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10 Greater KashmirSRINAGAR | July 9, 2016, Saturday
Inside out BY: SUHAIL NAQSHBANDI
Restore tele tiesThis can be the best CBM so far and can go a long way in uniting the divided families
Eleven years after the launch of trans-LoC bus not much has changed for the divided families of the state. The bus was described as a strong confidence building measure
(CBM) but it failed to achieve the objectives in totality, for a host of reasons. The people by and large welcomed the CBM but the process of getting a seat in the Karvaan-e-Aman is too cumber-some. Unless the process is smoothened, the bus will not serve the desired purpose. The cynicism of the people is not totally unfounded. There have been times when the bus has traveled to Muzaffarabad without having any passenger on board. People find it easy to reach Muzaffarabad via Wagah rather than traveling in the bus. The divided families can benefit a lot by restoration of tele-ties across the LoC. While Pakistan administered Kashmir did not snap the ties, the Indian side of Kashmir seems in no mood to revive the ties that were snapped in the early phases of militancy. Even incoming calls from Pakistan administered Kashmir put people to inconvenience. The Intelligence sleuths call the person to the police station and question him thoroughly. Restoration of tele-links can be a forceful CBM, believe the members of the divided families on this side of the Line. The snapping of ties also makes no sense in the internet age when one has the world at his finger tips. The authorities fear that restoration of tele-ties would hamper security of the state. The people who really can pose a threat to the security of the state use sophisticated equipment to communicate and the authorities including the intelligence sleuths know it fully. The phone on the other hand is used mostly by people who have no access to internet and other modern equipment. Snapping the ties, therefore, makes no sense. The authorities must reconsider the decision and resume the ties as soon as possible. This will be the best CBM so far and can go a long way in uniting the divided families. In a global village people have to stay connected.
‘Celebrating’ DalProtect life on the lake, conservation will follow automatically
A few days back a division bench of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court
directed the Monitoring Committee earlier constituted by government to quickly evolve result-oriented per-manent mechanism for conservation of Dal Lake and other water bodies in Kashmir. So, Dal has once again assumed a priority significance for the government.
To deliberate upon the most com-plex issue of Dal, let me borrow some lines from Haseeb Drabu’s article ‘Reviving Dal Lake: A Corporate Approach’ published in this newspa-per in June 2011. ‘Dal is not just a water body. It is a socio-ecological structure built on the relationships between the water body and the human population. The dwellers, especially the houseboat owners or the vegetable growers are as intrinsic part of the structure as the water itself... The Dal lake is what it is because of the life on the lake.’
Environmental hazards marring the natural beauty of Kashmir have always remained a concern. High on the agenda is to bail Dal, long back been declared an endangered water body, out of the pollution. Today, we are told by the environmental-ists that this 150-year-old tradition is facing threat of extinction.
Notably, in March 2009, J&K High Court while taking serious note of the state government’s failure to stop deterioration of water bodies took over the custody of four lakes, including Dal Lake. Later, the court, in order to combat pollution in the Dal Lake, asked houseboat owners to suspend their operations until they make some alternate arrangement to their waste disposal. Following the court order, the government had asked houseboat owners to install sewage treatment units on their houseboats within 90 days - or face closure. The High Court had even issued directions to shift house-boats in Dal lake from Boulevard to
Doldum area of Nishat in outskirts of Srinagar.
At the moment, the thunder-clouds are hovering over the house-boats. The blame is on the primary stakeholders – houseboat owners - who have never taken care of the Lake, which nourished them. They threatened its existence by pollut-ing it, as they never cared about the waste management. So, it’s their own future which is at stake.
It’s worrisome that the life span of houseboats too has drastically gone down. In fresh waters, its life span is about 60 years. But in the current pol-luted water body, the life span, as the experts have put it, is hardly 40 years. Most of the 1,200 houseboats floating on the waters of Dal and Nigeen Lakes have completed their shelf life and technically could be put out of action
So, under the circumstances, the focus should be to protect the exist-ing houseboats. The death of the houseboats would have a devastat-ing effect on our tourism industry. The houseboats are the heart of this industry. If they stop operations, the tourist trade will die its own death.
Plans should be devised to allow entry of tourists in to the Dal Lake in an organized manner and their stay in houseboats should be brought under time limit. Exploring new tourist des-tinations in the State, particularly the Valley is ok, but there is also need to put a coordinated effort to preserve heritage sites and promote them as tourist destinations. We have a huge potential to promote heritage tourism. An amalgamation of Buddhist monas-teries and paintings of Ladakh, palaces and temples of Jammu, mountains and Sufi shrines of Kashmir, with each one having a distinct architecture, the state is rich and varies in this respect.
