Am I a Pappu ?

Kamal Hak

Nowadays I am scared to indulge in my favourite pastime while driving. Mind you I drive around four hours every day. I am very hesitant to tune it to any FM station for some nerve soothing music. It is not that suddenly music doesn’t hold my interest anymore. It is the intermittent messages declaring the people who won’t vote as Pappu that is giving me a complex. I realize I have been a Pappu all my life. Strange as it may appear but the fact remains in half a century of my life I have never voted.

But, am I really a Pappu?

Like any youngster, I still remember the day when my name appeared in the electoral rolls for the first time. It gave a strange feeling and the confidence of being an adult. I thought it also developed a parental feeling in me as my younger siblings started appearing like children who needed to be taken care of. I also remember an hour long wait in a long queue before gaining entry to the room in the Govt. Girls Primary School near my home, where the polling officers gave you the ballot paper. I also remember the disappointment and the humiliation after all this being told my vote had already been cast. That day my faith in my Muslim neighbours received a serious dent. That day my belief in the might of Indian democratic institutions also diminished. Subsequently, I chose to be a Pappu than face the humiliation. After every election, my caring neighbours would dutifully inform me that the records will show I have cast my vote.

For last nineteen years I have been living in Delhi NCR. I am a registered voter in my local constituency. I also have a voter card. The electoral officer in my erstwhile Srinagar constituency must either be obliged to my family, most unlikely, or may have taken me as Kamaal Haq, more likely. My name still appears in the electoral rolls there. I have never felt inclined to vote here. Some how and I may be wrong, I have always felt my voting here will suit my tormentors in valley and take me further away from my homeland.

Don’t be a Pappu.
It is not only the media, NGO’s and the election commission that is urging me. I am amused some of my own community men also have joined the bandwagon of ‘don’t be a Pappu.’ They want me to strengthen the very process that threw me out of my homeland. Nevertheless, I thought may be they are right. I am now prepared to pin my hopes on the democratic process for bringing me succor.

Please guide and advise me.
There are more than twenty candidates for Srinagar constituency. Nearly all of them including Autar Krishan Pandita of BJP are there just for a symbolic presence. Khalida Shah, wife of Gul Shah and sister of Farooq Abdullah is also not seen as making any significant difference.. The contest is mainly between Farooq Abdullah and Moulvi Ifftikhar Ansari of PDP.
Shall I vote for Farooq Abdullah, a founder member of JKLF and the chief patron of uprising in Kashmir, who abdicated his moral, political and constitutional responsibility towards me in my hour of need? Or shall I vote for Ansari, a perennial turncoat who represents a political party that considers me as a pariah?

I don’t mind being a Pappu.
I don’t want the people of Kashmir, the governments of J & K and India to ever believe every thing is alright with me and I have forgiven them. Either way my vote will not make any significant difference to my plight or state of affairs in this country. But as a Pappu I will always have a satisfaction of being a mirror which reflects the nation’s failures.

I can now tune in to my music station.
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The author Kamal Hak is a political analyst based in Noida, near New Delhi. Hak is the National Spokesperson of Panun Kashmir. He can be reached at kamalhak@yahoo.com

Elections for India:Exile for us

India Votes but the Pandits don’t get to.

1.47 lac voters in 1996; 1.17 lac in 2002 and 0.71 lac in 2008.

At a time when registering as a voter is a mere mouse click away, the Election Commission in connivance with the State is making the most tedious processes for Kashmiri Pandits so as to ensure that we don’t even get a basic human right.

While separatists get to election fray the Pandits are once again marginalised. With polling facilities in only two cities in India the State ensures that 50,000 Pandits living in towns other than Delhi and Jammu don’t get to vote. While others get a day off to vote, Pandits are expected to take an off and fly to Delhi or Jammu to vote.

It is but a part of the larger process to erase Kashmir's indigenous people not just from geographical horizon of Kashmir but from mind-spaces, voter lists, ration cards so that one day Pandits can no longer claim to be Kashmiris.

On Sunday, 3rd of May,09 we will all register our protest at Silent sit at Jantar Mantar, near Cannought Place, New Delhi at 3:30 pm.

The nation votes and we wonder about our Voter ID cards.

Elections for India, Exile for us!

For More Information please contact:

Amal Magazine:9873900479

Ashish Zutshi:09811600264

The Election Farce,Sajjad Lone etc

Che Kamyu Kareneay taveez pan
Yaaro van bale yaaro van

Who hath cast thy spell on thou?
Speak up my friend, speak up

Wahab Khar the 18th Century poet probably had the power to see future. How else does one explain the above verse unless he knew that Sajjad Lone, the most vociferous of the separatists would one day take a U-turn (strategic not ideological-let us laugh over it) and join the election fray. Intrigue has always been a part of Kashmir’s history and Kashmir’s leaders have more often that not been treacherous and perfidious. Sajjad Lone can be no exception.

