J&K: All party delegation brought shame to nation
by Hari Om on 24 Sep 2010 14 Comments

September 20 will be regarded as a black day in the history of the post-independent India. On this inauspicious day, the Indian nation witnessed at least 15 members of the Union Home Minister-led parliamentary delegation, including the Leaders of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, bringing disgrace to the country and virtually ridiculing the supreme sacrifices made by the committed, dedicated and disciplined Army.

 

These members made a mockery of themselves and the Indian nation by committing an unpardonable crime and by telling the international community that India is a banana republic; India is on sale; anyone can blackmail, browbeat and bleed India and go scot-free; India doesn’t care for its war machine, borders and sovereign interests; India is a country where terrorists, murderers and rebels are accorded red carpet welcome, and where nationalists are dismissed with contempt as part of the problem; and India is a country where some parliamentarians don’t mind harming paramount national interests and allowing anti-India elements to do the same with impunity. This is the India of today.

 

How else should one interpret the act of political debauchery enacted by these 15-odd parliamentarians on this Black Day in modern Indian history? I refer to their mind-boggling decision to pay obeisance at the residences of Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Yasin Malik, in the Jamia Masjid area, Hyderpora area and Maisuma area, respectively.

 

So generous and apolitical did these Indian law-makers became that they didn’t mind the snub administered by Geelani, Mirwaiz and Malik to the delegation by throwing the invites into the dustbin and telling the emissaries of the delegation that if the Union Home Minister and his team wished to meet them, they could come to their residences; they were not prepared to visit the venue (Sher-e-Kashmir International Convention Centre) of interaction between the all-party delegation and the Kashmiri deputations.

 

It may be argued that Sitaram Yechuri (CPI-M), Gurudas Dasgupta (CPI) and Ram Vilas Paswan (Lok Janshakti Party) et al visited the residences of Geelani, Mirwaiz and Malik in their private capacity to ascertain their views. But no one will believe this as the delegates were Indian MPs on an official visit to the state. These MPs went to meet the separatists responsible for the genocide of Kashmiri Hindus and Sikhs as per a well-crafted strategy, and to listen to rabidly anti-India views.

 

They committed this grave mistake in consultation with the Home Minister who considers Kashmir a “unique problem.” CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechuri said after paying obeisance at the residence of Geelani that they met the separatists on behalf of the all-party delegation, though this was contested by Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah defended the visit to the separatists, saying “it was part of the plan.” [When Sushma Swaraj insisted that the visit to the homes of separatists was not discussed or cleared with the all-party delegation, it was clarified that the concerned members had taken up the matter with P. Chidambaram personally].

 

By visiting the residences of Geelani, Mirwaiz and Malik, who have only brought death and destruction to the Kashmir Valley and who have been surviving and thriving on the sweat and blood of gullible Kashmiri Muslims, the Indian law-makers accorded a dangerous respectability to the kind of activities the trio has been indulging in to ensure the separation of Jammu & Kashmir from India. They simply emboldened the merchants of death and destruction in Kashmir and those who have been using all kinds of invectives and epithets against the Indian State and Indian Army. These actions of the Indian parliamentarians will go a long way in reversing the process of integration of the state into India.

 

The issue is not whether the all-party delegation would recommend any political concession to Kashmir to please and appease the separatists and purchase peace in the valley – an unrealizable goal in the sense that Geelani, Mirwaiz and others of their ilk have, with the help of certain elements in the civil and police administration, themselves deliberately disturbed the peace and will continue to do so unless their most cherished dream is realized. Everyone knows that they are Pakistani agents and would rest only after Pakistan absorbs the Indian Jammu & Kashmir or Jammu & Kashmir becomes independent at the least. Besides, everyone knows they hate the Indian political system because they regard it as anti-Islamic and want the establishment of what Geelani proudly and shamelessly calls “Nizam-e-Mustafa” (Islamic rule).        

 

Reports had suggested that the all-party delegation would visit hospitals, not to see the injured Army and paramilitary forces personnel, but those who attacked the security forces, bunkers, Army camps, police stations and burnt down police stations, government buildings, vehicles and private property and in the process got killed!

