Prashant Bhushan (PB) has received a lot of flak for his statements on Kashmir. While most people have criticized his statements, he does have a small share of supporters as well. Many observers have pitted Kashmiri Pandits (KP) against PB. Main reason being the loss of homeland of KPs, which will become almost permanent, if Kashmir is taken out of India.
I am a Kashmiri Pandit. I do not support violence. If we supported violence, we would have been sitting in the luxury of mother nature in our beloved Kashmir! We wouldn’t have been ignored by the spineless Government of India, who seem to listen only to the sound of violence (bullets, bombs, stones)!
I thought of putting down my thoughts in this blog article - given that IT has given me this
opportunity to share my thoughts with all those who might be interested.
I heard PB on some news channel where he elaborated on his view point on Kashmir. Here are some key takeaways form his interview, and my thoughts on each of his points:
"Kashmiri people have the right to decide whether they want to be with India or not. We should let them decide."
This is a great thought that one can have without understanding the situation. If PB would understand Kashmir, then this statement would be very naïve to make. Few points here:
Till when do we keep the option open for people to decide on whether they are part of India or not? Does every individual in India have the option to decide whether he/she wants to be part of India or not? If he/she doesn’t want to be part of India, does he/she also have the option to declare his/her owned land as not part of India?
Ok, I give it to the sympathizers of PB that we are not talking about one individual, but a group of people. Now how big a group constitutes a group that can have this say? Is it all people who speak Kashmiri language? Is it all people of one religion living in what we geographically define as Kashmir valley? Is it all people of what is geographically called the state of J&K? Given all the money, blood, sweat spent by all those who consider themselves Indian, for protection and development of J&K, does rest of India have no say in J&K?
Ok, I take the most preferred sub-segment as per the sympathizers of PB (I hope people see the manipulation of the situation by PB like folks, by suggesting arguments based on this sub-segment) - Let us only talk about the people of Kashmir valley. 700,000 Kashmiri Pandits (KPs) do not want Kashmir valley to be separated from India. Does their view hold any value? Or, does the majority decide? If the majority decides, then does that same apply to all other parts of India? Do we then agree to a culture where majority community should decide what bread crumbs to throw at the minority? But, that is not supported by people like PB when Hindus are in majority! What contradiction! What double-standards!
I have my right of opinion, and Indian constitution provides me the right to dissent.
Absolutely true, Mr PB. But, have you forgotten your fundamental duties? The likes of PB always take the argument of right to speech, but conveniently forget their fundamental duties.
Mr PB, you have the voice today because you were raised on the pedestal by the people of India, because they believed in you for your anti-corruption efforts. Now that you have that kind of following, you cannot make any irresponsible statements. Yes, you understood my point right, you no longer can have completely independent thoughts on such sensitive subjects. It amounts to back-stabbing of people like me, who have been blind supporters of the Jan Lokpal movement!
And, when you do make such statements, be prepared for backlash from people who feel frustrated and angry at such comments. When you can understand and empathize with the violence perpetrated by the Kashmiri terrorists, when you canempathize with the guns and bombs that ethnically cleansed the aborigines of the Kashmir valley, when you can empathize with the stone pelters - why this double standard of not empathizing with three young men who just gave you a few blows. Yes, "just" few blows, because
these few blows to one person is negligible (not even worth a mention) to the violence you empathized till date (that I listed earlier in this para)!
One of the PB like, self proclaimed Human Rights activist, Gautam Navlakha, once said that he supports armed struggle for the rights, and aspirations of people. But, when they personally get even a slap on their face (leave aside feeling the pain of people tortured to death) they cry foul!May God grant them the strength when they introspect and realize what hypocrites they are!
Parties like Sri Ram Sena should be banned in India
I have no idea about the group called Sri Ram Sena (SRS). I have only heard about them for their disapproval of Valentines day. I do not agree to any such moral policing. One can preach one's ideology, but cannot go and take law in their hands. Having said that, even before there was any confirmation of whether any of the three people who heckled PB were part of SRS, PB demanded that they should be banned in India! How pathetic of such a so-called "expert" lawyer to have forgotten the principles of law and principles of justice, to directly proclaim the verdict without any investigation or validation! If such an incident had happened to somebody like Pramod Muttalik, PB would have first argued that he got the fruit of his actions, and would have then declared - let law take its own course! In fact, if my memory serves me right, it did happen with Pramod, and everybody declared that Pramod got what he deserved. But, the same principles do not apply to highly intellectual people like PB. How sick can that be!
I couldn’t bear him anymore, so I changed the channel. Later I read some newspaper reports and read some facebook comments of people who support India Against Corruption (IAC). Here are some key takeaways from those forums:
We should protest against the attack on PB.
So, from now on, even if PB commits a murder, no action should be taken against him! Right? I completely understand that some vested interests want to split the Jan Lokpal movement. I understand that we need to stay together to defeat such forces that want to derail this movement. But, the first ownership for such unity lies with the leaders of the movement. When cases were slapped against Anna, Arvind, Kiran Bedi, etc, we were vigilant. We assured them of our support. But, this is a statement by PB himself. He is being irresponsible. Even if he had apologized for such a statement, things could have been buried there and then. He went on and on with his statements on national television. If he is going to be in the leadership team of the movement, the movement is bound to fail! When we want to stay united for the cause, then such people shouldn’t be allowed to use this support for any other motive but anti-corruption!
If India Against Corruption protests for this attack on PB, they are then moving away from anti-corruption movement and supporting an anti-India movement! Sorry, I would never ever be part of such a movement. Wake up brothers and sisters, we are here for Jan Lokpal, and not for PB pal!!!
It is PBs personal view and that shouldn’t derail IAC movement.
I heard even Anna give this statement. If this is true, and if we are OK with people having such personal opinions on such sensitive topics, then why distance yourself from Baba Ramdev? Why distance from BJP? Why distance from RSS? We distanced this movement from them because we said the movement should not get embroiled in other controversies like so-called communalism (any pro-Hindu stance is communal stance in India). Why doesn’t the same principle apply to PB? We should immediately distance ourselves from this person with communist ideology! We should immediately distance ourselves from this person with anti-national ideology!
I hope our mature and intelligent Indian citizens are able to clearly see the real PB (and his likes). Either PB, and his likes, are completely naïve, or they have sinister designs and vested interest in breaking our dream called India. Either way, they should be condemned by all, and shunted away from all people's movements like Jan Lokpal!
Jai Hind!
