News Kashmir Magazine

News Kashmir Exclusive

 

Autumn Assembly Session 2015 of Jammu & Kashmir Legislative Assembly was one of the highly charged Assembly sessions in the history of Kashmir. Controversies defined the Assembly working more than the usual concrete debates on key public issues.

At the formal start of Assembly session on Monday unruly scenes were witnessed as the house was adjourned for the day after two adjournments failed to restore order in the House over the controversial beef ban issue and imposition of tax on helicopter rides to Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine by the J&K government.

 

What was a surprise was that the prominent opposition  Congress did not touch the beef ban issue at all and instead cornered the government on imposition of what has been called controversial tax on helicopter rides to the Vaishno Devi Shrine.

 

Facing the opposition charge of being “RSS man”, Jammu and Kashmir Assembly Speaker Kavinder Gupta  went on to say that he is proud to be RSS member but when inside the House, he is just the Speaker and all this created lot of resentment from Opposition members.

Tuesday was no different as opposition National Conference (NC) and Congress legislators shouted for protection of article 35A of the constitution and raised issue of NYC hunger strike and also sought regularization of daily wagers in the state. Amid uproar and unruly some NC Lawmakers were suspended from the assembly and main opposition party NC decided to boycott the entire session.

On Wednesday, Keeping in the mind the urgent need to transact business in J&K Assembly, Chief Minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed  stepped in to revoke suspension of four National Conference (NC) legislators. And accordingly both  the Speaker and the Chairman of lower and upper house respectively revoked the suspension following the Chief Minister’s intervention.

 

Thursday set its own bad precedent in the history of uproar in legislative assembly as in a shocking and shameful incident, Independent MLA from North Kashmir’s Langate Constituency Engineer Rashid, who hosted a beef party in MLA hostel on Wednesday night, was thrashed by Bharatiya Janata Party MLAs in the state Assembly. Angered by his beef party, BJP MLAs attacked Rashid inside the Assembly on Thursday and beat him up.

As a matter of fact, the Autumn Assembly session  witnessed important debates on few burning issues like worse condition of roads,  need to improve picture of health sector and  lacunas in Public Distribution system. Minister for Public Works (R&B), Floriculture, Gardens and Parks, Syed Muhammad Altaf Bukhari stated  heavy rains during September 2014 and March- April 2015 had lent tremendous damaged roads in the State, adding that temporary restoration works have been executed and all roads made trafficable.

This was stated by the Minister while replying to a calling attention notice by MLA Nowshera, Ravinder Raina. Minister admitted in the house that condition of Roads in the State of Jammu & Kashmir is far from being satisfactorily and there is still shortage of required funds to change the face of Kashmir roads towards betterment.

Minister for Health and Medical Education, ARI & Trainings, Chaudary Lal Singh threw light on the different steps being taken to refurbish the public healthcare facilities especially at places like Kupwara, Shopian and Pulwama and made it clear that its prominent priority of the government to change the face of healthcare facility in the state towards betterment.

While speaking over the drug abuse issue  in the  Legislative Assembly and the steps needed to curb drug menace in the state. “Police is responsible for increasing drug menace in the state,” the Health Minister said. “Police know the source of drugs, but they (policemen) save them. These police men are taking money from drug dealers and our drug control department is not able to do anything.”

Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed took lead in explaining the steps taken to improve public distribution system and stated that Public Distribution Centers would be made role model were all basic commodities will be available.

 

Mufti Sayeed  stated that Government’s role in streamlining the Public Distribution System in the state has been impressive , Mufti Sayeed said it is a major achievement of the Government that ration is now being provided to people as per 2011 Census, when earlier it was being distributed as per Census 2001.

Congress and NC showed unity on some issues while on some issues their joint opposition did not present a united face.

On holistic Paradigm, the Autumn Assembly Session was marked by controversies and saw very few moments of concrete debate.

 

 

Farzana Mumtaz

Muslims usually celebrate their religious festival of Eid with gaiety and extend greetings to one another. With the arrival of social media tools like Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp, people had started extending their greetings to a larger circle of friends and relatives. This Eid, the Peoples Democratic Party and the rightwing Bharatiya Janta Party coalition government led by Chief Minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed sent Kashmir back to the times when Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey were not even born.

The State had decided to abort any move of the people slaughtering cattle and posting the pictures on the social networking site by doing what it does best in Kashmir – imposing a curfew. This time though it decided to impose a communication curfew.

The government ordered termination of internet services for three days on Eid-ul-Adha as it apprehended people would post pictures of cattle being slaughtered on social media website and hurt the sentiments of some rightwing Hindus who consider cow holy and thus create communal tensions.

The directive to terminate internet services to the customers was given by the police to all the internet service providers amidst the controversy over beef ban.

In the order, Inspector General of Police, Kashmir Syed Javaid Mujtaba Gillani directed the service providers to snap all data services from 5 am on Friday till 10 pm on Saturday. However, the termination of internet services was later extended by one more day.

“In view of the apprehension of misuse of data services (GPRS/2G/3G) by anti-national elements, which is likely to cause deterioration in law and order situation, you are requested to completely snap down the data services through GPRS/2G/3G and broadband in Kashmir Valley starting from 5 AM of September 25 till 10 PM of September 26,” the IGP directed in the order.

A similar directive was conveyed to service operators in Jammu region too.

The ban was imposed on internet so that no videos were uploaded or social networking sites accessed.

The measure was taken due to the fear of communal tensions in the backdrop of the High Court (HC) directive calling for implementing an arcane law of 1932 that bans slaughter of bovine and selling of beef.

The HC decision was opposed by the people of Kashmir and most of the separatist groups said they would defy the court order.

When the government decided to extent the termination of internet services by one more day, former chief minister Omar Abdullah said the PDP-BJP coalition government was pushing the people into the Dark Ages.

“During our regime, when situations were far worse, our government only reduced bandwidth so that fictitious videos were not uploaded. But this regime is completely pushing the people of the state to the wall,” he said. “I wonder why Chief Minister Mufti Muhammed Sayeed and his daughter Mehbooba are silent on such draconian actions. They used to accuse my government but I wonder what they have to say now. In fact Mufti Sahab is living to his promise. He had promised to make the state like Gujarat. Now I guess we are competing with Gujarat as to who bans internet more.”

