Silence injurious to Kashmir’s health

Arun Joshi

The silence of Kashmir is holding back all the areas of concern afflicting the people of the Valley. It is mystifying because Kashmiris are brooding 24×7.

Initial scare soon after the August 5 decision of the scrapping of Article 370 has now given way to the wait-and-watch mode where people in the Valley think silence holds the key to their physical security and search for mental peace amid the additional depression caused by Covid.

They want things to happen, but they are carefully avoiding the time-tested ways of agitations of holding protests and sit-ins. They are not enthused by the development works going around them.

Most distinct factor is that they are not impressed by Pakistan’s ways of showing solidarity with them. They are cursing Pakistan in silence for all the miseries that the neighbouring country has brought to them. Kashmiris know that Pakistan’s gun culture has left their young dead. The silence of expanding graveyards bears a testimony to this.

No one reacted when Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan rolled out his country’s new map which included the territory of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. Kashmiris’ silence reflects mocking of the absurdity of Pakistan.

If Pakistan claims that entire Jammu and Kashmir is “disputed” and it has to be settled in accordance with its own reading and interpretation of the UN resolutions, how could it make J&K and Ladakh part of its territory? Kashmiris know that cartographers cannot change the realities.

Kashmir’s problem has to be understood in its entirety. People are not speaking out because there is a momentous disconnect between them and the system.

They do know the realities that have changed, and that these are irreversible.

Earlier, they would react profusely to any statement made from Delhi, Islamabad or any other place. This time, when China intruded, even those who had listed the role of China in resolving the Kashmir issue along with India and Pakistan, kept mum.

The real task for the government is to encourage them to speak.

Their silence is not good for the nation.