Act -1
Abe Lincoln was the childhood hero. He still remains. A visit to Washington D.C. is incomplete without a pilgrimage to the Abraham Lincoln memorial. He was a crusader par excellence. Abolition of slavery, Unifying humans divided on basis of race was no mere attainment. Tragic that the lion heart of the log cabin was felled by bullets of hatred and apparently, heavily sponsored assassin plot. Nevertheless, he was one figure from history that remains engraved in hearts of every humanist and jurist of the world worth the salt.
But, how does Abe Lincoln figure in our ramblings on the thorn-like State in bouquet of roses of the ancient land known today as India?
Kashmir is averred to as paradise on earth in travelogues. As is Switzerland or Kenya and Gold Coast down under in Australia. More because of stupendous natural beauty in that part of the country. Kerala in the southernmost tip and north-eastern sister-states including Sikkim and Meghalaya are likewise worshiped by the travel-agencies and planted reports on ‘must visit places’. These agents of tourism-industry little know of the actual history of all Indian sub-continents. Not to be faulted. For they were taught these lessons by those that passed on baton of business and erstwhile governments of India across the seventy years of existence as a free nation, little grasped importance of history, both of the biosphere as well as political configuration in this jewel in the crown of former colonialists!
Truth, plain and real is that the whole of Indian sub-continent resembled this remaining indicator of it’s pristine-glory called ‘Kashmir’. Until evil ‘lord’ commanders of this enslaved sub-continent began to destroy the fertility of the soil by deliberately having poisonous thorny bushes (popularly identified today as ‘thumma’ or closer synonyms in regional languages) sown. Net result, all beautiful, green scenery got eroded, vanished to leave just trace of these smaller States which survived on account of their proximity to the great Himalayas!
Added to the ‘Bone-of-contention’ in the ‘sharing-of-spoils’ between convent-educated, Hindu-converted Jawaharlal Nehru and cousin-brother still a Muslim, Sheikh Abdullah was the foster-treatment meted out by both these ‘political villains’ to both ‘Kashmir’ & the ‘rest-of-India’ was despicable, to say the least . All citizens of the new nation (India, that is Bharat), were a ‘basket of deplorable’, to cite modern slang.
Hillary Rodham Clinton sure makes it easy to connect the dots and fathom the psyche of Jawahar and Abdullah, in creation of the imbroglio called article-370 and a misnomer invented to define the betrayal of freedom-fighters, called-‘ special status’ .
Oh, that summation was essential to reach the Abe Lincoln introduction to this essay.
So, we, as students of Law are taught to read the bare Acts of all important laws in force and governing societal transactions in our country.
One very easy to remember by rote phrase was that invariably all these Indian laws applied to the whole of India, except the State of Jammu & Kashmir ‘ .
A disgrace! – such was the thought which crossed every discerning mind conversant with the history and need for equality harped upon by Lincoln, Gandhiji and Martin Luther King as also Nelson Mandela ,in their public-campaigns, across different jurisdictions and etas of the world.
How can one accept this anomaly of thought?
The struggle remained, in the mind, in the court-rooms. More so, when one fought the largest landmark historical battles of the last Nizam of Hyderabad-Deccan, through layers of judiciary commencing Chief Judge’s, Magistrates, High Courts, Supreme Court and eventually having it wade through legislatures, parliament and cabinet. Besides, in international fora, having due regard to the special circumstances surrounding the matters!
Sardar Vallabhai Patel, Iron-man par excellence, had put his foot down on matter of secession of erstwhile Nizam state in Deccan region of central India. Where, the ruler was a practicing Sunni Muslim whilst population comprised of majority of Hindus.
In contrast, Kashmir was having a Hindu ruler but population was majorly Shia Muslims. Sunnis were scattered across west Pakistan which was again headed by the likes of Liaqat Ali Khan, the industries minister of Nizam and Mohd. Ali Jinnah from Bombay. Very cowardly then that rather than accede to the wishes of the population and ruler in Kashmir to remain with Bharat, Nehru honey-trapped by Edwina Mountbatten (no slander folks for historical records – written and pictorial attest to these truths) and his wicked, greedy cordon Sheikhs Abdullah chose to create an awkward ‘Trishanku Swarga’ situation, leaving sycophants and imbecile-Netas to succeed to their faulty demarcation including a ‘reference to a body of nations’.