The termination of internet services lasted for 82 hours, the longest-ever in Kashmir.

The ban drew sharp criticism as Kashmir witnessed dampened celebrations and disconnected families.

“My Eid was incomplete without watching grandchildren on Skype and spending time together online. I could not see them because of the ban, which drove divided families like ours to the Stone Age,” said Sheikh Hilal, whose son and grandchildren live in Dubai.

In the past too, internet ban would be imposed on January 26 and August 15, to prevent trouble.

However, this was for the first time that the landline-based broadband too was snapped.

President of an association of traders, Kashmir Economic Alliance (KEA), Muhammad Yaseen Khan termed the ban as “the PDP-BJP government’s agenda of destruction”.

Traders claimed that online businesses, mainly tourism and the banking sector, were disrupted.

Former chief minister Omar Abdullah took a jibe at the PDP, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the ban.

“Oh, the irony of listening to the Prime Minister talking about digital India while we in J&K spent three days totally disconnected due to his party and allies,” he tweeted.

President of the Kashmir Hotel and Restaurant Association, Showkat Chowdhary said while the chief minister talks of intending to remove the negative perception about Kashmir, at the same time, he takes the extreme step of sending people back to the Stone Age.

While Kashmir was completely disconnected on the internet, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was rubbing shoulders with Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Sundar Pichai of Google promoting Digital India in the United States.

The HC directions that brought the state to the extent of banning the internet on the religious festival of Muslims were secured by two government lawyers, since sacked by the Peoples Democratic Party-led administration, putting the party on a collision course with its coalition partner, the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Now the government is in a fix with the opposition National Conference, Congress, Awami Ittehad Party and CPI (M) have promised to bring bills to have the law scrapped during the session of the state assembly that begins on October 3.

This has brought Chief Minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed’s PDP and rightwing BJP at a collision course.

The internet ban was also accompanied by detentions and house arrests of not only the separatist leaders but also butchers. Police also seized hundreds of cattle to stop people from slaughtering the bovine in public.

In this chaos and confusion, the only voice that cooled the tempers of the people was of veteran separatist leader, Syed Ali Geelani. He appealed the people in Kashmir not to do anything that would hurt the sentiments of the other community.

Geelani’s appeal calmed the situation more than the government’s exercise of brute power.

When the internet was back after three day ban people associated with online businesses said they lost their livelihood.

Muheet Mehraj’s online shop Kashmirbox.com, which works with artisans, farmers and small time designers, is back in business but over 300 orders were lost.

For online start-ups, the internet ban was devastating, that too right before Eid festivities.

Not surprisingly, when the ban was removed, many on social media wished each other “Internet Mubarak”.

The internet ban also hits patient care and Doctors Association Kashmir slammed the government for imposing three-day internet ban.

President DAK Dr. Nisar-ul-Hassan said that gag on internet was unethical and patients were denied access to medical services.

“Patient care was worst hit and patients suffered the consequences of internet blockade,” he said. “Patients use internet as healthcare tool for self-care management thus minimizing the need for direct patient-physician interaction.”

He said patients consult their doctors through internet and this higher level of participation improves communication and patient satisfaction.

He said that internet was a source of huge health information for doctors to update knowledge for better health outcomes which in turn strengthens doctor-patient relationship.

A group of students, who had to return to their colleges and universities outside J&K after celebrating Eid with their families in Kashmir, were up in arms against the government over the internet ban.

“We are not able to get our air or train tickets booked. This is outrageous,” they said.

A group of tourists from Pune, who were in Kashmir, said the ban troubled them a lot.

“We had to book a ticket to Mumbai on September 25 when the prices were very low. We couldn’t do it because of the internet ban. Now we have to pay more for our tickets,” said Sunita, who works in a private company in Pune. “Such decisions damage Kashmir’s tourism image as well. Nobody will visit Kashmir after hearing about the ban on internet.”

State Congress spokesperson, Ravinder Sharma said the PDP-BJP government had “put students, exam aspirants and tourists in particular to great inconvenience”.

Residents and the business community in Jammu also flayed the state government’s move to snap internet connection in the region, along with the Kashmir

“My business has come to a complete halt for the last two days, I have faced a huge loss in the business as I was not able to book a single airline ticket,” Pradeep Singh who runs an airline ticket booking agency in Jammu said.

Netizens came heavily on the government for its decision of snapping internet services.

Social networking sites, including Facebook and Twitter remained abuzz with the statements regarding the internet gag.

Sami Khan, a Kashmir University student is routine Facebook user and updates his every happy moment on Facebook but this Eid he couldn’t greet and share pictures with his friends who are studying outside India.

“With this three day ban on internet we experienced those days when valley was not having any such facilities. As most of my friends are studying in Russia and Bangladesh I was unable to send them Eid greeting through social networking sites. We would always share Eid celebration pictures but due to the ban I stayed glued to my TV set in my room,” he said.

Soon after the authorities lifted ban on the internet, netizens took to the social networking sites and criticized the government for imposing what they term as e-curfew.“And we are back! #Kashmir is back from Stone Age! We can now access internet,” posts Sheikh Suhail on Facebook.

Terming it as a “communication curfew” people across Kashmir took to social networking sites soon after internet services were restored and lambasted government for clamping down internet.

“PDP is party with difference: Only this party can block internet for three days in EID and pass it off as welfare scheme for Muslims of state” wrote senior Journalist Naseer A Ganai on a social networking website.

“I felt completely isolated from the world. The world seemed static to me. I thought I am living in the Dark Age due to the internet ban on the occasion of EID” said Akhter Neyaz, who teaches Journalism in Govt. College Baramulla.

Farzana Mumtaz

The High Court’s direction to enforce the 83-year-old cow-slaughter ban has proven that the rightwing parties across India are at work and if mainstream regional parties are not able to amend the law in the forthcoming autumn session, the autumn of 2015 may witness the heat of the summer of 2010. Farzana Mumtaz reports

 

Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian bicameral parliament, and former chief minister of Jammu Kashmir, Ghulam Nabi Azad has said his party would bring a bill in the Legislative Assembly regarding the issue of beef ban.

