“Jammu & Kashmir forms a part of the territory of India as defined in Article 1 of the Constitution, being the 15^th state included in the First schedule of the Constitution, as it stands amended.” These lines are from Chapter 15 of the book titled ‘Introduction to Constitution’ by Dr. Durga Das Basu. I felt that I need to start with the history of Jammu and Kashmir since, many a times, we ourselves forget this and play into the hands of our enemies.

Jammu & Kashmir was a princely state ruled by Maharaja Hari Singh who signed the Instrument of Accession making J&K an Indian state. Please take a moment to remember that all the erstwhile princely states that merged with the Indian Union after India’s independence in 1947 had signed the same Instrument of Accession.

Therefore, it is worth noticing why other princely states that integrated with India have had no issues, while Kashmir Valley of the state of Jammu and Kashmir continues to burn.

Just to remind you of the Clause (3) of Article 370 which states, “Notwithstanding anything in the foregoing provisions of this article, the President may by public notification, declare that this article shall cease to be operative or shall be operative only with such exceptions & modifications and form such date as he may specify: Provided that the recommendation of the Constituent Assembly of the state referred to in Clause (2) shall be necessary before the President issues such a notification”

Spread of Radical Islam

It is no secret that after the advent of radical Islam, Indian government has had to face a new challenge altogether. This combined with the Left-backed propaganda that creates an illusion of Hindu autocratic state has not helped the Indian cause. This has given new found strength to external enemies (Jaish-e-Mohammad, which means the army of Mohammad) who have recruited local Kashmiri youth by brainwashing them to believe that Indian Muslims are indeed in grave danger. The various radical sects like Wahabis, Salafis, Al-Hadis et al continue to spread and fund terror operations in India through various mediums.

If truth be told, Islamists have turned Islam into a religion with a rigid set of rules that might had relevance in the medieval times when the religion was in its infant stage. But, now the world has changed and that compels one to reform religions. I would go one step further and say that we need to re-look at the way we have defined religions. That and all other matters can be subject of a different article altogether but here we will talk Kashmir first.

Continuing with the radical Islamists the government of the day must take stringent actions against groups which are promoting this. Madrassas have had an unchecked growth over the past few years. They have had virtually no checks. The Ministry of Home Affairs must take note of this and inquire as to who is funding them and how are they utilizing the funds being made available to them.

The radicals in a group are hard to find but I am sure intelligence agencies in our country do know how to track them. For example, as part of religious practice, Muslims undertake Tablighi Jamaat. We can compare this to a missionary seeking a convert. Practices like these are to be checked for, it is through these that youth are recruited. Apart from these, Internet does provide large amount of material. Sometimes, I do wonder, when groups seek privacy rights, are they really acting to preserve rights or is it a ploy to protect someone else.

Foreign Policy

India’s domestic action must be congruent to its foreign policy. In short, “preach what you practice.” So, when we get attacked and people do seek war, we must think twice, as a war might do more damage to us than a crook nation like Pakistan which is on the brink of a financial collapse. In the 70 years after both nations achieved independence, we have run ahead in all fields from science and technology to sports. With all our achievements, China is our rival than Pakistan. This point where we have run ahead and changed our rival can be termed as our inflection point. Anyone who knows the Dragon (China) knows that it has ambitions of world dominance. It still sees itself as the Middle Kingdom or center of the world. To this concept, it has US challenging it at the global level and domestically it has a Tiger (India) chasing it.

This race between the Tiger and Dragon is a race between India and China. China has its own insurgency issues in Xinjiang and fears that Islamic elements from Xinjiang might get support from groups in Pakistan. So to preserve its interest and to destabilize a roaring Tiger it fails humanity. They have a record of blocking attempts by India to get Jaish-e-Mohammad blacklisted by the UN. The UNSC (UN Security Council) has blacklisted JeM but not its chief Azhar Masood. To sum up the entire story, I would like to say that China is indirectly supporting the state patronage Pakistan provides to terrorist outfits. This helps China deal with its domestic issue and also destabilize India as well, a mutual symbiosis between China and Pakistan. 

Indian Politics: Changing Tides & The Left’s Game Plan

It was as much surprise to anyone when all political parties came together in solidarity of the CRPF martyrs. Unlike last time, they did come together in a show of unity. All of them came together and said they would be with the government. All of them but for Communists. I will come to this particular sect later in my article, for even a book will not suffice to document the ills they want for our nation. As a citizen, I was happy to see political parties coming together for a cause. It seemed like the utopian world comrades speak of and then I realized election season is around. I realized that none of these parties can say something that they said during the Uri surgical strikes. I was also proud at that moment for, I realized that most of our countrymen will not hear anything against the men or women guarding our lives. I am no one to question their patriotism but ask them if slogans heard on February 9, 2016 were right or wrong. You can unmask the hypocrisy. This dual standard was most evident from Yogendra Yadav’s tweet below.

This cannot be termed as patriotic behavior. I will be patriotic if you do not take advantage of the outcome. This is politics of the lowest standard.

Coming back to communists, they have shown over the last few days what they are capable of. They are sly. They are so good at taking advantage of a citizen’s emotion. First, they provoke you to say something and once you say they start playing the victim card. After paying lip-service to the CRPF martyrs, communists across the world saw through social media posts that Indians are very upset about the Pulwama incident. First, they tried peace and jingoism, their usual favorites. Still, when nothing seems to have worked the machinery stitched the news of Kashmiri students being attacked in Dehradun. This is not the worst thing, they continued with this, even after an advisory by the CRPF. On their social media timelines, you can find commies being silent on February 14 and suddenly finding their flair on February 15 and 16. One must learn from past experiences. This is the same party which said that India is 42 countries, same people who hailed China when it attacked us. We must be careful of these people and not respond to them in haste. We might end up demeaning the very cause we protect.

Remedy?

Now, having said so much one must wonder what is the remedy to this issue? If someone says that he has a remedy to the Kashmir issue, I would love to hear him out. But, so far, I am yet to come across someone like that. The first thing we can do is to increase our know-how of this so-called “Kashmir issue”. We must not fall into the Left’s propaganda, they have been working hard to show that the whole of Jammu & Kashmir is a hostile Indian territory, whereas the truth is that only 4 districts in Kashmir Valley are problematic.

Before we say something in public through our social media pages we must know that Kashmir is a sensitive issue. This is what we can and should do.

The government has started various schemes aimed at providing employment to the youth of Jammu & Kashmir. This is a good start. One of the main issues has been spread of radical Islamic movements, stringent checks must be put in place to ensure that materials pertaining to these radical ideologies are not spread. Efforts must also be made to relocate those who have deserted the valley. These are still small ideas which I can think of and I am no bigger than any of you. All I can say is that this country is very beautiful and we are indeed lucky to be born as Indians. So, let us strive to make India the Golden Sparrow that it was during ancient times.