Dialogue is crucial to democracy. The communication gap between the people of Kashmir and the rest of India created by the Union and Jammu & Kashmir governments along with a pliant India media had long created a situation had created a lopsided situation where the voices of one side were not heard at all.
Given this backdrop, Hurriyat (M) chairman, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Executive Council member, Bilal Gani Lone's trip to cities in mainland India was a welcome step. The Mirwaiz's intention was to make Indians aware of the human rights violations being perpetrated by Indian security forces in the Valley and the need to resolve the Kashmir issue. Irrespective of whether one agrees with Farooq's contentions or not, his was a move that ought to have been welcomed by all and sundry.
They were to speak at a gathering in Chandigarh, followed by another in Kolkata. At both places, the Mirwaiz was heckled by rightwing Hindutva activists. In doing so, these marauders proved that they don't believe in dialogue. What they believe in is violence. After all, they belong to a dispensation which did not believe in any dialogue over the Babri Masjid issue either and went to the extent of reducing it to rubble.
The attacks have not created any outrage in the Indian political theatre. On the contrary, Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah went on to assert that he would not condone the attack on Farooq in Chandigarh. This was an occasion for Abdullah to, at least for once, come clean, and show to people of his own state that he stands for peaceful deliberations and dialogues. One gets the impression that the Chief Minister does not believe in peace. A man who wants the Armed Forces Special Powers Act to stay on possibly can't. The idea won't even germinate in his thick skull.
Omar and his government want the atmosphere of hostility to longer on. Or else, how could he continue to fish in troubled waters? When the Omar government did not allow the Mirwaiz to lead the Eid-ul-Fitr prayers at Eidgah, the Valley’s biggest prayer ground, earlier this month, the regime had proved beyond reasonable doubt that it needs unrest. It needs keep stoking fires.
The Mirwaiz and his colleagues had been placed under house arrest to prevent them from taking out a protest march. That was the official line. But his arrest was also significant because in their 250 years of history, successive Mirwaizs have led the prayers at Eidgah without a break. Farooq, the 13th in the line, has delivered the customary sermon before the prayers. Omar prevented Mirwaiz Farooq from leading the prayers, and also sent out the signal that the Jammu & Kashmir government would do everything within its means to let the unrest continue.