Opposition National Conference (NC) has moved a bill in the Legislative Assembly to for the forthcoming autumn session seeking to decriminalize slaughter of cows and sale and consumption of beef in the State.

MLA Langate and Awami Ittehad Party (AIP) chief, Engineer Abdul Rashid Sheikh has moved a Private Members Bill  to delete Section 298 A and B. He is also starting a signature campaign in all the districts of Kashmir to build social pressure against the ban on beef.

However, it remains to be seen whether the bill would be passed or not, whether the bill would be killed.

The HC’s decision calling for enforcing the 83-year-old cow-slaughter ban has proven that the rightwing parties across India including the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sang, Bajrang Dal, Shiv Sena and Bharataiy Janta Party (BJP) are at work against the minorities in the country and are interfering not only in their religious duties but also their food habits.

Meanwhile, the mainstream regional parties in Kashmir, which have taken a stand against the beef ban and stated that judiciary should not cross the red line, are trying to cool the tempers of the people of Kashmir by promising them that they would bring a bill against it and amend the law.

However, if they would not be able to amend the law in the forthcoming autumn session, the autumn of 2015 may witness the heat of the summer of 2010 when Kashmir witnessed a mass uprising.

The HC decision also forced people to go for a complete shutdown across Kashmir and prompted calls for mass cow slaughter on Eid-ul-Adha, the religious festival of Muslims.

In fact, the slaughter of cows has already started witnessing a surge with Hurriyat leaders including Asiya Andrabi and Shabir Ahmad Shah as well as pro-India politicians including Engineer Abdul Rashid Sheikh’s AIP conducting public slaughters of the bovine.

The verdict of the High Court calling for implementing the ban on the sale of beef seems to have taken the State back to the Mirwaiz Qazi Nisar incident of 1985.

Mirwaiz Qazi Nisar had defied Governor Jagmohan Malhotra’s imposition of ban on the slaughter of livestock on Janmashtmi, which paved a way for the creation of Ummat-e-Islamia that in turn cleared the decks for the formation of Muslim United Front (MUF).

And MUF’s participation in the 1987 ‘rigged’ polls culminated in the outbreak of militancy.

David Devadas, the author of ‘In Search of a Future: The Story of Kashmir’ said the ban on the slaughter of livestock on Janmashtami had set the stage for the creation of MUF, then their participation in 1987 polls and finally the outbreak of militancy.

Devdas posted on his Facebook page, “Jagmohan’s Janmashthami slaughter ban had helped set the stage for MUF. Ranbir Singh reinvented Hindu religiosity in the 1870s: Trikuta Devi became Vaishno Devi, Sanatan ways replaced the cult of Narasimha, and the pure veg' Khir Bhawani displaced Sharika Devi and Zaishta Devi. SK Sinha banned meat offerings to Zaishta Devi. Each of the three earnest gentlemen damagedintegration’ and harmony (sic).”

In another post, he wrote, “I wonder how opposition parties have received the court’s directions. Do any of them have a beef with it? or is any of them beefing up its support base? Do they see it as a meaty electoral issue? Will it help them out-flank the PDP – chop it to size, flay it perhaps, even make mincemeat of it? Have any of them ribbed the government on this (sic)?”

The High Court’s decision calling for implementing the ban on the sale of beef in Kashmir where people are voracious meat eaters seems to be something on which much thought was not given considering the razor-edge that Kashmir remains on.

The decision evoked strong protests particularly in the summer capital, Srinagar, where there is even aversion to consumption of beef and people usually take mutton.

The court direction came in a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by a Jammu resident, now the Deputy Advocate General of the State.

The slaughter of cows and other bovine animals was banned by the erstwhile Dogra rulers, a practice continued after 1947.

Qazi Yasir, the son of Mirwaiz Qazi Nisar and the incumbent Mirwaiz of south Kashmir, said, “Nobody should decide what I am going to have as my food unless I do not force others to have the same.”

Yasir was arrested with the government fearing he could trigger a similar kind of situation in south Kashmir that his father did three decades ago.

“India has perhaps forgotten that in 1985, our Chairman, Dr. Qazi Nisar defied their barbarism,” he said.

The HC’s diktat to strictly impose ban on the sale of beef has brought separatist leaders and religious leaders in Kashmir together who have termed it as an attempt of interference in religion by the rightwing Hindutva forces.

Justice Markandey Kathju, the former Chairman of the Press Council of India, who also served as a judge at the Supreme Court of India, had in the past reacted to a proposed ban on cow slaughter by posting on Facebook, “I am a Hindu, and I have eaten beef, and will again eat it. There is nothing wrong in beef eating. 90% of the world eats beef. Are they all sinners? And I refuse to believe that cow is sacred or our mother. How can an animal be a mother of a human being? That is why I say 90% Indians are idiots, Mr. Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi included (sic).”

Devadas said that at the international level, the decade of eighties was a time of tremendous Islamism for the first time since the end of Caliphate in Turkey in the 1920s.

“After the Islamic revolution in Iran, there was a tremendous sentiment in Kashmir,” he said. “Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Hosseini Khamenei and the Imam of Kabba visited Srinagar on the same day and as a mark of Shia-Sunni unity, La Sharqiya La Garbiya, Islamia, Islamia (No East, No West; Only Islamic, Only Islamic) slogans were raised,” he said.

Drawing parallels with what was happening in Kashmir in 1985 and today, Devadas said there was resentment among the youngsters then and there is resentment among the young Kashmiris today too.

“It led to the trajectories toward militancy of young men like Nayeem Khan and Shahid-ul-Islam by the late 1980s,” he said.

The renewed interest in Kashmir cow may have its roots in history though.

Mridu Rai in her book on Kashmir, ‘Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects’ writes: “While the Azaan was acknowledged to be crucial to Muslims, banning of cow slaughter was deemed by non-Muslim rulers as critical to their own dharma and so also to their sovereignty relying on its protection.”