 

There were reports that the all-party parliamentary delegation might meet the families of killed rebels, killed Pakistani agents and the slain followers of Geelani, Mirwaiz, Malik and so on, and share their agony, thus holding the Army and paramilitary forces responsible for the recent killings and sending a message to the security forces to behave or be prepared to face legal action for discharging duties assigned by the civil administration to the best of their ability and capability.  

 

The reports were true. Members of the delegation visited certain hospitals, including the bone and joint hospital, to meet people injured during clashes with the security forces in 103 days of unrest in the Kashmir Valley, during which 102 lives were lost. They should have visited the Army hospitals to support the injured soldiers and paramilitary forces personnel; but they omitted to do that. Perhaps they thought a visit to the Army hospitals might send a wrong signal and further “alienate” the already “alienated Kashmiri Muslims.”

 

The delegation also visited Tangmarg, which had witnessed arson on an unprecedented scale following a report that an American pastor had allegedly desecrated the Quran somewhere. The resultant police-crowd clashes left at least three arsonists dead and scores of other hooligans wounded. Yet the delegation visited Tangmarg to express solidarity with the members of these bereaved families – whose members had themselves invited disaster by taking recourse to violence; they had burned down several government buildings, offices and vehicles.

 

Believe it or not, but Ghulam Hassan Mir, local MLA and Cabinet Minister in Omar Abdullah’s ministry, described the current strife as the immediate fall-out of the Centre’s decision to employ in Kashmir 3,000 Kashmiri Hindu youths and the 2008 decision of the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board to extend the yatra period from one month to two months to respect the religious sentiments of Hindus across the world!

 

Equally unbelievable but true is the fact that the all-party delegation didn’t allow deputations representing the persecuted non-Muslim minorities, including Hindus and Sikhs, to meet it. It rigorously excluded everyone who appeared inconvenient. The grapevine said the Chief Minister and his men made the selections and the Union Home Minister approved the same. The People’s Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti described the whole show as “stage-managed” and accused the Chief Minister of organizing interactions between the all-party delegation and certain selected groups. One cannot but agree.

 

So who – apart from Geelani, Mirwaiz and Malik – did the all-party delegation meet? It met the National Conference delegation, which reiterated its demand for greater autonomy, saying the people of Jammu and Ladakh also wanted autonomy from India. It talked about the 1996 Assembly elections and said that the National Conference had contested the elections on the slogan of autonomy. Indeed, the first point in the National Conference election manifesto dealt with the issue of autonomy. “You give us votes and we will give you autonomy”, it told media persons after meeting the all-party delegation. It did not speak the truth.

 

It is true that autonomy was one of the National Conference planks during the 1996 Assembly elections, but it figured in the middle of the manifesto, possibly as item number 23. Besides, as expected, it asserted that “Jammu & Kashmir is a political problem” and accused New Delhi of “eroding the state’s internal autonomy using unconstitutional methods.” It was a scathing attack on New Delhi and the Indian political system. It used different terminology, but the sum and substance was the same: Kashmiri Muslims are alienated from India; the Indian political system threatens the very identity of Kashmiri Muslims. The meaning was clear as crystal. More than that, it publicly said the goal was very near, that autonomy was round the corner. It said so on the basis of certain statements attributed to Union Home Minister P Chidambaram.

 

The all-party delegation met the 15-member People’s Democratic Party deputation for 15 minutes. Mehbooba Mufti was conspicuous by her absence, keeping herself busy by talking to television channels where she unleashed a relentless attack on the Omar Abdullah-led government and held it responsible for all happenings in Kashmir. Like Mirwaiz, she wanted the delegation to meet the victims of the alleged Indian brutalities; that the delegation should visit hospitals and families of slain militants and other unruly elements killed in clashes with the police and paramilitary forces.

 

While interacting with the delegation, her men expressed similar views and asking the MPs to realize the gravity of the situation and solve the “political” problem of Jammu & Kashmir.  The PDP’s attack was two-pronged – against Omar Abdullah and against New Delhi. It was calculated to paint Omar Abdullah black and erode the National Conference’s support-base in Kashmir and make New Delhi announce some major political concessions, as per the wishes of Pakistan and Kashmiri separatists, Pakistani agents or otherwise.