Ironically, nothing much has hap-pened on this front, as preservation of this heritage is at stake. Why not to exploit the state’s rich cultural heri-tage along with modern allurements in the shape of shopping, food courts, multiplexes and music festivals at such places? This will take some pressure off from the Dal Lake, as tourist would get engaged in exploring these destinations.
Above all the life on the Lake should be protected, conservation will follow automatically. Here all the stakeholders collectively need to shoulder the responsibility.
(The views are of the author & not the institution he works for)
Chocking the Space |
India is fast turning into a massively Islamophobic country, with very little
room left for its Muslims to, simultaneously- practice their faith and be respected. The two have become a luxury & mutual-ly-exclusive to each other. Apart from this trend being extra-con-stitutional, it can have alarm-ing Socio-politico-economic ramifications. Not only is this hurtful to the Indian Muslims, but it is calamitous for India as a nation. 200 million Muslims is too colossal a population to be pushed under the rug of the minority argument.
The latest example is a media-trial of Dr. Zakir Naik. Some may argue that it’s the individu-al being attacked and not Islam. What is Islam to them? Agreed-Islam of extremists is No Islam, but their Islam is no Islam either. As long a Muslim doesn’t harm others, he should be allowed to have his own set of beliefs & practice his religion. However, for today’s India, that’s not the case. If your lifestyle is differ-ent from theirs, you taste preju-dice. Muslims in Bollywood do everything Islam prohibits them to do. So, they’re respected and
in fact used as strategic assets to prove how Muslims can shine in the country. On the contrary, if you abstain from alcohol, don’t get into wrong relationships because of your religion, don’t go clubbing owing to the same reason, sport a beard/wear an Abhaya, you’re a misfit in Indian society. You’re a funda-mentalist and an extremist too. I’m sure we all agree that there’s no way you’ll be respected. All these habits are your personal choices which doesn’t cause any damage to others, then why this negative prejudice. Why is it necessary for Muslims to exactly adopt their lifestyle, to integrate and be one of them? This is Islamophobia and this is the reason why Dr. Zakir Naik is a new target. He is no security threat but his beliefs, and his preaching is not in sync with, & are unpalatable to the current majority taste in India. And when their youngsters showed interest in his talks, he became an eye sore. Hence, the hatred.
I won’t even delve deep into the naïve accusations they’ve made against Dr. Naik, one of them being that he called on all the Muslims to be terrorists. It was in the context of a terror where a cop terrorizes a robber. Or else why would a ‘supporter of violence’ call upon his follow-ers to be ‘terrorists’-a pejorative term, instead of a glorified one. A one minute investment into that video makes it evident. The point is that those who have accused him have watched the video and know it clearly doesn’t
mean what they say it does, then why do they say what they say? The answer is they were looking for an excuse. These elements could not face his arguments, so this is how they retort.
Besides, following somebody on Facebook doesn’t necessarily mean your liking for the person, it could also mean inquisitive-ness. And even if you like some-one & are influ-enced by him, it doesn’t necessarily translate into your agree-
ment with him, in entirety. The Dhaka attackers followed one bollywood actress too- who I’m sure didn’t radicalize them. That side of their personality was different from the infuri-ated side which led them to kill people. Indeed, Dr. Naik has his own view on international poli-tics. Yes, he believes 9/11 was an insider’s job. That however is not tantamount to its justification, in any way. One may agree/dis-agree with his opinion. Yes, he believes the United States’ for-eign policy led to annihilation of thousands of innocent people and amounts to State terrorism. At the same time, he condemns
suicide bombing and killing innocent human beings-
Muslim or Non-Muslim. He did condemn 9/11, 7/7, 26/11 & even the Dhaka shoot-out. He’s the first scholar who introduced critical-questioning and logic to Islamic debates, which was consid-ered to be anathema till then. It’s been
about a decade that I haven’t listened to him,
not because I like/dislike him but I found more commonali-ties and connection with few other contemporary scholars, given the places I lived in & the challenges I faced. However, that doesn’t bar me from call-ing a spade a spade.
It must be noted that Dr. Zakir Naik is an Indian Muslim, who a) opposed the Two-Nation theory, hence the creation of Pakistan b) pub-
licly said that Muslims of India could cut their heads to defend their country and, c) called ISIS an ‘Anti-Islamic State’. This is the best an Indian Muslim could do to show loyalty to the state. Alas! Even this is not enough. This indicates ever-shrinking space for an indepen-dent Muslim thought in India. You’ve to keep on proving your-self, failing which you’re a trai-tor. If that was not the case, why would have there been no action against Yogi Adityanath & his ilk, who publicly asked his followers to exhume Muslim women from graves and rape them, while a Muslim scholar of international repute is being accused of some-thing he hasn’t done?