In Maharaja Gulab Singh’s time, cow slaughter was punishable with life imprisonment while Maharaja Ranbir Singh ordered slitting a woman’s tongue for beating a cow that had torn some clothes she had hung out to dry.

In Jammu Kashmir, the only Muslim-majority state of India, the recent announcement calling for implementing the ban on cow slaughter has evoked a widespread response among the Muslim community with most believing that the PDP-BJP-PC government led by Mufti Muhammad Sayeed was implementing the Hindutava agenda.

Some of them have reacted saying time was not far when Kashmir Muslims would be asked to drink cow urine as a growing cult of Hindu worshippers in India believe drinking fresh cow urine helps prevent cancer.

Others in Kashmir have responded saying Hindu India cannot cow down Muslim Kashmir.

 

 

Box

The Year of the Cow

This year, a cow, Kachir Gaaw (Brown Cow), daughter of Gura Dand (Red Bull) got an admission ticket issued by the Jammu Kashmir Board of Professional Entrance Examination (JKBOPEE) to appear in a Common Entrance Test for becoming a junior engineer.

The cow was allotted a seat at Government Degree College Bemina for writing the examination.

This year, the cow was responsible for deciding the fate of teachers (Rehbar-e-Taleems) in the High Court.

The court made a teacher write an essay on cow in Urdu language in an open court and ordered slapping a case against him when he failed, inviting strong observations from the judge who wanted “soulless” authorities to close down education “tuck shops”.

The direction came when Justice Muzaffar Hussain Attar was hearing a petition challenging appointment of Muhammad Imran Khan as Rehbar-e-Taleem (teacher) in a school in south Kashmir.

This year, the cow was responsible for a pro-India politician Sajad Gani Lone not attending office for several days after making his debut as a minister in the Peoples Democratic Party-Bharatiya Janta Party-Peoples Conference alliance.

And this year, the High Court’s direction to enforce the 83-year-old cow-slaughter ban forced people to go for a complete shutdown across Kashmir and prompted calls for mass cow slaughter on Eid-ul-Adha, the religious festival of Muslims.

‘Year of the Cow’ by Jared Stone is a book regarding a story of a man, a cow, and a question: What am I eating?

After realizing he knew more about television on his wall than the food on his plate, Stone buys 420 pounds of beef directly from a rancher and embarks on an inspiring culinary adventure.

Year of the Cow protagonist meets the rancher who raised his cow and learns how to successfully pack a freezer with cow parts. He gets to know his bovine and delves into diets and eating habits, examining the ethnography of cattle, how previous generations ate, why environmentalists and real food aficionados were mad for grass-fed beef, why certain cuts of beef tend to end up on our plates while others don’t.

Just as the cow opens a new world to Stone, the recent controversy is likely to open the eyes of Kashmir Muslims to what the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sang, Bhagrang Dal, Shiv Sena and BJP had in store for them.

With this controversy, people of Kashmir are likely to fall more in love with eating beef particularly the people living in Srinagar, who otherwise are averse to eating beef and prefer mutton.

The reaction of the people more than anything is supposed to culminate in the slaughter of more cows than usual in Kashmir.

 

News Kashmir Exclusive

 

Unemployment occurs when people are without work and actively seeking work. The problem of unemployment is continuously ruining  the future of Kashmiri youth. Unemployment is characterized by chronic under-employment or disguised unemployment. Ground realities and  surveys suggest that the menace of unemployment among the educated youth in Jammu and Kashmir has touched new heights with lakhs of candidates applying for a few thousand posts advertised by recruitment agencies. There are many more frustrations of the unemployed, who daily face the task of competing with thousands of other people.

 

As per the last Economic Survey, when it comes to overall unemployment, Punjab (4.5 per cent), Himachal Pradesh (2.8 per cent), Delhi (2.7 per cent) and Haryana (2.6 per cent) are much better placed than Jammu and Kashmir. All-India figures for unemployment rate stand at only 2.6 per cent only.

Official figures have further revealed that unemployment rate for males in J&K was 3.6 per cent whereas that of females was 17.1 per cent which is far too high when compared to the neighboring states Punjab 11.7 per cent, Haryana 2.8 per cent, Delhi 2.8 per cent and Himachal Pradesh 2.5 per cent.

“The problem of unemployment amongst females is predominant in Jammu and Kashmir based on Usual Principal Status (UPS) as the gap between unemployment rate of females in J&K (17.1 per cent) and that of all India level (3.6 per cent) is huge”, says the report.

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Unfortunately, despite being the greatest vice, the suicide rate has increased alarmingly over the past few years in the Kashmir Valley and many see growing unemployment behind it  . Just a few decades back, Kashmir was among few places across the globe with very low suicide rates. Ironically, over the past two decades the graph of suicides has run north.

Critics maintain that successive governments have failed to tackle the alarming problem of unemployment while youth continues to be in dilemma. This sorry state of the affairs is the main cause of drug abuse, which drug-traffickers cash.

 

Essar Ahmad, an unemployed youth states – ” Despite high qualification unemployment has become fortune of majority as Government after Government has failed to create ample number of jobs to suffice the aspirations of job seekers.We also have a weak private and industrial scenario that makes getting job a hectic task and this adds to frustration and agony of unemployed youth like me.New Government had promised lot of jobs but so far very little has been offered .Meaningful job avenues should be created so that bane of unemployment does not mar us.”

One of the leading reasons behind soaring unemployment rate in the state of Jammu& Kashmir is the weak performance of public sector in our part of the world. Currently, the public sector of the state is in quiet   unhealthy shape. sometime back , out of the leading seventeen state corporations in Jammu and Kashmir, ten were running on total losses of Rs 1,876.72 crore, while seven were showing profit, according to the latest official figures. Ironically the PSUs of the Jammu & Kashmir state have properties worth billions of rupees at prime locations but still they are penniless and are not able to harness their rich potential so as to provide employment opportunities to youth.

 

The lack of quality vocational courses in the premier educational institutions of the Kashmir Valley is also adding to the unemployment problem of Kashmir. Even the top level universities of Kashmir lack proper vocational courses. The infrastructure related to vocational courses in the educational institutes of valley is also unimpressive.

