Rizzie (Pen Name) | A Soldier looking for winds of change in Kashmir
A serving soldier talks of the unsaid and the non-propagated truth of hashtag Kashmir that more than often doesn't find space in paid publications and propaganda tentacles channelized by politics and power hubs. This humble and never-so-strong Appeal to well read populace, stirs the quest for unrevealing the truth and undertake not speech but action.
The start point is not to differentiate between the intellectuals and academics in India but to address a sort of an open letter to those who consider themselves to be in either or both the categories. This is an earnest appeal from a soldier in Kashmir. I am thoroughly disillusioned by the false propaganda and half-baked narratives about Kashmir that are being peddled and sold to anyone and everyone outside and within Kashmir. Let me make it abundantly clear that I am a soldier and I am not here to fight an unjust battle. I believe in concepts of ‘just battle’ and ‘just conduct in battle’.
It shakes my belief in the system when respected Vice Chancellors of top universities and intellectuals voice their views in national dailies or on international online portals that makes me feel convinced that your heart and soul does not support my actions. And mind you, you all are the influencers of youth and shape the public opinion in general. This appeal is to you regarding a few questions that are bothering my conscience, since a long time.
Are you not able to see through the devious designs peddled in the international narrative woven by a network of gifted writers regarding tales of oppression in Kashmir? The beautiful mosaic created by Malik Sajad in the New York Times impressed me, and I am sure you also were enamored by it. Did you ever pause to think what would its impact be on the worldview about India? While it is a beautifully crafted work of art of childhood memories, it bemoans the half-truths that Kashmiri kids have been fed on primarily to fuel the victimhood narrative. It is a tale of a Kashmiri child who claims to be in lockdown for 30 years. This may be true in semantics but the moot point is that it deftly blames only the Indian state for it! In reality this is propagated as an underscored fact.
Mosaic created by Malik Sajad in the New York Times
Do you actually believe all that?
Do you recall what Kashmir was in 90s, the period when anyone who did not toe the line of separatist ideology was killed in cold blood?
Who had extended an invitation to Pakistani and other international terrorists to have a free run in the Kashmir valley and facilitated the same?
They are the ones ‘who will not be named and shamed’ and whose deeds will not be talked about?
Do you seriously believe that the international conspirators had no role in what Malik Sajad experienced as a kid?
Do you see him disowned ?
He was an outcast, because he was exposing their soul. They were alarmed and worried as a link to the ISIS would dry up all funding and supplies and upend their posh lifestyle.
I exhort you to do a simple exercise; please close your eyes and imagine the person responsible for maximum deaths of Kashmiri Muslims. In my understanding, the biggest bane of Kashmiris is the senile but indomitable Geelani. This is the man who has repeatedly professed that he is a Pakistani by heart.
He (Geelani) has been forthright and transparent in his love and loyalty to Pakistan. I am sure you are aware of the Jamaat list of ‘kabil-e-katl’ Kashmiris in 90s? How they were eliminated one by one! I am sure you are also aware of the fate of every tall Kashmiri who opposed the self-styled Quaid in Kashmir. He is the man whom many Kashmiris derisively recall for shouting "Do you accept me as your undisputed leader" in 2010.
Instigated by him, Kashmiris wrote poems and articles of anger and pain in response. I know these expressions never reached your tables. This master player with a Pakistani heart, who is a clever religious bigot has fooled generations of Kashmiris and intelligentsia into believing that he is leading them in a fight for ‘Azadi’. You are erudite research scholars and would know that the last credible survey in 2009 revealed that very few misled folks in Jammu and Kashmir wanted to be part of Pakistan.
I am sure you all agree only fools in today’s world would want to join up with Pakistan. However, the master sorcerer Geelani has fooled Kashmiri youth to think that fighting for LeT or a JeM or a HM or an Al Badr - all Pakistani terror organizations - is a fight for Azadi!
I don’t see you scholars reveal the smoke screen this sorcerer is shrouding the people of Jammu and Kashmir and the world with. The last master stroke has been that Geelani has declared that no Kashmiri in Jammu and Kashmir is fit to lead the separatists’ bandwagon. Kashmiris are not trust worthy enough to don this mantle so another Geelani from Pakistan is to lead the Kashmiris to redemption! Can there be anything more insulting to a Kashmiri, whatever the leanings maybe?
This is an appeal, nay shout of anguish from soldiers like me. We need to know what you want to highlight. We want to know what you teach your students is it the truth about Kashmir? We want you to come to Jammu and Kashmir, with your students and research scholars and explore the universities of Jammu and Kashmir. Meet up young brave young men of Jammu and Kashmir who are dreaming about and fighting for a new future; they need your commitment and earnest support. Come to us, the men in uniform, to understand what we do; understand our challenges, as we deserve a correct understanding from our intellectuals. Kashmiris deserve an honest intellectual discourse that talks more of equal opportunities, prosperity and peace, than the fantasy of 72 virgins or a Progressive Pakistan or an Egalitarian Theocratic State.
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