 

The Congress deputation, led by JKPCC president Saif-ud-Din Soz, who till the other day was an ideologue of the National Conference, also met the MPs. He didn’t use words like “out-of-box” solution, but urged the delegation sponsored by the Congress-led UPA, to think in terms of an “unconventional” solution. This means he, like Omar Abdullah and others, believes that “status quo is not the option.” Besides, he said nothing should be done that could jeopardize the unity of the state. He wanted the people of Jammu and Ladakh to endorse the “unconventional” solution which would keep them tied to Kashmiri hegemony! The people of Jammu are the backbone of Kashmir’s economy. Exclusion of Jammu from the “unconventional” solution would mean instant collapse of the Kashmiri economy and turn the Kashmiri leaders and people into paupers in no time.  

 

The all-party delegation met several other deputations in Srinagar. Those leading these delegations behaved as expected. Like the National Conference, People’s Democratic Party, Congress and separatists, they also condemned the Army and security forces and virtually demanded separation from India. Local CPI-M leaders who the all-party delegation made greater autonomy the cornerstone of their presentation and expressed the view that the Army and AFSPA needed to be withdrawn from certain areas of Kashmir. Their argument was that the situation in Kashmir was quite normal and that the stone-throwers of 2010 could not be compared with the gun-totting militants of 1990. Overall, everyone who met the all-party delegation or certain members of the delegation sang the same anti-India, anti-Army song.

 

The delegation should have contested these versions and told them that they speeches were nothing more than a manifestation of their communal approach towards India and that what they demanded could not be conceded as it amounted to the negation of India. But the MPs neither contested the Muslim identity politics in Kashmir nor the accusation of Kashmiri leaders that New Delhi had not kept its promises. Instead, some members of the delegation told news channels that they would raise in Parliament the issues that the likes of Geelani mentioned to them.

 

Jammu leg of trip

 

The visit of the all-party parliamentary delegation to Kashmir can be legitimately described as a great setback to the nation. But the story does not end here. The all-party delegation, which visited Jammu the next day, crossed all limits and virtually indicated that it had no place in its scheme of things for the people of Jammu province and for the refugees from West Pakistan, Pakistan-occupied-Jammu & Kashmir and from Kashmir Valley, who number more than 1.2 million and have been leading a wretched life for decades.

 

The all-party delegation had no time for those in Jammu who wanted to meet it and narrate their woeful tales and story of gross neglect and persecution, and inform it that they represented the nationalist constituency in the state and would not allow the powers-that-be in New Delhi to tinker with the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), compromise the Indian position in Jammu & Kashmir, and withdraw from the restive and terrorist-infested Kashmir Valley the Army and the paramilitary forces.

 

On the contrary, some members of the delegation had the time to meet another Kashmiri rebel Shabir Shah, who has been enjoying official hospitality at the Government Medical College, Jammu, for long. Shah is supposedly booked under the Public Safety Act (PSA), but is actually holidaying at the government hospital as he wants to remain away from disturbed Kashmir!

 

The delegation met only a few deputations. Yet all deputations, barring the National Conference and PDP deputations, countered the demands put forth by Kashmiri separatists and so-called mainstream leaders, and made it loud and clear that they were for India and would be so for all time to come, come what may, and for the state’s complete integration into India.

 

Those who couldn’t meet with or who boycotted the all-party delegation protested and registered their anger against the shabby treatment accorded to them by the biased all-party parliamentary delegation. There were demonstrations at a number of places by angry refugees, including refugees from Kashmir, West Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied-Jammu & Kashmir. These were impressive affairs. The police arrested several refugees. The National Panthers Party went to the extent of refusing to recognize the delegation and boycotted it, sending a clear message that it would oppose tooth and nail the demands put forth by the Kashmiri leaders.

 

The most important aspect of the situation in Jammu was that everyone talked about the need to reorganize the state, confer the status of Union Territory on Ladakh, set up a provincial council for Jammu, create a separate homeland in Kashmir for the internally displaced Kashmiri Hindus, and deal with the Kashmiri separatists effectively and resolutely. Another significant aspect of the situation was that everyone in Jammu identified with the Army and the paramilitary forces!