 

 

Unemployment tackling demands holistic vision and it is the need of hour.

 

Farzana Mumtaz

 

A year after Kashmir was hit by one of the most devastating floods of its history, flood-victims are yet to get rehabilitated and have received only peanuts in relief amount.

 

Middle-aged Muhammad Abdullah Mandoo was rendered homeless by September 2014 floods.

Now he lives in one of the 20 one-room temporary hutments that the government set up at Parimpora on the outskirts of the city for people rendered homeless by last year’s devastating floods.

The house of Mandoo, a resident of Bemina locality, caved in when floods water seeped into it and the family members had a close shave with death.

Since then, Mandoo and his six-member family have been living in a tin shed at Parimpora, unable to come to the grips of a homeless life. Mandoo has been awaiting government’s relief and rehabilitation package hoping to build back his house from the relief amount.

“So far, the government only gave us Rs 2300 in the form of cheques that is peanuts considering the fact that I had to vomit thousands of rupees only for clearing the rubble of my house,” he said.

Mandoo’s is not a rare case but a story of everyone whose house either collapsed or damaged in the devastating floods.

Most of the flood affected people complain that they have either received no relief amount from the government for their rehabilitation or received peanuts.

Presently 19 families live in those 20 hutments while one hutment was vacated after one of those 20 flood-affected families relocated back after building a new house.

Four-year-old Tyba, whose mother had passed after giving her birth, also lives in those hutments along with her three brothers and father Altaf Ahmad Gojri, who is the only government employee among the 19 families in the neighbourhood and works as a janitor with the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC).

She stands outside her hutment and plays with other kids in the newly-formed neighbourhood not realizing that it is a temporary home for her.

Most of the people living in this neighbourhood are extremely poor and have acquired illegal power lines.

Gojri said he had pinned high hopes on the government but both the previous government as well as the incumbent one had left him disappointed.

“The government does not care for poor people like us,” he said. “Whether we have a house to live or not, it doesn’t matter to them.”

In September 2014, Kashmir was hit by one of the worst-ever floods of its history leaving 300 people dead and property worth billions of rupees damaged.

After the floods, the State government sent Rs 44,000 crore proposal to Government of India (GoI) for the rehabilitation of flood-affected people and traders.

Nine months after the floods, GoI finally announced a financial package but the assistance amount of Rs 1667 crore has left Kashmiris disappointed.

Political parties, civil society groups and trade bodies termed the GoI’s financial package as a “crude joke”.

Ruling Peoples Democratic Party’s own Member of Parliament, Tariq Hameed Karra asked his party to rethink about its alliance with the rightwing Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) for letting Kashmir and his party down although Finance Minister Haseeb Ahmad Drabu welcomed the package.

Trade bodies of Kashmir too tried to build pressure on PDP to end the coalition government with BJP as they felt the financial package was Jammu centric and had nothing for the flood-hit people and traders of Kashmir.

 

While Srinagar was worst-hit by last September floods, other places in south and north Kashmir were also impacted adversely.

Sonawari, which was reclaimed from the Wullar Lake and is one of the low-lying areas of north Kashmir, was badly affected by floods.

Ghulam Muhammad Dar of Shahtalpora, Sonawari is one of the flood victims whose 30 kanal paddy land was submerged in last year’s flood waters.

Father of four, Dar now struggles to feed the family.

He lost his cattle and sold off those that he was able to save as there was no grass available for them to graze.

Dar’s fate is shared by other fruit growers in the area.

In Gund Jehangir, one of the low-lying villages of Sonawari, most of the apple orchards had submerged in flood waters.

“If we would have lost our houses, we could have recovered with sales of fruit from our orchards but we lost our orchards that are a source of our livelihood,” a fruit grower, Bashir Ahmad Lone said.

Lone said fruit growers in the area had invested in fruit trees for 20 years and now that they were reaping its benefits, everything was destroyed.

“We are broke and have bank loans and Kissan Credit Card loans,” he said.

Lone and other fruit growers in the area said they had approached the government for help and asked them to waive off the Kissan Credit Card loans but Finance Minister Haseeb Ahmad Drabu had put a cap of Rs 1 lakh on it.

“What about fruit growers who had taken loans more than Rs 1 lakh,” he said. “The government has failed to come to our rescue in any way.”

Another fruit grower of the area, Muhammad Ayub Dar said no one from the government had visited their village since September.

“Eighty percent orchards of the entire village are damaged,” Dar said. “This government came to power with the promise that they will bring relief for the flood victims but they have failed miserably.”

 

There is too much anger against the government for its failure to rehabilitate the flood-victims but flood hit people are all praise for voluntary organizations.

Muhammad Muzaffar, a resident of Jawahar Nagar, whose house collapsed in the floods, expressed gratitude to missionary Sikh groups who rescued him and many others of his locality.

“After my house collapsed, Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Geelani provided me and others flood-hit people in this locality with Rs 10,000 each,” said Muzaffar, a retired banker who now run a shop and sells Kashmiri shawls.

Father of two girls, Muzaffar now lives on rent as he has failed to even clear the rubble of his collapsed house with the Rs 75,000 provided to him by the government as relief.

“I spent Rs 90,000 alone on clearing the rubble,” he said. “This government seems to be insensitive toward the problems of the common masses.”

The life of another inhabitant of Muzaffar’s locality Jasbir Kour was impacted severely by last year’s floods.

Restless like a bumble-bee, Kour says she get sleepless whenever it rains.

Jasbir who lives with her son Manmohan Singh and daughter-in-law Hardeep Kour is a widow of J S Rally.

Rally had built a house in the posh Jawahar Nagar locality 35 years ago, spending his life-long earnings not realizing it was a flood-prone area.

“Last year, water stayed in our house for a month,” she said. “All our household belongings collected over three-and-a-half decades were washed away.”

Jasbir’s son Manmohan and daughter-in-law Hardeep ran a boutique at home, which too was hit by floods.

“All our sewing machines and embroidery material was damaged,” Hardeep said. “Besides us, four people earned their source of livelihood from the boutique as I had hired two tailors and two mechanics.”

The family said they received paltry Rs 3800 from the government as relief.

