Terrorism and the Islamic stranglehold go hand in hand, and the compliance of the so-called Fifth Estate in furthering their cause is even more dumbfounding. Even as the wave of Jihadi terror has finally spilled over to the rest of the country from Kashmir, a pseudo-liberal element concerned only about funds for its NGOs (much of their so-called elite ways being dependent on this money and some hobnobbing with power centers), is busy making India understand that there is nothing amiss.

These self-appointed champions are leaving no stone unturned in furthering the terror agenda and the plan to Balkanize India. These people are too busy looking at their own interests, foreign jaunts, and media coverage, and have no interest in either the identity of the Indian polity or its unity and integrity. With no commitment to adherence to principles of geo-politics, unity, strategic frontiers and India’s basic culture and civilization moorings, the casualty of all their proposals is the nation’s sovereignty.

This so called intelligentsia hosts seminars and secret Track II diplomacies which, if followed through, will send the nation on a trackless road to Balkanization and self-destruction.

While in the Valley the terrorists engage in encounters, gun battles and suicidal attacks on the Security Forces, overt and covert support to Islamic terrorism is provided by politicians and others. The final goal is dismemberment of the country, beginning with Jammu & Kashmir. The Islamic element of the Valley has overshadowed the plurality called Jammu & Kashmir, including Ladakh. 

The Greater Kashmir of Srinagar on 10 Dec. 2009 wrote, “The High Court Association President, Mian Abdul Qayoom today described Kashmir struggle for freedom as an Islamic struggle, saying ‘if we want to achieve freedom we should have clarity about our goal.’”

This statement is crystal clear; terrorists and Kashmiri Muslims are part of an Islamic struggle. If this is so, then the terror spillover from the Valley too is a spillover of Islamic struggle. Pakistan’s oft made remark is to bleed India through a thousand cuts. Kashmir Valley is the first step towards the realization of this Islamic goal.

The gun-totting terrorists have their cause propounded in public, and the pseudo elite don’t bat an eyelid at the duplicity of politicians when they give credibility to arms and terror tactics. The Hindustan Times on 4 Nov. 2009 carried a story, “At a party meet, Mehbooba sees merit in gun culture,” wherein Ashiq Bukhari wrote:

“In hathon ne hathyar chhodey hain, chalana nahin bhule (These hands have just dropped the gun, not forgotten to use them),” said a young man at the top of his voice. And the crowd of around 2,000 people roared in approval.” The occasion was the youth convention of Jammu & Kashmir’s main opposition party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

When another speaker lambasted the alleged harassment and humiliation faced by Kashmiris at the hands of security agencies and people in other Indian states, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti could not help but join the gun rhetoric. “The Kashmir issue is being discussed in national and international forums because of the sacrifices of the youth of Kashmir,” she said. “Those who say that the gun had no role let me tell them, it highlighted the issue of Kashmir,” she added.

Senior PDP leader and former state finance minister Tariq Hamid Karra took the argument forward. “If the leadership at the centre is not using the army to crush the brutal Naxal movement, why is it being used in our state?” he asked.

This support for terror and the gun is neither new nor an aberration for the PDP. Indian Express Oct. 24, 2002, Srinagar, wrote: “The hobnobbing of PDP with terrorists is an open fact. PDP's charismatic crowd-puller Mehbooba Sayeed is taking her chances and has begun making daily trips to her party's South Kashmir bastion... Her father, Mufti Sayeed appealed to 'boys with guns in the mountains,' telling them there was no longer any need for violence because 'now your representatives are in the Assembly. Whether in government or outside, we will put forward your voice.” (for ‘boys’ read terrorists).

These are but a repetition of similar statements given by the PDP earlier as well, after it won the elections and promised to further their cause; this is enough to understand their anti- national psyche. And that they are stakeholders in the gun-wielding terror culture.

Yet seminars and platforms are provided to vent this venom against India, the difference being only the shade of assault against Indian sovereignty – spading away each time, with applause. Open admiration is expressed for suggestions of self-rule, autonomy and greater autonomy, and they act as renegade supporters of the apostate.

The tragedy that has befallen us is that the Government and political parties have started showing dependence on these very tactics and are giving credibility to these individuals. A government and a political system should hold allegiance to the country and the primary aspects of its territorial integrity, sovereignty, security, in a direct manner, and should not accept or acknowledge any negotiation on these issues, whether at the behest of international diplomacy, or separatists and secessionists, through direct or indirect parleys.

The tragedy befalling this country is that the government and political parties have accepted these very India-bashers and fifth columnists along with the peaceniks who are holding the country to ransom on the behest of secessionists. How else can one explain Defence Minister AK Antony’s almost apologetic comment about wanting to make the Army invisible? Equally baffling is the timing of the same, coinciding as it did with a declaration demanding demilitarization of Jammu & Kashmir at a three day Indo-Pak conference titled “Aman ki Asha. The Road Map to Peace,” held at the India International Centre recently.

Three important questions arise. First, is policy-making happening at the behest of these seminars and platforms which propagate the rabble rousing of the separatist elements? Two, why in the garb of such talks and discussions is the agenda of furthering the balkanization of India inching forward? Third, why are political parties giving legitimacy to these peaceniks by either calling them closer to the corridors of power, or allowing them to become the sole decision-makers and policy-definers in the country? Otherwise what can explain the presence of feminist-turned-political-event-manager Madhu Kishwar, an ardent advocate of Mufti Sayeed’s self-rule formula, at a function on Kashmir Exodus Day hosted by the Syama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation? Predictably, she seized the opportunity to propagate the devolution of Indian sovereignty in Jammu & Kashmir!

It is pertinent that the Syama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation function of 19 Jan. closely succeeded the IIC seminar of 9-11 Jan. 2010, which raised the bogey of rights, self-rule, and passed a declaration demanding demilitarization of Kashmir, repeal of AFSPA, allowing Kashmiris (read Muslims) to live and work in Pakistan if they wish, and a tribunal for ensuring Art 370 for Kashmir, and reduction of Indian defence spending, among other equally questionable recommendations.

The recommendations, intention and agenda of the seminar promoters are questionable on all counts and the Indian establishment has to answer why such exercises undermining the Indian Constitution, Indian Polity, Indian Sovereignty, and Indian Unity taking place at such steady intervals.

**

[Declaration Text of the three day IIC seminar held on 9-11 Jan. 2010 in New Delhi, attended by a host of Indian pseudo-intellectuals along with Pakistanis, which laid bare their intentions. Will the Indian political establishment make this the policy intention of the country or have the spine at least now to call a spade a spade and put an end to all such attempts to Balkanize India, or will the future of the country be mortgaged to such seminars?]

The declaration