Unfortunately, there’s anoth-er facet to it. Some Muslims, who have differences with his interpretations, are teaming up with Islamophobes to slander Dr. Naik. They’re taking sadis-tic pleasure out of it. What they fail to understand is that if it’s him today, it could be them tomorrow. At this juncture, they should get over their sec-tarian bias against him in the larger interest of Islam in the subcontinent, because Islamo-phobes don’t care about your sect; they just can’t withstand Islam. Therefore, I say, broaden your horizons, overlook your dis-agreements, understand the situ-ation and stand up for Dr. Naik.
Mehboob Makhdoomi is a Harvardian & an MBA from Pennsyl-vania University (IUP) United States
with a Research degree from Cardiff University, United Kingdom.
A Forward Movement |
As the CPI (M) legislator, Moham-mad Yousuf Taragami, in recently concluded Assembly session was
speaking on the proposed government move to post a senior bureaucrat as head of the J&K State Backward Area Commission, Minister for Social Welfare Sajad Gani Lone intervened and informed him that his Min-istry would see how many backward areas in Kulgam constituency have left behind their backwardness. Taragami, who in his long speeches usually ends up saying noth-ing, got perturbed over the blunt response of the Minister and after a pause, murmured that he was ready for the exercise.
Whether Lone was teasing Taragami or he was serious, the government must go for the revision of the areas declared as back-ward over the years. In fact the only exercise the commission should do is to go for mass revision of the areas declared backward and also identify creamy layer among the back-ward category and deny them any further opportunity to use the category to get reser-vation in admissions, or in government jobs.
The perception is that those availing benefits of the backward class category are mostly in the creamy layer. They are at the
high positions in the government; their children study in the best schools in Sri-nagar or Delhi. It is the government vehicles which drop and pick their children from their schools. They have residential houses in Srinagar and Jammu and flats in Delhi. Yes, they have cottage huts in the backward areas and that is the sole reason they are entitled to the backward class category.
The government has not carried out any exercise to ward-off this perception. Instead, the legislators have been coming up with a list of areas to be declared backward in their constituencies and the government is always seen in the consideration mood.
In some backward areas, you will find them having all facilities including schools, health centres, good roads, over 75 per cent or above literacy rate and almost everyone having a government job. That is why in the neighboring areas, you will see people agitating that their area should also be declared as backward.
J&K State Commission for Backward Classes Act states that the government should take revision any time after ten years to exclude those who have ceased to be back-ward classes or include new areas in the back-ward classes. For decades on the government has not done any revision of any backward area and has not de-notified any area, which otherwise was mandatory under the law.
Look at the criteria to declare any area backward: It is whether the road connecting the village is macadamized or not, what is the main sources of lighting, main source of fuel, toilet facilities in average household, main occupation of earning of livelihood, average area of landholding of household or family, number of households in traditional occupations like barber, shoemaker, wash-
erman, carpenter, mason; average income of family, number of male workers who are engaged in subsidiary employment like coo-lies, daily wagers, agriculture labourers; education status sex-wise, distance from primary health care, distance from nearest sub-district hospital, main source of drink-ing water, total number of unemployed of the area registered with the employment exchange etcetera etcetera.
Now for argument’s sake fix the criteria to Srinagar city, Sopore town, Baramulla old town, Anantnag old town and you will realize that they deserve to be declared backward areas. Which road has not a hole in Srinagar or in Sopore and Baram-ulla towns? Or which road in Srinagar or Sopore is macadamized? Find out people having subsidiary employment like coo-lies, daily wagers, or labourers and you will mostly find them either in Budgam or in Srinagar.
In any backward village, you will not find a Kashmiri barber, shoemaker or washerman. In backward areas, these “tra-ditional occupations” have been now occu-pied by the outside state laborers. Kashmiri carpenter is an endangered species, and Kashmiri mason will soon join the endan-gered list. Our national occupation is to seek
contractual and daily wage works in the government departments and then move to the High Court to seek regularization of the contractual jobs.
Only criterion for declaring the area as backward has remained political consid-eration and the powerful politicians are responsible for such regressive notions of development. You cannot kill merit and talent in the name of affirmative action when the very affirmative action is serv-ing only a creamy layer of the society and is not helping people who are genuinely in need of the affirmative action.
If there is economic stagnation in Kash-mir it is because of pro-India political class here. They are responsible for every mess in which we are. Industry in Kashmir has never got a push from the government. Every MLA is keen to declare his area either backward or a tourist destination. MLA Kupwara, Bashir Ahmad Dar, had this logic that his area should be declared tourist destination. He informed the Assembly that there is some Raja Ram ki ladi in his area and this could attract tourists, hence it should be declared as the tourist destination. This is the grand vision! Other MLAs have the similar notion for attracting tourists to their areas.