“It is a mockery on part of the government as we had to spend Rs 80,000 on cleaning the house,” Hardeep said.

Her husband Manmohan is diabetic and was stuck in the attic for four days without medicine.

“The water stayed in our house for 28 days and the government failed to reach us,” Manmohan said. “An NGO from Ladakh saved my 21-year-old daughter and when I, and my wife were rescued, bodies were floating in our compound.”

He said no one from the government had come to monitor whether their house was safe to live in or not.

 

 

After the GoI announced Rs 1667 crore as financial assistance for the flood-hit Jammu Kashmir against the proposed Rs 44,000 crore, opposition NC called upon the government to convene a special session of the legislature for passing a unanimous resolution to seek proper rehabilitation package for the flood victims.

NC General Secretary Ali Muhammad Sagar termed the Rs 1667 crore rehabilitation package announced by New Delhi to the State as “mediocre”, “disgusting” and “insulting”.

“The State government should convene a special session of the legislature for having a proper debate on the rehabilitation package for the flood victims and pass a unanimous resolution for seeking more funds,” Sagar said.

Sagar appealed GoI to reconsider its decision of announcing a meager package for flood-hit people of Kashmir stating that it was sending a wrong message of how BJP and its allies like Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) were handling the Muslim-majority state.

 

 

The GoI’s financial assistance seems is being taken as a crude joke by the flood-hit people particularly those who were rendered homeless by the devastating floods.

Tariq Ahmad, another resident of Jawahar Nagar locality, owns a camping agency and is the sole bread winner of a nine-member family.

His house collapsed on September 7 and since then the family is homeless.

“Our house was quite old and we knew it would cave in due to flood waters,” Tariq said. “So we stayed in our neighbour’s house wherefrom we saw it collapse in front of our eyes.”

He said his family stayed in the neighbour’s house for 15 days and then spent the three harsh months of winter in a tin shed and finally shifted to a rented accommodation.

“My shop was also affected by floods and my business hit,” Tariq said. “As the government has failed to provide proper relief to flood-hit people like me, I have to take loan to buy new stocks.”

Like Tariq, a resident of Indira Nagar area Showkat Hussain, too is bitter with the government, both the previous government led by Omar Abdullah and the incumbent government led by Mufti Muhammad Sayeed.

“I live in the cantonment area and Army did not come to my rescue,” Showkat said. “We were surrounded by water for 27 days.”

He was critical of the former chief minister saying that he had visited his residence at Gupkar 18 times and begged him to rescue people in the area.

“One of the security guards of Omar Abdullah broke the limb of my friend for being at his gate over and again,” Showkat said.

The condition of flood victims like Showkat, Mandoo, Gojri, Dar, Lone, Jasbir, Tariq, Muzaffar and others even after 10 months of the floods give an impression that while the government may have talked at length about their rehabilitation, it has failed to walk the talk.

Culture forms an integral part  of  life of a human being . It is the culture that makes human animal to a well defined human being . It regulates human’s conduct and prepares him or her for group life. It teaches  what type of food human should take and with what manners, how he or she  should cover oneself and behave with the fellows, how human should speak and influence the people, how human should co-operative and compete with other. Humans  have acquired these qualities required to live and social behavior even for complicated situations. Culture forms identity of human societies.

In our part of the world especially in Kashmir we have seen major components  of culture be it traditions, Language or Folk theatre all  have been badly ignored thus making us pay heavily as a society .  Language has been always been an defining Symbol of human societies. Language the single largest factor that has helped us in differentiating between societies and individuals of two different regions. A people’s language is part of their identity.  If the people lose their language, they have practically lost themselves. Urdu and English languages which are supposed to be our second languages but now since years, they have become our first language. Regrettably, nowadays in the majority Kashmiri homes, it is common to see parents communicating with their children in English or Urdu language. Some parents will in fact enforce communicating with their children in other languages other than their mother tongue. Our folk theatre too has declined and lack of cultural policy has  added to misery.

Reflecting on this overall cultural decline, Nazima Parray, a Researcher states- “ Albeit our own state government has taken initiative to introduce Kashmir language as one of the necessary subject in schools but we have very lesser number of teachers in Kashmir that can teach Kashmir language in schools. Till now not a single initiative has taken to introduce kashmiri history and geography in our school curriculum. The geographical distribution of our land is well known by the outsiders but does anyone among us know the beauty of our land.

According to psychologist 90% of personality development is seen is those children who’s speaks their mother language in their childhood. Then why don’t we encourage our children to talk in their mother language. Because of this dilemma our children are in confusion and chaos and with the result they are not able to speak any of the language in its proper way.  It’s a time to retrospect lest very soon our future generation shall be seen in state of serious identity crises. We should at least be answerable to their question. It’s a time to act lest our Kashmir will lose its identity and integrity by our own preposterousness of being called modernistic.

Nazima adds –“our own cultural academy kitab ghar exist only for the sake of culture. The fact is that a real treasure of Kashmir culture is not available there also. Our museums, libraries don’t have literature available on Kashmir. Our famous  folk theatre  Bhand Pather, as a marker of our cultural diversity has been dying, thanks to successive Governments lack of interest and cold attitude of society towards this great cultural form. We are witnessing overall cultural decline which is sad for all of us.”

 

Minister of state for Information, Education & Culture J & K and senior leader of Bharatiya Janata Party Priya Sethi in an exclusive interview with News Kashmir reflecting on this serious issue had stated –“It is a burning reality that we have neglected rich linguistic treasure of our state .On the otherhand in our state affluent manuscripts, historical monuments, and heritage symbols of our prosperous culture have also since long time  been ignored and faced apathy. Despite living in the era of Information Technology, it took us more than 10 years to repair Tagore hall and we have not modernized our cultural centres too. I have felt there  is a strong need  for framing a vibrant cultural policy that has a holistic policy matter in it to preserve the rich cultural heritage of all three regions of state viz. Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh. We  recently  held active interactions with writers, poets and other literary and cultural personalities as their expert analysis means a lot in enriching and preserving our diverse and rich cultural heritage .”

