Did you say security? Oh! I heard captivity.

Monday, the 7th of June, 2010. Another WTF day in the political history of Kashmir. Normal life stranded, movement restricted, telephone signals jammed and the Internet blocked. Awww.. What Tyranny Friends!


Prime Minister, Mr. Manmohan Singh is on his two-day visit to this poor land of killers and guess what, he’s so scared that he’s decided to enter the city secretly through an under-ground channel and do secret things in there which are supposedly for our benefit and then leave secretly. And, on top of that, he has planned to get the whole city sedated by giving general anesthesia to all the residents of the city, individually. Mine-proof limousines never worked better!

First they ban sms services and forget to unban them, then they ban prepaid mobile services, then they place a ban on our whole life! Has anyone ever told them that terrorists use satellite phones these days? And land-line phones too, which they had spared the ban. Quite recently, they arrested a “green-tourist” who had been using a satellite phone in eighty odd countries and he still hasn’t been released. I wonder how they never found out that he wasn’t guilty and how they didn’t find out what real terrorists had been doing meanwhile. To break the suspense, “they” here refers to Indian security agencies (I bet you had not guessed that ). They have been behaving like losers, at least here. Always looking for someone to accuse, someone to put the blame on and someone to be the dead militant (from whom arms were recovered). HS! No, that’s not holy shit, that’s How Sad.

With all due respect, Mr. PM (that’s Prime Minister) we don’t need this. We don’t need you here to add to our problems. We have gone through a lot lately and we don’t want you to believe that you’re going to be assassinated, not here at least. Only great leaders get assassinated. If you are a leader (and not just a prime minister) and you really want to solve our problems then you must face them first. Like the ostrich buries its head in the sand and assumes that the predators can’t see it either, you can’t fight problems you don’t know. Look them in the eye and stare them away. And if you can’t do that, don’t visit us, only to tell us things we already know.

If this is how they maintained law and order everywhere in the world, half of the world would be under siege for more than half the time- the other half being the monarchies! Yes, you and every other leader (and for that matter, every other person) wants to be safe. And, if that’s so, put people behind the bars. You can’t just say that we couldn’t catch or control a few, so we imposed WTF restrictions on the whole region. You are ruining a government for heaven’s sake. Sorry, did I just say ruining? I meant running a government and not a primary school. You have the power, you begged for it, now you have it, go use it. The message you’re sending through this is, “Dear people, we’re going to torture you for a day but it’s so necessary, you see. We were put in power by this small population of hooligans who we can’t afford to antagonize. No doubt the educated class is a big part of the society, but folks, you didn’t vote (which is why they are in power in the first place). Now we can’t put our race-horses, our beloved hooligans behind the bars for your sake. Had you voted we would have governed this land of yours well, but since they are the ones who voted, we have to do it their way cause they’re gonna get us out the next time if we start being too good or too just. This will always continue to happen because we are not running a government but a vote-bank-appeasing institution which will always work not the way it should but the way it is going to keep its voters contented”.

If the Indian government is so scared of the people here, why not just leave them alone? This part of the country is treated differently for a reason, the reason being the dispute they refuse to accept. Why shy away from discussing Kashmir if it’s really such a big problem? It’s funny how they tell Pakistan that we don’t need to talk about Kashmir and still insist on CBMs. If there’s no problem, why should there be CBMs? For God’s sake, there’s a hell of problems and you can’t solve them by chaining people up. Grow up please, GOI. This is 2010 (A.D.) and you can’t bar all communication to a whole big region called Kashmir and claim to have maintained law and order- that’s easy. You don’t fight a chained-up sumo wrestler and say that you’ve won. You have only deeply embarrassed yourself. And if you really see the situation as normal, get out of your bullet-proof world and lead us to progress.

My words here might not change anything but hope is the element of survival. You cannot force order upon a nation. A great leader will inculcate it in his people, not by preaching it but by setting a good example. There's a real problem of law and order here and its only the symptoms of a much greater problem.

The Indian government doesn't just need to announce packages- it has to ensure they're properly utilized. Let the developmental work here be so great that there's little (if not no) unemployment. Let the youth be so occupied and their power so properly channelized that they don’t find time for pelting stones. And last of all, trust your people. Yes, there are just these two things that can make a huge change- moron this later! Wait, hey! Did I say moron??? God, what the hell is wrong with me- I just meant “more on this later”.