{"id":2722,"date":"2016-06-20T10:44:59","date_gmt":"2016-06-20T05:14:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/?p=2722"},"modified":"2016-06-20T10:44:59","modified_gmt":"2016-06-20T05:14:59","slug":"job-contract-for-inflicting-pain-on-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/editors-take\/job-contract-for-inflicting-pain-on-people\/","title":{"rendered":"Job Contract for Inflicting Pain on People?"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/fb:like>

Punchline <\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Dissent and \u201cJob Contracts.\u201d<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Z. <\/u><\/strong>G. Muhammad<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/u><\/strong>Saying \u2018all is not well in Jammu and Kashmir\u2019 is not simply an aphorism, but it is a statement that has serious connotations of far-reaching consequences. The State has been flagrantly pursuing policy of gagging \u00a0\u00a0the voices of dissent\u00a0\u00a0 in Kashmir province, Chenab Valley and \u00a0Pir Panjal. \u00a0Silencing the voices of the dissent through cheap political machinations of baton has not worked in the past, it is not going to work in the future. Historically denial of the political dissent in the state has always been like a tinderbox just a matchstick away to explode with a bang generating a chaotic situation that drifts away apparently \u201cpowerful\u201d like driftwood down the stream.<\/p>\n

Since 2010, ailing, octogenarian Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah has been virtually latched inside his home. Not only has his personal liberty been curtailed but for all these years he been denied religious freedom. The press notes issued by his organization suggest that he has not been allowed to offer obligatory congregational prayers for almost three hundred Fridays and a couple of Eids.\u00a0 Majority of \u00a0\u00a0other leaders not in agreement with the politics of the ruling coalitions are continuously denied space to articulate their point of view on contentious issues, either by restricting them to their homes or putting them in police lock or jails. Not only political leadership is denied the right to travel to different districts of the state intriguingly the civil society on this side of Pir Panjal is not also allowed to interact with people on the other side. The banning of book release functions in a world of information explosion, the internet, and YouTube may sound ludicrous, but it speaks volumes about the nervousness of the governments in power. Shabnam Qayoom was prevented from releasing his book on history in a local hotel so was Hassan Zaingaree was stopped from releasing his book. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0This policy of strangulating the voices of dissent in Kashmir had not gone well with India\u2019s new-found \u2018strategic-partner\u2019 United States. At the cost of repetition let me reiterate how the US State Department in\u00a0\u00a0 \u2018Executive Summary\u2019 of \u2018India 2013 Human Report\u2019 \u2018had critiqued the status of democracy, freedom of expression and right to travel in Jammu and Kashmir.\u00a0 Highlighting double standards in practice in the state it caustically had stated, \u2018The law provides for freedom of assembly.\u00a0 Authorities normally required permits and notification before parades or demonstrations, and local governments respected the right to protest peacefully, except in Jammu and Kashmir.\u00a0 In this state the local government denies permits to \u201cseparatist,\u201d parties for public gatherings and security forces detain and assault separatists engaged in peaceful protests.\u00a0 During periods of civil tension, authorities used the criminal procedure code to ban public assemblies or impose a curfew.\u2019 Three years, later when there has been a change of guard in the state two times, nothing has changed- the report holds as good today as it was then when Omar Abdullah was in the saddle. Denying space to the voices of dissent is not that simple as it seems to be. To understand, why all in the \u201ccollaborative power politics\u201d tribe despite nursing hatred against each other are one in strangulating the voices of dissent, one needs to fillip through the pages of history.<\/p>\n

Since 1947, it has been in the very grain of the \u201ccollaborative power politics\u201d in the state to create alternative narratives and conjure new discourses for frustrating and defeating the political aspirations and urges of the people. For staying in power for some years, \u00a0\u00a0the \u2018collaborative politicians\u2019 have always signed Faustian Agreements with New Delhi for bartering away the political and economic interests of the overwhelming majority in the State. In this column, it needs not to be reiterated how Sheikh, Bakshi, Sadiq and others traded the political aspirations of the people for donning the mantle of chief executives to be kicked out humiliatingly after some years. The year 2015, did not have a different start than that of 1947, 1953, 1965, 1975 or 1996 it also started with a rash of devious and \u2018dominant discourses\u2019 to count a few, these include \u00a0\u00a0the abrogation of Article 370, the abrogation of Article 35- A law protecting the 1929 State Subject Laws, granting permanent residence to \u201cfour lakh\u201d refugees from West Pakistan, issuing state subjects certificates \u00a0in violation of laid down norms and in the name of pilgrim tourism changing the very complexion and character \u00a0of the state. India\u2019s new Prime Minister, Narendra Modi for fixing task for the persona for the new gubernatorial position of chief executive, took a leaf from Nehru\u2019s Bible on Kashmir.\u00a0 In 1953 Nehru had given ten years job contract to Abdullah\u2019s Man Friday Bakshi for getting the \u201cInstrument of Accession\u201d ratified by the \u201cConstituent Assembly\u201d in violation of the UN Resolutions of 1948 and 1949. To bring the State under the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of India and to subvert the state services by introducing All India Service, I. A. S, I.P.S, I.F.S and others ervices in the state, Having done the job, he was shown the door, a commission was appointed against him and was also jailed. \u00a0\u00a0Some months before his death Nehru gave another \u00a0\u2018job contract\u2019 to Sadiq on similar lines doing away with the symbols of semi-sovereignty,\u00a0 the offices of Sadar-e-Riyasat and Wazir-e-Azam and bringing the state with the ambit of \u201cthe Central Laws\u201d the Comptroller and Auditor-General and the Election Commission of India. In 1996, Farooq Abdullah was brought back according to energy experts for trading water resources of the state to the N.H.P. C. for his six-year job contract. Had not then leadership succumbed to the carrot and stick policy of New Delhi, neither Bakshi nor Sadiq would have mustered courage to go against the wishes of the overwhelming majority.\u00a0 Looking at the agenda of the new coalition government\u00a0 that has come to the fore during past few months including, the construction of shelters for \u201chomeless\u201d,\u00a0 Sainik\u00a0 colonies, ghettos for Kashmiri Pandits, new Industrial Policy and changing script of Kashmiri language, is not different from the agenda followed\u00a0 by the earlier \u201ccollaborative politicians.\u201d In fact, this agenda has more serious dimensions than the one pursued by Bakshi, Sadiq and others for subverting the right of self decision accrued to the people of the State.<\/p>\n

Published in Greater Kashmir on 20-6-16<\/p>\n<\/fb:like><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Punchline
\nDissent and \u201cJob Contracts.\u201d
\nZ. G. Muhammad
\n\u00a0Saying \u2018all is not well in Jammu and Kashmir\u2019 is not simply an aphorism, but it is a statement that has serious connotations of far-reaching consequences. The State has been flagrantly pursuing policy of gagging \u00a0\u00a0the voices of dissent\u00a0\u00a0 in Kashmir province, Chenab Valley and \u00a0Pir Panjal. \u00a0Silencing the voices of the dissent through cheap political machinations of baton has not worked in the past, it is not going to work in the future. Historically denial of the political dissent in the state has always been like a tinderbox just a matchstick away to explode with a bang generating a chaotic situation that drifts away apparently \u201cpowerful\u201d like driftwood down the stream.
\nSince 2010, ailing, octogenarian Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah has been virtually latched inside his home. Not only has his personal liberty been curtailed but for all these years he been denied religious …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editors-take"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2722"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2722"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2724,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2722\/revisions\/2724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}