As cultures differ, so does morals and ethical values. Aspiration or imitation of foreign cultures, moral, and ethical values is most welcome when they are positive but adopting them at cost of our own culture is disastrous.  Refurbishing  our folk theatre, giving due status and  respect to our native language, well defined cultural policy is need   of hour.

 

News Kashmir Exclusive

Latest controversial step of establishing Sanik colony is generating much heated debate and anguish in Kashmir.  According to reports, 173 kanals (21 acres) of land have been identified for the “Sainik Colony (soldiers colony), where serving and retired army personnel will be allotted plots. About 6,000 serving and retired soldiers have so far applied for plots at the colony, proposed on state land behind the Friends Enclave near the main gate of Srinagar Airport.

Both Mainstream as well as separatist are expressing angst against reported move of the J&K Government to establish Sainik colony for ex-service men from Army and other force personnel in central Kashmir’s Budgam district.

Senior Hurriyat (M) leader Javaid Ahmad Mir, while taking to News Kashmir stated –“it is a ploy to destroy the unique demography and culture of Kashmir. The reason and logic of Kashmir will not allow establishment of Sanik Colony as it is a simply a fascist measure. In one or other way the oppressive state wants to further subjugate the masses of Kashmir by establishing such Sanik Colony. If god forbidden such steps would be taken by the support of current ruling dispensation the people of Kashmir will resist with tooth and nail. Since Kashmir is a disputed territory, any such steps will be against the International laws therefore world forums including United Nations are appealed to intervene in the matter.”

 

Ruling party, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) recently  stated that not a single non-local soldier working or retired from Indian Army would be allowed to settle in ‘Sanik Colony’ reportedly coming up at Humhama in the outskirts of Srinagar city. “If ever a colony will come up, only those soldiers and ex-servicemen will settle there who will be the permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir. It will be totally against the spirit of special status of Jammu and Kashmir if any non-local soldier will be allowed to settle their permanently,” the PDP spokesperson Dr Mehboob Beigh told CNS.

 

Civil society is also aghast  over the move .Mohammad Yasin Malik, a prominent Human rights activist while speaking to News Kashmir on the proposed setting of Sanik Colony stated – ” The moves like Sanik Colony seem nothing but steps aimed at colonization of Kashmir .We will with full tooth and nail oppose this move as this is an act of aggression against our nativity and our sensibilities .All efforts are being made to increase the suffocation and pain  of Kashmir but let us affirm that we the people  of Kashmir will never allow such step of aggression to take pragmatic shape.

 

 

Meanwhie, Hurriyat (G) Chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani while terming the attitude of the Mufti government on this sensitive issue as ambiguous and suspicious stated  that the Indian defense minister Manohar Parrikar had said that he had sent directions to the state government in Srinagar on July 16 for taking appropriate action in the allotment of the state land to the former Indian army personals but Mufti Sayeed government is still to say anything about that order and nor has he refuted or supported it.

 

Geelani stated-“Mufti should clear the stand of the state government on this sensitive issue before the general public that are they going to accept this unconstitutional order of the Indian defense minister or will they this time protect the state constitution. Permanent settlement of former Indian army personals on this land is an attempt to harm the special status and disputed nature of Jammu & Kashmir and the people of the state will not allow any such plan to succeed.”

Political temperatures are definitely running high over the setting of Sanik Colony in Kashmir.

 

 

Farzana Mumtaz

 

Gurdaspur, Udhampur attacks imply battlefield shift. The recent attacks in Gurdaspur and Udhampur hint at a new turn in Kashmir militancy as the enemy of troops is changing the battlefield. Farzana Mumtaz reports. The twin attacks carried by militants in Udhmapur district of Jammu and Kashmir state and Gurdaspur area of the neighbouring Punjab state point at the new turn militancy is taking.

As the militant numbers in Kashmir are dipping, militant groups seem to have realized the importance of shifting the battlefield from the Valley to the Hindu-dominated districts of the State and the Indian mainland. They are now trying to wage a war not on the streets they know and not among the people they consider their own but in the “enemy territory”.

Mohammad Naved, a militant who was captured in Udhampur on Wednesday after he and another militant attacked a convoy of the paramilitary Border Security Force, said the four-member Lashkar-e-Taiba module of which they were a part had managed to escape after a police team intercepted it in Pulwama district of south Kashmir on July 23.

Naved told interrogators that he had been in India since May 27 and had “enough local support”. He said had been in constant touch with Abu Dujana, the number two in the LeT hierarchy.

From a LeT hideout at Khrew in south Kashmir, where they spent 40 days, the militants had left for Pulwama on a small truck on July 23 and were intercepted. Naved told interrogators that most of the LeT leadership had visited the hideout in Khrew during the holy month of Ramadhan.

According to the interrogation report, Naved started his journey from his launching pad at Halan in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan administered Kashmir on May 27, along with Noman, who was killed on Wednesday, and Okasha and Mohammad Bhai.

The report revealed that Naved had reached the Line of Control in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district on June 2 and had cut the fence to enter this side of Kashmir.

The report revealed that the group then switched on a GPS device to find their way and walked 18 km to reach near the Baba Rishi shrine in Tangmarg locality on June 7, where they met a local guide.

It stated two days later, they were received by another local guide. After being in Kashmir, Naved’s surfacing in Udhampur points out a clear change in strategy of the militant groups operating in Jammu Kashmir.

Reaching Udhampur from Tangmarg while carrying arms and ammunition is an almost impossible task but for militants to take such a journey seems evidence enough that the new directive for the militant groups is to wage a war against the “enemy in the enemy territory”.

 

Udhampur is one of the three districts with a substantial Hindu population and it seems that the high command of the militant groups have given them a directive to “fight the battle” in the areas where the casualties, even if caused to the civilians, are of the non-Muslims so that the “armed movement” in Kashmir does not lose support among the Muslim population of Kashmir and Muslims of Chenab Valley, Pir Panjal range and Kargil.

Naved was captured alive and become the only second militant to be captured alive since the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

 

He was captured shortly after he and his companion killed two BSF men and wounded nearly a dozen troopers by ambushing a convoy on the Jammu-Srinagar highway in Udhampur.

