So the local administrations on both sides of the Line of Control (or Line of Military Occupation - LOMO - to be more precise) have been instructed to move civilians away from the dreaded line, over the past couple of days. We also understand that many people in cities like Srinagar are hoarding grain and other essentials, in anticipation of?
Living on the 'cold' border here in Dadyaal, adjacent to the Potohar region of Pakistan (we describe the LOC as the hot border in this context), it is difficult to estimate the level of tension our citizens have to encounter, whether they are living near the LOC or in volatile urban centres like Srinagar and of late, Jammu.
The responsibility to seek respite from this tragedy is more on our relatively comfortable shoulders than it is theirs.
It should also be noted that whenever relations between India and Pakistan take a nosedive, its effects are usually played out here in Jammu & Kashmir, while India and Pakistan proper (as in their legal territories), enjoy immunity. In other words, they fight in our territory and not their own.
This is a sample of what it feels like to be a citizen at the heart of this imposed conflict:
In sharp contrast, here's a very sane letter written by former Indian Navy Chief Admiral Laxminarayan Ramdas to President Ram Nath Kovind, in the aftermath of the suicide attack in Pulwama.
He re-iterates the following 2 points - hitherto echoed in abundance elsewhere by others - before appealing for calm and clear thinking in pursuit of a solution.
1) The solution to the Kashmir problem is political, not military.
2) No amount of force as part of the avowedly ‘muscular’ Kashmir policy can quell the anger that Kashmiri youth are experiencing.
.....
To capture the zeitgeist (spirit of the age) in the context of Jammu & Kashmir, the discussion below had 3 very qualified proponents. Incidentally perhaps, they are all female and this chimes with my accumulated opinion that female intellect will be far more effective in delivering a solution to this un-necessarily protracted conflict:
Ayesha Jalal in particular is almost astounding in her analysis.
This is what India is doing in Kashmir to ‘integrate kashmiris’. #KashmirTorture pic.twitter.com/tdBvjyA2B5— Ibnebattuta (@ibnebattuta) February 23, 2019
In sharp contrast, here's a very sane letter written by former Indian Navy Chief Admiral Laxminarayan Ramdas to President Ram Nath Kovind, in the aftermath of the suicide attack in Pulwama.
He re-iterates the following 2 points - hitherto echoed in abundance elsewhere by others - before appealing for calm and clear thinking in pursuit of a solution.
1) The solution to the Kashmir problem is political, not military.
2) No amount of force as part of the avowedly ‘muscular’ Kashmir policy can quell the anger that Kashmiri youth are experiencing.
.....
To capture the zeitgeist (spirit of the age) in the context of Jammu & Kashmir, the discussion below had 3 very qualified proponents. Incidentally perhaps, they are all female and this chimes with my accumulated opinion that female intellect will be far more effective in delivering a solution to this un-necessarily protracted conflict:
Ayesha Jalal in particular is almost astounding in her analysis.
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