By Tawfeeq Irshad Mir
“I know the value of word; when there was nothing, it was word. To play with words is to strike the strings of violin, to exude the honey of melody.”
The ideology and narrative of Shah Faesal till the controversial tweet” labelling India as” rapistan” in 2018,
“In 2016, Shah Faesal Strongly suggested that Kashmir should ‘stay with India’, Dr Shah Faesal further said that it (India) is the “only country” in the world with which a culturally diverse and “politically disparate entity” like Jammu and Kashmir can find “anchor”.
In his article titled “Kashmiris trapped in deadly politics of grief, must abandon macabre heroism” published on The Indian Express, Dr Faesal has built his argument around the post-1990s phase of of the Kashmir-conflict to censure the five-month-long unrest the valley witnessed in 2016.
“Every new agitation in Kashmir has had this familiar tetrad of eruption, hope, bereavement, despair. By the time the first stone was pelted in the July uprising of 2016, the outcome was already known to everyone. It is this predictability which has begun to worry Kashmiris now,” reads his article.
Referring to 2016 unrest, Dr Faesal said that “revolution cannot be an annual summer carnival” while claiming that Kashmir was the “most unlikely new nation to enter the world map” due to the “flaw(ed) fundamental design” of the Kashmir project.
He goes on saying that the “indiscipline” valley witnessed during the recent unrest has the “potential to criminalise society forever”.
“It was not the state as much as people to people violence, the humiliation of bystanders, vandalism against schools, damage to public property by “misguided teenagers” that exhausted Kashmiris, reducing a mass movement to a movement of mass from one corner of the street to the other corner,” he said.
Dr Faesal also claimed that it was “hard to frame the Kashmir question properly” and thus the region cannot be compared with Palestine, East Timor of Kosovo.
“Is it separation from India, annexation with Pakistan, the search for an Islamic caliphate or a secular democracy? Has it factored in sub-regional and diverse ethnic aspirations? If it is self-determination, then who are these people queued up outside polling stations? If the slogan is “azadi”, why is the Pakistani flag raised? Is it class-neutral or only a proletariat dream? Is it territory or ideology, economics or politics? Today, in Kashmir, it is hard to ask these questions because there are no answers. And because there are no answers, every such question is seen as a provocation or obfuscation of the truth about Kashmir,” the article reads.
The then MD JKPDC Shah Faesal, in the conclusion, suggested Kashmiris to ‘stay with India’ since the country is an “emerging superpower”. Looking at the crisis in the Muslim world, it will serve us well if we help ourselves out of the time warp we are stuck in, abandon false hope and macabre heroism and work towards a dignified exit from the conflict. One possibility is to accept that in spite of all its infirmities, India is the only country in the world with which a culturally diverse and politically disparate entity like Jammu and Kashmir can find anchor,” he concluded.
On Sunday Sha Faesal launched his party in Srinagar, with a new slogan “ab hawa badle gi”, in a slightly different avatar wearing white shilwar and black coat, along with former JNU leader, Shehla Rashid unfurled his vision and ideology.
His vision and sagacity are unprecedented. Just now I have gone through the manifesto which reflects your depth. Let not any reaction deviate from the ultimate goal. Possibilities are numerous, once try to act, not react. Some scratches in reactions keep on running.one thing, he should bear in mind the couplet of Iqbal “Khudi se iss tilishm-e- rang-o-boo ko tod sakte hai,. Yahi tawheed thee jisko nah tu samjha, nah main samjha.
I want to know how his party would help in reviving old silk route or the kind of strategic center for Central Asia which his vision document talks about. Does he think an inch moves without the centers authority, would they allow such initiatives?
I just want to ask one question to Shah Faesal and his supporters…. tell me how it is possible to solve Kashmir issue according to the aspirations of people… when you accept the constitution of India,, which says J&K is an integral part of Kashmir. It is confusing me.
It is Dr Shah Faesal himself to clear all the doubts once he will go through the political discourse. It will be his policies and decisions which will tells us the real reason behind his political mileage. But the course of action which he has chosen is full of hurdles and he has a long way to cross before finding a space for himself and his followers.
(A student of Nursing at GMC, writer can be reached at: tawfeeqirshad@gmail.com)
