The Step Son : Kashmir

From the times since Pashtun armed gangs attacked the valley triggering an Indian armed response and the historic (disputed?) caving in of Kashmir to India, things have moved little forward for the erstwhile heaven on earth. Neither the political situation has ever stabilized, nor there has been any 'development' for the natives. To add on to the overwhelming troubles, there has been a significant presence of separatist groups both within and outside the region flaming anti-India feelings every now and then. 

To look at the situation in a historical perspective, the fate of Kashmir was sealed to be different from the rest of India when the stalwarts of Indian independence ceded under pressure to recognize a different constitution for the state. Although, the constitution recognized some autonomous provisions for the region, the autonomy has never been realized truly. Rather, it has sowed the seeds of hatred and suspicion as the centre has, more often than not, utilized the constitutional quasi-unitary features to destroy the same. More so, by the very nature of the difference in treatment Kashmir has now become the unruly step son; which with every passing moment is getting difficult to tame and calm. The denial of small freedoms such as the access to new mobile connections, restrictions on movements-associations etc. topped with the incessant rant of the politically motivated religious factions have bred so much discontent over the past couple of years that the manifestation of which is today visible in the form of a early Palestinian style of revolt (its tragic that they considered stone-pelting as the peaceful way to protest).  Starting off with a small demonstrative exhibitions of public resentment over the state policies, stone pelting has now taken a fatal turn as the recent spate of killings show. The law and order machinery has lost its cool and state repressive machine has swung into action. Since last June, more than fifty people have died in state retaliatory action and most of them include the teens. At this moment its not the life, but death of stone-pelter which has become important. Those in the political lobby who had earlier supported the anti-state agenda for political advantages have lost the driver's seat and the situation has completely become chaotic. However, it is shameful to see that they are still trying to cash in political gains out of the death of civilians. The public anger is the classic case of rabble hypothesis in action and  now it seems to be bit late for an easy solution. The options remaining are far and few; but as Shawshank said "Hope is a good thing, probably the best of the things and no good thing ever dies" , I sincerely hope for a peaceful solution. 

Writing this article on the Independence day is definitely not the best thing I would have liked, but the situation is such that the taste of freedom is not too sweet when I see the current turmoil of our Himalayan cousin.