After all he is following in the footsteps of his illustrious father who was first a minister in the Govt.of Jammu and Kashmir and then when the tide of separatism engulfed the valley he too changed his colours and became a separatist. As they say in Kashmir, Once a turncoat always a turncoat. Abdul Ghani Lone was about to don his old colours when the rival separatist gangs got a whiff of it and killed him. Sajjad and Bilal had a chance to speak up then but then the fear of death at the hands of terrorists had the better of them. If you can’t beat them join them.

Bilal joined the Hurriyat Conference while Sajjad kept to his People’s Conference because the Hurriyat did not want him amongst them. They were wary of him for various reasons, the primary being his proximity to some sections of the Indian Establishment. Sajjad who spends more time outside the valley found support from the liberal media and some sections of chatterati and thus was propelled to the national television screens as a “a separatist leader”. It was of little consequence that he enjoyed little or no support at the ground. His English speaking abilities and his suave ways became his passport for leadership. It is another matter that he was a leader because of his connections with the Editors of English News Channels.

Then came his big moment! The Amarnath agitation divided the state of Jammu and Kashmir like never before.The Govt of Jammu and Kashmir cancelled the temporary allocation of land which led to protests in Jammu.Sajjad Lone scoffed Arnab Goswami,”Are you comparing the agitation in a few Mohallas in Jammu to that of a Pan-Kashmir Agitation”.When the agitation in Jammu further gained ground he told Rajdeep Sardesai”We should give one and half district to Jammu and live peacefully”. It all reached a crescendo when he shouted at Dr.Jitendra Singh in Barkha Dutt’s programme that the land row is settled, all that is to be settled is Azadi.He even wanted Jitender Singh’s mike to be muted.

He was arrogant and rude to say the least. He was so vocal about his being Kashmiri separatist that he forgot that he is human too. He rubbed many people the wrong way.

Soon the elections were around the corner. The separatists including him gave a boycott call but a determined Election Commission went ahead with the election schedule. He was once again the most vocal face of the boycotters. Even on the day when the first phase figures came out and when 64% electorate had polled in he told Arnab Goswami” One Swallow does not make a spring. Wait there still is six more phases”. Meanwhile his sister Shabnam Lone too stood for elections. He swore by the Holy Quran that he had nothing to do with her candidature. He said, he did not support the farce called elections. He renewed his calls for boycott and his sister lost.

The Election Results were announced. Sajjad Lone was forlorn and dejected. He seemed to have lost the guftaar (the art of conversation) though he still maintained that he did not regret his decision to boycott polls. He was suddenly seen biting dust. He called for introspection but then who would have thought that this would be introspection. His introspection will be to swear in the name of the Indian Constitution. Whether he represents Kashmir in India or India in Kashmir is mere semantics. Doesn’t Sharad Pawar represent Maharashtra in India and India in Maharashtra?

A word is due to our columnists who see this as some “paradigm shift” in the politics of Kashmir, those who believe that Lone is a “moderate voice” among the separatists and for those who believed that his “Achievable Freedom Document” was some Godsend solution to Kashmir. It is time for them to spend some more time in Kashmir and go beyond what they see from their Shikara’s. It is time for them to talk to normal Kashmiris and know what the Lone U-turn means. It is time that they stop bullshitting and telling us that in the last assembly elections the Kashmiris voted for Bijli,Sadak,Paani and not for India.Do they think we are so dumb as to believe that all these years Kashmiris did not need Bijli,sadak and Paani.Go drink some paani from Chasme Shahi in Kashmir.It is believed to have medicinal values that cures brain disorders.

One just hopes that the establishment lets the elections be free and fair and does not in any way or form aid the candidature of Sajjad Lone. It is only then that we would know how much of a leader Sajjad is outside the studios of TV Channels. Only time will tell whether he is elected or not or whether the Indian Establishment covertly gets him to the Parliament or not. What we know for sure is that he represents himself and himself alone in Kashmir as well as India. Seldom has a Kashmiri leader represented anyone but himself and Lone can not be alone in this.

No Pandit in J&K Assembly

Aurangzeb Naqshbandi, Hindustan Times

The ruling National Conference- Congress coalition in Jammu and Kashmir is willing to walk the extra mile to give representation for Kashmiri Pandits in the state cabinet.

