Four years ago I wrote this, to keep some close friends amused. Its no long amusing that 4 years and nothing seems different.
Let Kashmir Burn
Apropos to our earlier articles trying to get people to become proactive over the Kashmir
issue, we now try and analyse the media portrayed picture of this 'despondancy' that we
are reeling under.
The media finally shows what the Government wants it to show. They have access to
Srinagar and other cities to film whatever and interview whoever they want. Beyond the
tar roads where the villages lie, where the militants lurk, there is only the army and the
paramilitary forces without as much as an agenda with them.
Certain villages are demarcated as 'Out of Bounds' for our own military. This is either
due to the connivance of our political alliances or due to the very fact that there is now a
tacit understanding between the military and the Afghanis on areas of truce. Strange as it
may sound such pockets of peace do exist, and no one complains.
There are problems for everyone, India, Pakistan and the powers within that will unearth
a proverbial 'can of worms' if the matter in J&K can be resolved, if all it can be. Pakistan
needs the J&K issue to keep its population engrossed in something other than the bad
state of affairs its economy and politics. The Pakistani Army is better at governing its
own country than managing affairs of defence and is back at its hobby of ruling the
country again. A return to democracy can be followed up only by a population that
decides to get out of the morass they are in right now, but they will realise that only if
they are given time to reflect away from India, so well portrayed as the aggressor there.
The Indian Government has to day a phenomenal number of troops there. The Army
strength is probably over five Corps strong. With the creation of the third Corps, there
are about 20+ Batallions of Rashtriya Rifles, and innumerable other Batallions drawn up
from the lower states under the guise of Internal Security.
For the past ten years, the Indian Army has learnt to function with about 2,50,000 plus
of its troops involved in Kashmir living in an almost war like scenario. If this problem
were to get over and Pakistan were to become a friendly nation, the Top Brass of
the nation would have a very real and present danger of keeping these many troops
pleasantly occupied. The Paramilitary forces number three times as much as the Army,
on conservative estimates, BSF, TA, CRPF, ITBP, CISF and innumerable other units
from other organizations are in excess of 7,50,000.
The property taken over from fleeing Brahmins, apple orchards, etc., wouldn't it be hell
if you had to sit down at the end of it all and have to return it to rightful owners? What
would you do with self-styled Commanders of factions of the J&K Liberation armies/
factions? Where would you find gainful employment for Kashmiri youth who have lived
off Indian Government dole money ever since they were born? Who would account for
all the subsidies that have lined private coffers from the thousands of crores that have
disappeared from the subsidies that J&K gets?
We could let the damn state starve for all the trouble the people there give us. Let
them buy rice that the rest of the nation does. Let them work for a living. Give them
employment building a canal connecting the Ganges to the Cauvery, or whatever,
let them earn a living instead of buying rice at Rs. 2 a Kg. and then feeding terrorists
at night, amongst other things. Albeit at gunpoint. A spineless population we do not
need. The rot of our system is evident in the psyche of the average Kashmiri. They
want freedom, or Pakistan, but they say that their Apples will be sold in the markets of
Bombay. They know the merchants of Lahore will plunder them in broad daylight, and
they will not be able to do a thing about it. The people want cake and to eat it too.
Given our strengths, don't you find it strange to see a problem continuing for over ten
years and only getting worse? The Punjab militancy needed a 'Super Cop' to end things
ruthlessly. There too there was backing from across the border. How did it end then?
Public support helped the Government use force and finish the matter. What is up in
Kashmir then? We have 25% of our army, and about three times as many paramilitary
forces there. We have the strength, but apparently someone has calculated that there is no
urgency in ending the problem anytime soon.
The 10,00,000 strong army has learnt to deal with approximately a 1,000 dead a year with
a blink. No one cares about the paramilitary forces. We are sure that the Forum-ites here
would be hard pressed to find accurate figures of paramilitary losses over the past ten
years. Why? No one in the powers-that-be really seem to care about ending the situation
in J&K. Monetarily, has there been a significant change in our defence budget due to
the insurgency? Nothing that the DM has complained about to date. Just the demands
for more money to upgrade weaponry when Pakistan is not even getting spares for the
weapons they have. The nation has learnt to deal with the situation and the press playing
the role of pacifier, has made sure that the population of India becomes immune to any
newer levels of atrocities committed there.
What to do with an Army that is occupied with sharpening its nails and nothing to kill,
someday that is going to get us. There are already incidents of Officers being shot dead
by their own troops, so much so that the Units are happy with field postings as holidays
are guaranteed there, as opposed to peace postings where the shortage of men takes up
more than half your annual leave. This is apparently OK with the planners of the Army.
So, we firstly do nothing long term about stating a solution to a problem. Deal with that
cancer like it was the flu. The we play around with the manpower and create problems
that will surface over the next decade, but the Generals of today would be retired by then
to write about how wrong things are and pass expert judgement during Kargil-like crises.
Money is not a problem, manpower is not either. What to do later is. So ladies and
gentlemen of the Forum, people who disagreed with our earlier article, will definitely
find that this line of reasoning to their liking. The few who understood have refrained
from comment, and the ones who commented on the 'ownership' of the Forex missed the
point. So maybe they agree here, that there is nothing we can do.
Let Kashmir burn.
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