REACTIVE RESISTANCE

By: Imran Ghazi

“To every action there is equal and opposite reaction.”God knows how many students of physics have understood the essence of Newton’s third law of motion but resistance leadership in Kashmir has imbibed the spirit of this law so much that their entire politics has become reactive in nature. Resistance camp needs to understand the law has universal applicability while dealing with the inanimate objects of the physical world, not in the polity which deals with human beings and their aspirations. It is altogether a different matter if inanimate objects and human beings are one and the same thing for resistance leadership. The events that have unfolded in the recent past stand witness to the reactive nature of resistance politics. The verdict against the Lajpat Nagar blast accused is a case in point. Once the verdict delivering death sentence to the accused was out we had everyone from the resistance camp expressing dismay, even suggesting that it was a political verdict delivered by the Indian judiciary, Strikes were called and Kashmir was on boil again. We as a nation do not dispute the stand taken by resistance camp, given our experiences with Indian judiciary, it is not the first time we have been witness to miscarriage of justice. We have been witness to the judicial murder of Martyr Maqbool Butt, Afzal Guru has been consigned to the death cell not because merit of the case demands so but to appease the conscious of a Nation. The point of contention is the Trial in Lajpat Nagar case was going on for last 14 years what was resistance camp doing all along, we suppose not sleeping. Were the accused provided any legal aid? Had Bar association constituted a team of lawyers to plead for the accused? Or resistance camp has faith in Indian politico-legal system, as a means of delivering justice, if that is the case then it is better to call for winding up proceedings of Resistance Inc. For all these 14 years the Lajpat Nagar accused suffered silently and alone like hundreds of other prisoners who have been languishing in Indian jails, forgotten and forsaken by one and all. Men who sacrificed their today for the people who are so engrossed in their today that they care a damn about their tomorrow. It is surprising that in spite of time gap of almost 15 days between the day the accused were convicted and the day sentence was delivered, apart from a token strike on the day of conviction, there was no political activity that would have created pressure on GOI and would have reflected in the sentence awarded to the accused. We are afflicted so much with the reactive syndrome that we waited for the verdict to be announced. If Kashmir had to be on boil, it had to be prior to delivering of verdict by the court that would have been the case if resistance camp was proactive but alas they are reactive. If we analyse the cycle of systematic violence unleashed by the Indian state in Kashmir and our response as a nation, it falls in the same Action-Reaction Trap. The Indian security apparatus is the manifestation of the Indian State in Kashmir and reflects the policy of the State which is repressive and exploitative in nature. It is but natural that human rights will be the first casualty in such a setup. They kill we protest, they torture we lament, they abuse we are offended, they rape we are enraged, in between we wait silently for them to re enact the drama of death and orgy. For last twenty years we have not been able to break this systematic cycle of repression as we have failed in coming up with a systemic response to systemic repression. Ragda 2008 was a watershed event in our resistance movement, showed lot of promise at the outset, eventually fizzled out and culminated with beelines of voters at pooling booths. The reason for failure of Ragda 2008 was that in spirit it was not a proactive movement but in reaction to the land transfer decision to Shri Amarnath Board, while the contours of Yatra were being changed from a religious pilgrimage to a colonial expedition we chose to be oblivious. We announced Muzaffarabad chalo in reaction to blockade of national highway, it dawned on us that Rawalpindi is our Mandi, only when our children were suffering due to shortage of baby food. Why during 20 years we could not visualise Rawalpinidi as an alternative market. The moment land transfer was revoked and blockade removed the Ragda 2008 found its place in the series of debacles of resistance movement. We can still salvage the movement, if Resistance camp commits itself to a proactive politics. It is time to shape the dynamics rather than be swept away by the changing dynamics of politics in Kashmir. Resistance camp needs to get its act together, instead of quibbling over trivialities it is time to internalise and institutionalise the movement. If they fail to do so they would be searching for jargon and jugglery of words to act as fig leaf to hide their failure five years down the line when next elections are scheduled in Kashmir.