Peace Watch » Editor's Take » Lack of Commitment to Nation Is our Tragedy – comment
Lack of Commitment to Nation Is our Tragedy – comment
PUNCHLINE
Hate Culture and Our Students
Z. G. Muhammad
It seems ominous dark clouds are gathering over the heads of our children. It is a worrisome situation. That should set all of us thinking. It is something that neither an ordinary Kashmiri nor the filthy rich amongst us suffering from “Maie Panus Khair Ae’sin”, (I should be Okay) syndrome can afford to ignore. It is something that is not going to hurt only the common Kashmiri, the symbol of the resistance. But even those singing paeans for the powers that be in New Delhi for making it to the saddle cannot escape the inevitable- malignant epidemics never reads your foreheads.
On Tuesday 15 March 2016, four of our sons studying in Mewar University were beaten up by a mob and later arrested over allegations of consuming “beef” in their hostel room. On discovering meat was of goat, not beef, they were released on bail with a warning that they would remain “under watch” for six months. On Monday 14 March, a leading newspaper, the Indian Express carried a story that colleges in Kolkata have been issued circulars by the police, seeking information about students from Jammu and Kashmir. The note reads: “Please let me know that students, whose residential addresses are under the State of Jammu & Kashmir, studies in your Institution for onwards transmission to the Ministry of Home Affairs, North Block, New Delhi, Govt. Of India.” The Chief Minister of Goa issued an order asking the Anti-Terrorist Squad of his government to keep a tab on all Kashmiris students or traders.
It is not a new development. For the past many years, students from Kashmir studying in various colleges and universities have been regularly targeted. To quote a few instance; in 2012, thirty students were attacked by assailants at the hostel of Panchkula Engineering College, Barawala. In 2014, eight Kashmiri students were grievously injured by a group of assailants at the Global Research Institution of Management and Technology in Narchroon district Yumna Nagar, Haryana. In 2014, youth studying in an engineering college in Mohali were coerced by the BJP workers and forced to return to their homes. Notwithstanding, this hate-culture against Kashmiri students having become a phenomenon, these incidents were dismissed by New Delhi as impulsive or spontaneous reactions by some students or right-wing political activists.
The official orders and circulars issued by New Delhi for complete profiling of Kashmiri students studying at various universities and colleges cannot be an impulsive reaction of some Babus sitting on the first floor of the North Block but on their very face, these developments smell a rat and seem politically motivated. Is targeting our children another arm-twisting move to coerce a submission from the overwhelming majority? This question begs an answer. Nonetheless, ostensible designs seems to dissuade our new generation from pursuing higher studies in premier institutions outside the state. Some regular panelists on a couple of corporate Hindi and English television channels have been avowedly spreading hate against Kashmiri students studying in various institutions, thus exhibiting their anti-Kashmiri thinking unashamedly. Of late a lobby now strutting across the corridors of power in New Delhi has been advocating for denying admission to Kashmiri student in premier educational institutions and universities within India. These developments are not something new, the majority community in Kashmir for past over hundred years has been struggling for ensuring genuine space for education of their children. Conceding to the demand of Kashmiri leadership, the British Viceroy as back 1916 had appointed a committee under Mr. H. Sharp, Education Secretary in the GOI to look into grievances of the Muslims. The recommendation failed implementation because some “clerk” stole the file from the Maharaja Pratap Singh’s Durbar. Such machinations did not deter our children from pursuing education and did not prevent us from producing a galaxy of intellectuals and leaders.
There is a pattern in these moves for skirting educational career of our children. Instead, of pounding our chests on the Twitter and other social media and looking towards the Lutyens city for Man-o-Salwa let us do some rethinking for ensuring the trouble free education for our children. Let us understand, the press-note-politics is no answer to the challenges that our students are facing at present or are likely to face in the future.
One, of the short term answer to this challenge could be our leaders impressing upon some important countries like Iran and Turkey to provide admission to our children in their universities. In the early nineties, it was in grapevine that Teheran was ready to open portals of its important science and technology universities to Kashmiri students but for intraspecific competition within the ‘resistance camp’ the idea succumbed to the sectarian politics. There have been reports that Islamabad has reserved quotas in some professional colleges for Kashmiri students if it is so it should be augmented and procedure made transparent. On the long term basis rich in Kashmir instead of investing in fragile sectors like tourism and hotel industry need to invest in the institution building, where our future generation could pursue their higher academic goals. Let our rick know “This sector has more money than tourism.”
There can be no denying that a section of Kashmiri Diaspora has been contributing to the resistance movement, but overall the Diaspora from our side of Kashmir as against the Diaspora from the other side of the LOC lack a commitment towards their land of birth. The Mirpur Diaspora are tethered to roots that are not true about the Diaspora from our side. To save our future generation from the traumatic experiences of pursuing education under hate culture let rich Kashmir Diaspora like the owner of Ethan Allen Interiors Inc. come forward for investing in the education sector in their homeland with a missionary spirit.
Let the Kashmir Diaspora, Lahore of the early twentieth century that immensely contributed to education of Kashmiri Muslims be a torch bearer for our new rich Diaspora.
Published in Greater Kashmir on 21-3-16
Filed under: Editor's Take
The question is do we Kashmiris learn the lessons from our history, at least from 1931 till recent elections, though, we were not only actors and spectators but equally history makers. Mao says that if a student is not good the fault is on the teacher and not on a student. For we Kashmiris we lived in the political theatre of toumoiled situations and circumstances, the time was our teacher and our sufferings were lessons to be learnt. But we all along stood for traitors, conscience sellers and still even after all the hell we go through since 1931 we stand by their descendants and like minded people with their dirty politics and material greed.
We Kashmiris needs to evolve and go for better and responsible political class that can defend the interests of Kashmiris inside and outside the state, it reminds me one of the brilliant posts of Mubeen Shah, how to evolve out a responsible government while keeping an edge on reminding promises made to Kashmiris.
Unless we become politically responsible and mentally rational in our perception we will continue to make our problems chronic then ever.
In a country where civil liberties, enshrined and guaranteed by the constitution, are denied in the name of political, religious ideology, what normal treatment Kashmiris students outside the state can expect.
The fact of the organized harassment against Kashmiri students is simply to create a psychosis of fear to keep them away from premiere educational institutions but we need to stay committed to higher education without doing anything that can provoke adversaries to find a pretext to enhance their ideology of hate and violence.
I do agree with Zahid Sampis that we need to come together to found institutions of higher education in the state, but as always we need a responsible government in the state to take ahead the public interests and give hope to public outcry.