A classic case of creating a ‘non-issue’ into an ‘issue’ to deem ‘politics’ . . .
Then, came monsters from across the borders, nurtured by madmen and bandits of democracy, from other corners of the globe. Kashmir became the ‘ eye of Apple’ of every hunter of fortune in rogue-states neighboring India.
Act -2.
If all men were equal as Abe Lincoln declared at Gettysburg in 1863 , how then can we, the people of a free & independent nation, the motherland of India, be thrown aside as ‘ rest of India’ in a casual, buccaneer manner by these pirates of history?
– It was this nagging question that promoted one to accept an enticing offer to assist the armed forces on legal aspects, as a greenhorn lawyer (after winning a matter in which scam over development of prototype of a main battle-tank was unearthed and strictures got passed against then defense adviser to Prime Minister!) in Kashmir.
Naturally, the lure to render best, legal professional services to defense forces on line of fire was romantic to one incensed by successful exploits in court halls. Pro-bono, of course. All for the motherland.
From close quarters, one could be shocked in real-time, unaided by rumor-mongers or psuedo-editors of broadcast or electronic media, of the absurdity of the situation. Needless to state that no state secret is being given away except fact of a few evil ones from the K valley colluding with greedy swine who are a blot on human race, looting, plundering and holding little-knowing leaders of a democracy to ransom and amassing huge wealth overseas in ‘holy’ pastures!
The Kashmir conundrum is no rubrics cube. It needs Alexander the Great ‘s intelligence to figure out a solution to the Gordian knot!
How?
Rest of India
All seem to be harping, parroting, mouthing, fixated and asphyxiated over the Kashmir portion of India.
Special status.
Seven decades have passed.
If you remember article -370 as a provision of law, how can you forget and overlook the golden principle of estoppel or law of adverse possession?
Reading law in it’s isolation is the cause of downfall of all standards in general of those who are curbed out by law teachers possessing no live- experience of dealing with real-life problems in courts of law, tribunals or such other quasi-judicial fora.
Yes, focus on the injustices being perpetrated non-stop on the ‘Rest of India’. Have we forfeited the right to settle down or buy and sell property in Kashmir or invest in businesses there? Are we not being ‘taxed/fleeced’ in name of providing succor to those living it out there leading a ‘caged’ existence or by those rendered homeless to live in ‘cages’ albeit as refugees enjoying many privileges which others in remaining states of India cannot even seek?
If one were in a land of Donald Trump, one would say ‘Rest of India’ being made a ‘s***er’ for seven long decades!
It is the Indian congress party and it’s band of allies in ranks of irrelevant communism and unworthy regional gangsters turned political warlords which gas so very successfully numbed the minds of ‘rest of India’ . Into thinking that only residents of valley are being ‘harassed’ by terrorists from across borders in Pakistan or China with active aid & assistance of their sponsor agencies, located elsewhere in the planet!
But, why are we, the ‘rest of India’ failing to read the applicable laws and pass a resolution of nationalist political parties and the cabinet or assemblies ,if political correctness ,be the ball-game of novice, new statesmen in saddles of power, and stop barring ‘rest of India’ from moving around freely, investing in valley state if Jammu & Kashmir as being sought for Andaman & Nicobar islands or Assam or Punjab or Kerala and even that little brother ,Pondicherry (scattered across three other larger states !).
Act-3
Kashmir is a historical fiction.
Rest of India alone can solve the dubious duplicity at play – by administrators, military advisers, governors, henchmen of Justice & diplomacy.
End the farce. Let our army continue to provide and protect residents in that border-State. Rest of India will populate and re-engineer the derailed economy of the region. In no time!
This is the military solution. It is a political answer. All Indians are brothers and sisters. Kashmir is an integral part of India. Unite the citizens, One law, One passport, One logical conclusion.
Cowardice at play when we expend vast resources and deploy able defense personnel there declaring it as an integral part of Indian nation, but in the same breath speaking of an insane action of long dead and gone Jawaharlal Nehru in submitting to United Nations.
Nehru died long ago. So did his daughter and grandson. The great grandson is irrelevant and a scarecrow of all those camps who seek to scare and intimidate the Modi era. United Nations has no teeth. It’s biggest defaulters member is fraught with internal squabbles and the ongoing election hungama is ample proof of it’s sorry state of internal affairs.