 

It must remain a matter of shame that the all-party parliamentary delegation behaved in a most reprehensible manner. It had ample time for those wrecking the Indian State from within and outside, but it had no time for nationalists. It met a few deputations, but reluctantly, citing paucity of time. The delegation had to stay in Jammu for a day because the people of Jammu had created such an environment.

 

The silver lining is that the people of Jammu and Ladakh and internally displaced Kashmiri Hindus are as tenacious as the Palestinians in the defence of their just cause. They are there to ensure the defeat of the Kashmiri separatists; they are there to defend the national cause; and they are there to teach a right lesson to the powers-that-be in New Delhi.

 

The author is Chair Professor, Gulab Singh Chair, Jammu University, Jammu

User Comments Post a Comment
NO!........Mr.Hari Om,this is what really brought SHAME to the Human Nation:.................................................................... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAVGu_KBy70&feature=email
observer
September 24, 2010
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In Kashmir 5 year Army Rule & then MLA polls must apart from cutting entire Jammu Division (Hindus, Muslim Gujjars & Muslim Bakerwals inhabited) and districts of Kargil (Shia Ladakhi settled), Leh (Buddhist Ladakhi dominated) & Anantnag (for settling Kashmiri Pandit refugees & path to Amarnath) by merging them with neighbouring Himachal Pradesh who don't deserve to be bullied by majority Kashmiri
Sunni Muslims and remain unnecessarily under shadow of Jihad! Again high concentration (30%) of Muslim minority in Jammu region & Ladakh (49% with both Kargil & Leh districts) will be diluted by assimilation in HP (97% Hindu) besides, there is no direct land route from Jammu to
Ladakh so they can't be made separate states as then, strategic Ladakh with 49% Muslims now may become Islamic majority in near future endangering all Indians. However, there are direct land routes from Shimla to Jammu & Ladakh so no problem if Himachal Pradesh is enlarged. Rest of Kashmir valley may retain current rights of 'Jammu & Kashmir' state (renamed as only "Kashmir") & provided immediately with
President's rule through army for 5 years followed by Vidhansabha Elections!
Suraj
September 24, 2010
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Wait and see - within our own lifetime article 370 will go and we will fill Kashmir with Hindus, just as Tibet is being populated by Han chinese. Those like Observer who don't like the freedom and equality to all religions that India has to offer can go and do suicide bombing or cowardly stone-pelting elsewhere. All it will take is one strong prime minister, like the iron man of india, to finish the Kashmir problem for EVER! If Nehru had listened to Sardar Patel's advice and settled the displaced Hindus of Pakistan in Kashmir we wouldn't have this problem. Instead we have been feeding and clothing ungrateful beggars for more than half a century! By the way, imagine, IF Kashmir were to be freed by India it would be promptly annexed by PAQ or CHINI or RUSSIA. You people are born slaves and your masters would be not Indian but Chinese. But do remember, we will NEVER leave Kashmir. It is our sacred land, the land of the sage Kashyap, whence it got it's name. Your sacred lands lie in Arabia so you should go there and never come back.
Abhiram
September 24, 2010
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Unfortunately Mahatma Gandhi is no more who is the only soul who understood the plight of minorities. I pray to allah for better sense to prevail.
allahdas
September 24, 2010
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Unfortunately Modi is not the leader from Kashmir and no one wants to be like Modi in Kashmir that is another big problem and one who can fight for the plight of Hindus who are majority and understand their need of developments. I wish Prof. Om to invite Modi to brief a public gathering inviting Hindus from Kashmir even those who are displaced and settled across the nation.