Not a single MLA in the just concluded Assembly session asked for establishing some factory in his area, something which could have made us manufacture some-thing and would have provided an employ-ment in the private sector.
The only plea of the MLAs was to declare some areas in their constituencies either a tourist destination due to Raja Ram ki Ladi or a backward area. This must end. Sooner the better. That is why the revision should start and it should start from Kulgam.
Address alienation |
The state government announcing amnesty to the youth involved in stone pelting is a good beginning
and could go a long way in restoring their confidence in the system.
The Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has taken a step forward towards ful-filling the promise her party had made during the election campaign. The gov-ernment has withdrawn the cases reg-istered against 104 youth and has given amnesty to more than 600 youth.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) led by Mehbooba Mufti has emerged as a strong alternative for the people of Kash-mir. It played a role of vibrant opposition
from 2009 to 2014 and left no opportunity to corner the National Conference- Congress regime. Whenever youth were booked on the charges of stone pelting PDP ensured that its stages a protest and disapproves the action of the then government.
As the 2014 assembly elections threw up a fractured mandate, the PDP pre-ferred to join hands with BJP rather than going with the Congress or its bête-noire National Conference. Many people described it as an “unpopular decision” and a few even opined that PDP has bat-tered the interests of Kashmiris for the sake of power. The former Chief Minister late Mufti Muhammad Sayeed however, proved his critics wrong during his brief stint of a few months.
Since the day Mehbooba Mufti has taken over the reins of the state, she seems determined to carry forward the mission of her later father, Mufti Muhammad Sayeed. Despite facing stiff opposition from her coalition partner BJP over the issue of granting amnesty to the youth, Mehbooba remained firm on her stand and ensured that nothing prevents her from fulfilling the promise she had made to the youth
during the election campaign of her party. Problems of youth won’t end with
granting amnesty to them. They have to be provided with a chance to develop their skills and they need to be engaged. One hopes that process of engaging youth won’t end with granting amnesty to them. The big task ahead for the mainstream politicians is to address the alienation among the youth and involve them in constructive tasks.
The time has proved that “oppressive” measures are no solution and construc-tive ways and means have to be worked out to ensure that youth don’t get pushed towards the wall. It’s the youth who can change the destiny of any nation.
The state government has announced slew of measures to develop the skills of the youth so that they become self reli-ant to make their ends meet. Peoples Democratic Party which has emerged as a Kashmir centric party has to ensure that it lives upto the expectations of the people. Lip-service won’t serve any purpose.
The Government needs to carry out a complete research about why the youth in Kashmir have become so disillusioned
and why they are not interested to become a part of the development process. No one can deny the fact whenever elections are held politicians lure the youth on one or other pretext. They promise them moon and stars but after winning the elections the same politicians turn their backs towards the youth who make them win and work hard. Politicians should realize that they cannot hoodwink the youth anymore as they have become politically matured and know it very well that who can do what for them. Providing class-IV jobs to youth through backdoor is no solution. During the past few years hundreds of youth have been engaged as class-IV and at present we have an army of class-IV employees.
If PDP has to prove its decision of join-ing hands with BJP correct then it has to take a few path-breaking initiatives vis-à-vis empowering youth. It has to make the BJP understand that it cannot call Kashmiri youth as traitors and they cannot be treated as criminals. Granting amnesty to youth is just a beginning PDP has to go a long way to ensure that it lives up to the expectations .
(Javaid Malik is Senior Editor Greater Kashmir)
Weekend Comment
WHAT'S UP SAJJAD BAZAZ
ISSUENASEER AHMAD
DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed in the articles that appear on the editorial pages of Greater Kashmir, and are uploaded on its online edition, are strictly authors' own. GK does not take any responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, suitability, or validity of any information on these articles. The information, facts or opinions appearing in these articles in no way refl ect the views of Greater Kashmir, and GK does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.
BIG BITEJAVAID MALIK
Involve youth in constructive jobs
You cannot kill merit and talent in the name of a� rmative action when the very a� rmative action is serving only a creamy layer of the society and is not helping people who are genuinely in need of the a� rmative action.
This indicates ever-shrinking space for an independent Muslim thought in India. You’ve to keep on proving yourself, failing which you’re a traitor.
Declare everyone backward or go for revision of backward areas; starting from Kulgam!!
Broaden your horizons, overlook your disagreements, understand the situation and stand up for freedom of expression!
DEBATEMEHBOOB MAKHDOOMI
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