Enact what late sagacious PM Narasimha Rao did on Ayodhya. No ruin of an imaginary edifice can turn into a haunting structure of fear. Stop imagining ghosts. None dare wage a war on India. Not even distantly placed behemoths of nuclear weapons in today’s scenario. Just as we did not succumb to the 2004 great world depression by virtue of a strong time-tested culture of investing in gold and land, likewise, we shall not be falling prey to continued propaganda of our State not being our State and wickedness must end: we, the rest of India gave every sovereign legal, constitutional right to settle down, invest and own businesses, be it healthcare Centre’s, educational institutions or mere house-boats in that region of India.
It is not a desert-land. It is not a theological warfare. As with Israel, Golan heights or Palestine, We do not require a Camp David it a Golda Meir like strong woman to reset historical blunders . Or, another Abe Lincoln to set us all free from imaginary fences of Law. We gave a strong leader with sincerity of purpose and one whose heart beats for rest of India as much as for any local leader of that kart of the Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic People’s Republic of India!
Rally around India. No more, a rest of India . Good to see a ‘save Balochistan movement ‘or’ bravo, Kurds’ and we support Israel’ re affirmation on social media and mainstream media banners and hoardings of propaganda . But, charity begins from home. Home is where the heart is! K is heart of Indian nation. No more it’s crown. The real crown is state of Gujarat which has sprung up a visionary, honest leader in Mr. Modi just as it had given three other historical Netas in Sardar Vallabhai Patel, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and M.A. Jinnah.
Break the myth of Kashmir being out of bounds to ‘rest of India’.
If, by merely unfurling national flags in Srinagar ,one can grow in stature to be national leaders of extremist, illiterates hoisting enemy flag in the city square become terrorists whom an entire armed forces battalion cannot tame but on the other hand, suffer ignominy of the rogue elements spitting at the face of top brass and training lads to pelt stones at them, then, most certainly, there is insanity at play.
We all know very well that if any enemy or their sleeper-cells were to venture into old city of Hyderabad, Ahmedabad or Allahabad (mere instances), they shall be lynched by local mobs. Just as any dacoit would be by street canines on the prowl..
More comforting is when a certain diplomat is stuck in flooded roads of Delhi, he can only imagine others reaching to host him, in boats . Natural calamities are allies to tame foes. Apply your mind, rest of India. Integrate. Do not let these rodents of politics to further isolate us from our own State.
Let bubble burst. K is a bubble. Nothing more. Remove the dark goggles when in a shady room. Simple enough. Stop being brainwashed by lesser mindsets.
Vandey Mataram !
Note:-
This is no wild fantasy. Nor, is truth a nightmare. Food for thought. Rest of India, awaken your power. You are the innocent sacrificial lambs. Of dirty power play. By long dead & gone villains who abetted the partition of this great sub-continent even as those that drew the lines, borders and division of hearts fled . Karma is catching up, in guise of Brexit & exodus in Europe!
Dharma prompts rest of India now. More than ever before.
We can only muse. Leaders do not amuse us. Most are semi-literate or absolutely short-sighted apologies of leadership and learning.
Agree? Disagree? Let all conversation on K, hereafter; include the viewpoint of the ‘rest of India’.
‘We, the people of India’..!
- Myth of Myth - September 19, 2023
- The Witches’ Brew - September 15, 2023
- Institutions as Custodians - September 14, 2023
That tells you the whole tale . Pak patan shareef in present day Pakistan another rare Shia dargah untouched by sea of change there ,with Talibanis reportedly having members in their National Assembly too.
Shia-Sunni conflict has always been reason for all conflict ,not merely ideological but brutal force and killings,in name of religion.
Theocracies thrive by religious edicts.
India,that is Bharat,is in contrast so very universal,Hindu by character . So,all live and let live here.
But for few quislings nurtured,sponsored,planted by overseas mercenary agencies of war merchandise .
In God we all trust !
After reading the article, a question is coming to mind.
How come Kashmir became Sunni dominated while it was Shia dominated before?
Do you have answer? If yes, plz explain
You touched the bleeding wound. Kashmir is a permanent throne in our flash. Certainly we need someone like Lincoln to solve it and keep India integrated as well.
One thing I am sure that no present leader can solve it because they are caught in the web of vote politics.
Only someone who don;t care vote politics or someone like Lincoln can do.
Great article,