At least show some show of strength.
Jay Kumar
September 24, 2010
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I take this as another opportunity to remind nationalists to have their due presence in print as well as visual media. The truth you discuss here is known to a few netizens and ill intended bakistanis. Lies and blatant lies are aired and printed again and again in print and visual media day in and day out. The plight of Hindus of J&K is altogether buried under the carpet and the shameless virtue less money minded white church paid anti national secular media is broadcasting the goondagardi of Bakistani agents and shedding crocodile tears for them and hoodwink the nationalists.
krishnakumar
September 24, 2010
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Mr. Hari,
A timely treatise. First scrap Article 370. It is not possible through the minority appeasing politicians. It is better to move to Supreame Court. The Article obstruct the process of integration of the state J&K. The Artcle curtailing the Fundamental Rights of one billion plus Indians.
Prof. C.I.Issac
September 24, 2010
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Put your ears to the ground and listen carefully. You may hear a new sound in Kashmir. This is a different voice from the usual All Parties Hurriyat Conference call for an immediate solution or from the rhetoric of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) of Mehbooba Mufti. This is the cry of post-insurgency youth, born after 1989… This is violent in the sense that the protesters pelt stones, but different because they have not taken arms from Pakistan as the militants had apparently done. Nor have they any ‘top contacts’. This angry, amorphous force has no defined leadership. The baton of the movement is in the hands of the new generation. What binds them together is the anger against the establishment in Srinagar and in Delhi.The youth in the movement don’t trust any party or leader. All political parties and tendencies have lost their efficacy, from the religious fundamentalists to the pro-India parties and from so called national liberationists to pro-Pakistan groups. With the exception of the pro-India National Conference, Congress and BJP, all factions of the APHC, Liberaton front and Mehbooba Mufti’s PDP have announced their support for this movement, but the youngsters do not accept their leadership and do not agree with their policies and programmes.It was believed that the leader of the hard-line faction of the APHC, Syed Ali Shah Gillani, had some credibility amongst the youth and that is why the Indian and Kashmiri rulers released him from house arrest so that he can control the movement.The youth has justifiably understood that the deployment of the army is their success and a defeat for the state. Against the hopes of the rulers, this sense of victory has given a renewed hope and passion to the youth and they have come forward with renewed spirit against the army rather than being afraid.The courageous uprising of the youth in Kashmir is thus a taste of what is to come elsewhere. This will bring into being a society that will abolish all forms of national oppression, tyranny, misery, deprivation and need. It will put an end to the exploitation of man (read Kashmiri muslim) by man (read indian gov.) and the emancipation of the whole of the people. Such a society would lay the material base upon which all today’s ills could be removed. The youth of Kashmir are showing the way.May the force be with them (Kashmiri youth).Best regards.
observer
September 24, 2010
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The line of action adopted by the All Party Parliamentary Delegation became dubious the very moment when the UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi said well before the departure of the delegation that ‘the genuine aspirations of the Kashmiris should be considered’, what she meant by that statement ?Was it a direction or guideline for the visiting delegation to act on certain basis and keep the area of influence limited? Was it an intentional guideline to accommodate the secessionist aspiration of the fundamentalist and theocratic elements who have brought J&K in general and Kashmir valley in particular to the brink of destablisation?The agenda of the delegation became vivid and clear when the leaders went in separate groups to meet the separatist leadership represented by Ali Shah Geelani,Mirwaiz Umar Farooq,Yasin malik,etc.What was the need to meet these people when they had boycotted to meet the delegation and instead sent their memorandum. It means that it was a well planned strategy of the delegation to meet the separatists in parts and pretend that it was not a unanimous decision. Even the Chief minister, Omar Abdullah has claimed yesterday that this meet with the separatists was part of the plan. The central leadership has taken the nationalists and minorities of the state for a ride.The visit of this delegation was to assuage the separatist feeling in the Kashmir valley and humiliate the nationalists .”
He further said that,”this was an adhoc gesture on part of the political leadership of the country and should be termed as the immature and mismanaged show which had hidden intent to soft peddle the fundamentalists. It has only acted as the morale booster for the anti national elements and exposed the Indian political establishment, giving an impression that something is cooking behind the scenes to dilute the Indian sovereignty over the state under separatist pressure.

the treatment given to the nationalist elements in Jammu by this delegation speaks volumes about its intentions. The majority of the of the nationalist elements were left out deliberately and brutally handled in thstreets of Jammu so that the real picture of the state of affairs is not revealed.Sangarsh strongly condemns the barbaric attitude and treatment meted out to the 1947 and west Pakistan refugees and kashmiri pandit refugees who were protesting for their genuine demands and wanted the delegation to listen to their demands as they have been the frontline victims of the hate campaign launched by those leaders with whom the delegation was eager to met. We express solidarity with these refugees who were treated inhumanly by the state administration to hide the reality of communal divide in the state

the nationalist elements in India need to exert their influence to warn the political establishment of the country regarding the repercussions that may arise if the central leadership is considering the repeal of the AFSPA as it will give the breeding ground to the anti national elements and allow them to regroup and drive the state to the last possible limit of exclusion of state from the national union.