 

Pertinently, police officers said Naved was from Bahawalpur in Pakistan.

 

“I am from Pakistan and my partner was killed in the firing but I escaped. Had I been killed, it would have been Allah’s doing. There is fun in doing this … I came to kill Hindus,” the suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba operative, Naved who was wearing a dark blue shirt and brown trousers said.

 

Naved, 16, said has two brothers and a sister and one of his two brothers is a lecturer while the other runs a hosiery business.

Naved became the second Pakistani militant to be captured alive during an operation after Ajmal Kasab, the 26/11 attacker who was subsequently convicted and hanged to death for the carnage in Mumbai that left 166 people dead.

An officer said the two Pakistani militants hiding in a maize field along the highway hurled grenades and fired at the convoy when it reached Samroli near Udhampur, about 85 km from Jammu, on way to Srinagar.

He said as the BSF personnel fired back, Naved fled toward a village in the hills and took three civilians hostage in a school.

One of the hostages, Rakesh Kumar, said they misled the armed militant when he asked them to take him to a safe place.

 

Another hostage, Vikramjit Singh, said the militant was hungry.

“So we stopped. There we got together, forced him to the ground and unarmed him. He pleaded ‘mujhe mat pakdo, mujhe mat pakdo (Don’t catch me, don’t catch me)’ when we pinned him down and took away his AK-47.”

As he was brought down from the mountainous village bound by ropes, Naved looked hassled but smiled when he answered questions from journalists.

“My partner and I came to India through the jungles about 12 days ago … We ran out ration in three days. I was very hungry,” he said, before troops hooded his face and took him away.

The ambush was worrying for troops as it followed the July 27 attack in Punjab’s Gurdaspur that left seven people dead.

The attack was a first on the Jammu-Udhampur stretch of the highway in over a decade.Earlier, militants stormed a police station in Punjab’s Gurdaspur district killing seven people and wounding 10 others.

 

The militant attack came weeks after prime ministers Narendra Modi and Nawaz Sharif met in Russia and agreed that top security officers from the two countries would meet to discuss counter-terrorism strategy.

 

The 11-hour siege in Punjab ended after troops and police surrounded the building in Dinanagar town and killed three militants.

The area’s Superintendent of Police, Baljit Singh, was among those killed, apart from three policemen and three civilians.

 

“All ordnance factory marks and numbers on the AK-47s had been erased and so were the marks on the grenade canisters,” a top security official said. “There is nothing to trace the weapons to China or Pakistan. The attack appears to have been planned in great detail so that Pakistan can claim total deniability as no communication was exchanged.”

Two GPS devices found on the bodies were sent to a forensic laboratory to trace the infiltration route, but no identity documents, food, SIM cards or medicines were recovered.

 

“All we have is three bodies who were on a suicide mission,” the official said. “Our assessment is that they infiltrated across the international border in Punjab and could belong to the LeT as the modus operandi is similar to the (2013) Hiranagar attack in Jammu.” With the Udhampur attack, the militants shifted the battlefield to Hindu heartland of Jammu region and with Gurdaspur attacks, the militant groups had already made it clear to New Delhi that “enemy is at the gates”.

 

 

News Kashmir Excusive

Quality Healthcare facility is need of every human. Health care is one aspect that is direly craving for attention in Jammu and Kashmir State. With the sanctioning of All India Institute Of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)  by the Government of India in Kashmir one had hoped that worries of masses with reference to healthcare in the state would be somewhat eased but as it has turned developments  even in this regard  have taken an ugly shape. Dirty politics and politics loaded with electoral and communal gains is being displayed .State unit of BJP and other right wing Hindutva Parties  with other Jammu based parties  have generated lot of needless hue and cry over the issue of their demand of  the setting of AIIMS in Jammu region.

Valleyites have stated that on account of turmoil Jammu region has over the past few decades got lion’s share out of the developmental packages.

Syed Tajamul Imran, a writer states – “Even if Jammu desires or needs an AIMS; it is very much needed by the people of mountainous Pirpanjal and Chenab divisions of Jammu region,  but demanding such mega facility  for Jammu City or adjacent areas seems only a display of vested and selfish politics. When the need in our part of the world is to brainstorm collectively for betterment of basic facilities like quality healthcare, unfortunately fanatic tendencies seem to occupy the center stage.”

Sane voices are also state that a  place wherein even construction of mega super facility hospital generates controversy, agitation and communal polarization speaks volumes about the maturity of politicians of that part and AIMS controversy bears testimony to the fact that Jammu and Kashmir politicians are more guided by selfish interests rather than collective humane dynamism .

 

On the otherhand the commoners in Kashmir are also questioning the move of demanding AIIMS in Jammu. Manzoor Ahmad, a  student states – “If the agitators demanding would have been so sincere they should have been asking for AIIMS in health facility starved Chenab or Pirpanjal region but their intentions are to look for setting AIIMS in already health facility rich Jammu. Even the protest and agitation carried out for setting AIIMS in Jammu was by no means what we call civillised as it involved lot of coercive tactics. Demand for AIIMS in Jammu city or areas near it seems also visionless as if we look on the issue from geographical paradigms  Jammu is just 650 kms far from the AIIMS Dehli  but the other parts of the state are more the 1000 Kms far from the Dehli AIMS.”

 

Why the demand looks all the more political and selfish in nature is answered by the fact that If we  focus on results of last  elections the BJP got 25 seats from Jammu and PDP from Kashmir got 28 seats but the political analysts believe that it is actually the win of Jammu  that propelled BJP and others to seek AIIMS for Jammu also as the  Government was formed for the benefits and choice of Jammu more than that of Kashmir.

After much ado about nothing, On the assurance of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Government of India in which the state government has been advised to identify pieces of land measuring approximately 200 acres of each in both Jammu and Srinagar keeping in view to expediting the process of establishment of AIIMS in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, the members of AIIMS Coordination Committee (ACC) have temporarily suspended their Jammu bandh call .

Amid all this the optimism of setting up maiden institutes of prestigious AIIMS has been tremendously overshadowed by the selfish, communal and regional politics played over this critical issue.