normalised. It is being sold like a commodity and so it must come with its pack of lies that serve the interest of denigrating politics of any kind that does not comply with the whims of the rulers.

Everybody incarcerated is thus tarred with the brush of terrorism and called a ‘terrorist-sympathiser’ to give legitimacy to the hegemony of one kind of politics and political agenda. The calm in Kashmir, induced by maintaining a constant atmosphere of surveillance and intimidation, is being presumed as public acceptance, consent and involvement.

Madhav sees the notification for the new domicile rule as the logical end of the abrogation of Articles 370, 35A, which he deems discriminated against those were not holders of Permanent Resident Certificate (PRC) and robbed them of “their fundamental rights”.

The calm in Kashmir, induced by maintaining a constant atmosphere of surveillance and intimidation, is being presumed as public acceptance, consent and involvement

Doors for the outsiders for getting domicile status will open by trampling the rights of the original inhabitants, subjecting them to prolonged sufferings and indignities. And now, according to Madhav, the time has come to “reward” them for their coerced silence with the offer of conditional, tamed and controlled “political activity”, thrust upon them like some charity.
This article is full of exaggerations and absolute white lies. For example, not all west Pakistani refugees belong to scheduled caste (SC) communities. The sanitation workers brought from Punjab in 1950s are less than 2000 (300-400 families) in numbers. The Chhamb refugees are already state subjects, and so are the Kashmiri Pandits, unless he's talking about Pandits who migrated 200 years ago!
One of the main claims of the Home Minister, while announcing the abrogation of 370 in the Indian Parliament was how this will liberate the women of J&K. He lied about the fact that the question of gender rights was pretty much settled after 2002 in the state. Women do not lose permanent residency rights after marrying.
Women had 50 percent reservation in professional colleges. In reality, all that is now vanished after August 5, 2019 and the women of Kashmir are legally reduced to the stature of Indian women, who did not enjoy many of the freedoms that existed in Kashmir’s customary and legal mechanisms. Similarly, the refuge that Madhav is seeking under the pretension of saving the SC community and giving a large number of residents their legitimate opportunities under the new domicile rules is nothing but pure white lie!
Their Lies! Their Politics! Their Activity! Their Agenda! - and History, our witness. History is testimony to who were the jackals and who were the hyenas in our land!

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