But as, for the first time, no Pandit got elected to the state assembly, Chief minister Omar Abdullah and Congress president Sonia Gandhi have reportedly agreed to bring someone from the community to the upper house and appoint him to the cabinet.

The move will be a political reassurance to the community, which has been at the receiving end of militancy, leading to the displacement of about 90 per cent population of Kashmiri Pandits from the valley.

The recent elections saw the rout of all the 47 Kashmiri Pandit candidates in the fray. Now, several organisations are demanding “adequate space” for the community in the politico-administrative set-up.

“Why should we ask for it? We are not beggars. The powers that be should create an adequate space for us. We have given blood for the last 50 years,” Kashmiri Pandit Sangarsh Samiti president Sanjay Tikoo told Hindustan Times over the phone from Srinagar.

He is among the few hundred Kashmiri Pandits who decided to stay back in the valley after the outbreak of militancy in the late 1980s.

Pooja Shali, a Mass Communication student, said it is equally important that Kashmiri Pandits possess a fair representation in the cabinet. “But, this should not be at a titular level,” she added.

Echoing her views, Roots in Kashmir co-founder Aditya Raj Kaul said, “we would be glad if a true representative of the Pandit community, and not someone who will only be of an ornamental value, is chosen.”

CM Omar Abdullah already promised that he would give representation to the community in his cabinet. “It is a large community and requires representation in both the cabinet and the legislative council,” he said soon after his talks with Congress president Sonia Gandhi on government formation.

However, Jammu-based Panun Kashmir convenor Dr Agnishekhar has a different take. “For the first time in its political history, NC did not give mandate to a Kashmiri Pandit. This makes one suspicious about their intentions and designs,” he said.

Omar is likely to induct former chief secretary Vijay Bakaya in the cabinet. He was part of the committee that drafted the NC’s ‘Vision for Governance’ document.

The names of two Kashmiri Pandit leaders – Makhan Lal Fotedar and Ashok Bhan – are also doing rounds for the coming elections to four Rajya Sabha seats from the state. Bhan, a senior Supreme Court advocate, has good rapport with all shades of opinion in the valley and had been instrumental in bringing many senior separatist leaders to the negotiating table.

While the ruling alliance is unanimous in giving representation to Kashmiri Pandits, a section of Congress leaders from the state have impressed upon the party high command to leave a Rajya Sabha seat for him in case he decides to enter the fray.

Courtesy: Hindustan Times

Boycott the boycotters....

As figures for the first two phases of polling poured in, gloom must have descended on the faces of the separatists. Kashmiris have in a way shown them what they want. In an year where "the Kashmir Experts", the liberal left columnists, half baked journalists and jesters like Jug Suraiya had told us, it is all over for India, the people of Kashmir have just announced their belief in Indian democracy. Huge queues at the polling booths may just show the direction of the wind.

With rabble rousers like Yasin Malik, Bitta Karate and their ilk firmly in where they belong to, the polls so far have been almost bereft of any violence.

The most amazing feature of these polls is the defiance of an ordinary Kashmiri.The courage and resilience that the Kashmiris have shown against the army of self styled commanders of Jihad.It is about time that Sajjad Lone(the cry baby),Mirwaiz(what happened to his Al Umar Mujahideen) and Syed Ali Shah Geelani(May he get well soon) hide their faces for who knows what ordinary Kashmiris have on their mind next.

"I am voting for peace. Democracy should grow in Kashmir valley. My vote is to defeat the separatists and Hurriyat voices in Kashmir and strengthen nationalist leadership," said Omarkar Nath of tulmulla village of Ganderbal segment.

A cartoon on 'J&K Elections' which appeared in 'The Hindu' newspaper on Wednesday, Nov 19, 2008.

An elderly Kashmiri woman voter displays her ink-marked finger after she cast her vote during the second phase of local elections in Lar, 35 km (21 miles) east of Srinagar November 23, 2008. (Reuters Photo)

Mehtab Wani, an elderly Kashmiri woman, displays her voter identity card as she stands in a queue to cast vote outside a polling station in Lar, some 30 kilometers (19 miles) north of Srinagar, India, Sunday, Nov. 23, 2008. (AP Photo)

Jalal-Ud-Din, a physically challenged man, is carried by an unidentified relative after casting his vote in Benhama, some 35 kilometers (22 miles) north of Srinagar, India, Sunday, Nov. 23, 2008. (AP Photo)

Bashir Ahmed, a physically challenged man leaves polling station after casting his vote in Barsoo, some 28 kilometers (17 miles) north of Srinagar, India, Sunday, Nov. 23, 2008. (AP Photo)