Kashmir: Cozy partnership snaps off
It hasn’t been too long since United Nations cautioned India against the violation of human rights in Jammu and Kashmir, stating India and Pakistan together were engaged in quashing the human rights of the people of the valley. UN had expressed inclination to probe these cases. Though India had refuted the charges against itself, the fact that India was cautioned by UN is a blot on the country’s image. This is the result of having tried to tame the tiger of a PDP and BJP coalition in Jammu and Kashmir.PDP has always assumed soft stance towards the separatists. That party declared Afzal Guru as a martyr, and have always been open about their preferences towards separatists. BJP entering into a coalition with this party itself was a bad precedence. This meant that BJP joined hands with separatists, by taking their side. More than anything else, RSS and Sangh Parivar began to interfere with people’s impressions about the valley and its politics. They began to scratch old wounds and blood began to ooze out.
Rightists spoke of ghettoization of Kashmiri Pandits, and banning cow slaughter and such emotionally manipulative things. This contributed greatly towards increasing the magnitude of fears and hurt Kashmir was already experiencing. More than anything else, citizens of Kashmir who came out to protest were deemed as extremists. The government tried to build a negative public opinion against everything that was happening here. The deployment of pellet guns against protesting civilians became a topic of discussion at international level. Killing of Burhan Wani, didn’t go down too well and sent tempers flaring in Kashmir. It was the first time that the massive support began to pour out in support of an extremist. Extremists used the fact that a civilian being tied as human shield to police jeep, much to their advantage and to build a public opinion against the ruling dispensation. The government failed to identify the difference between disobedient civilians and extremists.
BJP never tried to get to the pulse of Kashmir, instead the party tried to generalize the whole problem by making statements such as the stone-pelting civilians were doing so since they were paid for it by detractors. More than this, the party also tried defending demonetization saying the step had brought down stone-pelting incidents in Kashmir. This had an impact on local businesses too. People, mainly the youth lost jobs. Extremists and trouble makers began drawing the jobless youth towards them. But by the time the central government realized what fiasco it had created, things had gone so beyond control that the United Nations took cognizance of the matter and even addressed it in a meeting. By this time, BJP and PDP had realized they had to restrategise their coalition.
PDP didn’t want to speak against separatists, let along acting against them. The party couldn’t take a stance against police and army meting out assaults against civilians in the area. The Kathua incident laid bare the discontentment PDP nursed against BJP. The rape of a 9 year old child by members of Hindu organisations, to ‘teach a lesson to her community’ earned international shame for the nation and held mirror to inhumanity in Kashmir. In the meantime, Sangh Parivar members took out a rally in support of the culprits when they were arrested. PDP insisted that two of the BJP MLAs who were also ministers who supported this rally must be thrown out of the government. This caused great embarrassment to BJP. After this, PDP made no bones about its differences of opinion with its ally. BJP also felt peace won’t return to the valley with its force exerting tactics. This ceasefire was also one of strategies government adopted to bring some peace into the area.
Though BJP has differences of opinion on this matter, its attempt to engage with the extremists may send wrong signals. BJP fears the opposition backlash if it decides to hold talks with the separatists. Hence having known neither force, nor talks can ensure peace in Kashmir, BJP decided to withdraw the support unable to ride the tiger of coalition. This is also to ensure BJP goes to Lok Sabha polls cleaner than before. Now both partners have parted ways with Kathua case as the pretext. The divorce is through. But a bad precedence has been set about Kashmir at international level. United Nations has already trained its eyes on Kashmir over human rights violation. Unless people wholeheartedly accept India as home, it is impossible to ensure Kashmir’s unflinching integrity towards India. The political parties need to understand this simple truth.
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Shivaji statue collapse case: HC grants bail to consultant Chetan Patil
Mumbai (PTI): The Bombay High Court on Thursday granted bail to consultant Chetan Patil arrested in connection with the collapse of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj''s statue at Rajkot fort in Malvan in August.
A 35-foot statue of the iconic Maratha warrior king collapsed in Sindhudurg district on August 26, nearly nine months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled it on Navy Day.
Patil was arrested on August 30 from Kolhapur.
A single bench of Justice A S Kilor on Thursday held that no case was made out to implicate Patil in the case as he had not been appointed as the structural designer of the statue.
The bench further said Patil had only submitted a structural stability report of the pedestal of the statue and the pedestal was intact even after the collapse.
Another accused, Jaydeep Apte, who was the sculptor and contractor, was also arrested in the case. The HC said it would hear his bail plea on November 25.
The Sindhudurg police had registered an FIR under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for negligence and other offences last month against Apte and Patil for the statue's collapse.
Patil and Apte moved HC seeking bail after a sessions court rejected their pleas.