Central government needs to send a special team instead to look into the state of despondency and desperation of the 1947 refugees, west Pakistan refugees and the Kashmiri pandit refugees who are living the life of second class citizens. There is an urgent need and demand of the times to set up an enquiry commission to look into the forced exodus of the kashmiri pandits from the Kashmir valley in 1990.Above all there is great urgency to set up a high level commission to look into the political reorganization of the J&K state.Sangarsh strongly demands the setting up of Jammu state, Homeland with the union territory status in Kashmir for the kashmiri pandits,Union territory for ladakh and the permanent settlement of 1947 POK refugees.
MAHESH KAUL
September 24, 2010
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The problem is that India is too liberal in Kashmir. Look at what China does in Xinjiang. It is replacing the Muslim Uygurs with Han Chinese. Han Chinese were just 6% of the population there in 1949; today they are 41% and that does not include Chinese defence personnel and families, and unregistered migrant Chinese workers. And China has conducted atmospheric nuclear weapons tests that territory which has resulted in a legacy of cancers and deformed children. Yet not a peep from it's all-weather ally Pakistan. Pakistan also use military helicopters and aircraft to terrorise its own civilians in Balochistan. So their rhetoric about human rights rings hollow. The real motivation is greed and bigotry. India should abolish Article 370 without further delay and populate Kashmir with Hindus.
satya
September 24, 2010
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"September 20 will be regarded as a black day in the history of the post-independent India . On this inauspicious day, the Indian nation witnessed at least 15 members of the Union Home Minister-led parliamentary delegation, including the Leaders of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, bringing disgrace to the country and virtually ridiculing the supreme sacrifices made by the committed, dedicated and disciplined Army. " What is new about this? This is the unbroken record of the gobermint in India for as long as & ever since it has beeh headed/controlled by the italian/vatican ##@#....
Poonam
September 27, 2010
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Poonam gee,if the dispute had been resolved according to UN resolutions 60 odd years ago then ""bringing disgrace to the country and virtually ridiculing the supreme sacrifices made by the committed, dedicated and disciplined Army"" would have not happened.There is still some time left before this stone pelting aggitation turns into a full fledged armed anti indian movement.If you want to know about the true sentiments of the Kashmiri people, then just listen to what they are chanting amass,i will point out few here: “Go India, go back” , “We want freedom”,“India’s Kali soorat”– “yaakt thu”.So its about time to see the ground realities and act accordingly,if some one still thinks that they could be hushed up by force then just look at what happened to Soviet Union,even though they were a true super power they ruled those occupied countries by a rutrhless force for over 80 years,but at the end they crumled like a cookie under their own weight,on the other hand india could be called a regional power with not enough means to erredicate poverty in its own land,with not enough expertise to even hold some games (The Common Wealth games) how far they could go with this brutal occupation of people who are upto their noses with them?So time to ponder very seriously,with best regards.
observer
September 27, 2010
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Grow up Mr.Observer,Kashmiri Muslim separatism reflects the mindet of Muslim society where they are in majority.when they are in minrority they they say we are peace loving ang hindus are our brotheres and once they gain majority ,thanks to their abnormal population rate-they speak the langauge of communalism and separatism and ethically eleanse the minorities and indulge in genocide.This is the cardinal priciple of Muslim politics and hence ,fundamentalist Islam.this is true in every part of the world where one finds Muslims.islam has ideological neuorosis and identity crisis as it is the religion of forcible converts and suppressed genes.
Anmol Dhar
September 30, 2010
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Islam is the religion that divides societies and creates conflict.It has been proved globally
Rashmi Khullar
September 30, 2010
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