Saadat.in Blog

The recent economic blockade enforced by the people of Jammu under the aegis of the Sangh Parivar is totally reversing. The people of Jammu are being defeated in every way. They thought that by enforcing a blockade, they would frighten the Kashmiris, but this time luck was in our favour and we are going to hit them hard this time. Even the Government of India knows that Kashmiris were not wrong but it were the people of Jammu who were wrong in every way.

          Kashmiris were angered at the blockade enforced and failure of the Indian Government to remove it. This alienated the Kashmiris, and now people of Jammu will feel the heat of our backlash. Every Kashmiri is backing the arrest of trade with people of Jammu. All Jammu based products are facing a boycott here in Kashmir and the products that have their offices in Jammu and not in Kashmir are also being boycotted. Most of the pharmaceutical companies who have their depots in Jammu are being boycotted. Kashmiri traders are going for an open trade with Delhi and other states, leaving the fate of middlemen of Jammu hanging. They are urging the pharmaceutical companies to setup their depots in Kashmir. But on this, the Jammu  based pharmaceutical traders threatened the companies not to issue medicine directly to Kashmiri distributors.

Now proceeding to the facts and figures.

          Kashmir forms the 80% of the total market of goods in the state while as the Jammu region only has 20%. We see this fashion in pharmaceuticals also. While as the turn-over of the pharmaceutical companies in J&K is considered to be 1200 crores, more than 900 crore comes from the Kashmir valley. If we are a bigger market why would we let such a small chunk be heading us. We were totally dependent on them for medicines, but due to the blockade enforced by them, we ought to look for new sources. They stopped their medicines during the blockade, now we are stopping their medicines as means of retaliation. Trade relations with Jammu will be cut off totally very soon and they would be taught a lesson for enforcing a blockade. Cipla, a pharmaceutical company, which openly declined supplying medicines directly to Kashmir, has been blacklisted here by the medicos.

          The traders of Jammu eat their bread because of Kashmiris, but in foolishness they chose to backfire us. Now they are coming on their knees, but we wont move. They will have to repent their deeds. We, Kashmiris, will make sure that no goods, having their origin in Jammu, are sold in Kashmir.

          Now for the people who believe Arun Jaitley and assume that the economic blockade was a propaganda of the separatists, I wish to tell them that 1 million people marching in protest, against the blockade and failure of the government to remove it, can’t be wrong and misguided by the separatists. The UPA government at the Centre weren’t fools hand in hand with separarists,who too admitted existence of the blockade and proposed that the armed forces would be buying the fruit produce of Kashmiris. Noted print media like The Hindu, The Times Of India, The Tribune and The Hindustan Times, weren’t supporters of separatists who also admitted the economic blockade being enforced on Kashmir. The Delhi Fruit Traders weren’t fools even, who urged home ministry to remove the economic blockade beacuse they were suffereing losses because kashmiri Fruit didn’t reach them. Further , I wish to make it clear that Kashmiris aren’t communal like Jammuites. We respect every religion, but we won’t tolerate anything against us. This year also, the Yatra went on peacefully, and will continue to be. The Amarnath Board got the land they already were using, but caused such a loss to us. But Jammuites, who wanted a separate state with the help of sangh Parivar, is going to face the ire and not the Sangh Parivar.

          Yesterday only, four trucks of goods were returned back to Jammu, and asked not to send any more goods. We, Kashmirs, are buying goods from Jallandhar, Ludhiyana, Pathankote and Delhi and nothing from Jammu.

          The people who supported the economic blockade need to understand that they are in deep trouble. Lets see how Sangh Parivar will help them now.

Attacks on Kashmiris continue, despite repeated assurances by the governor. Many truck drivers have returned back to the valley telling their  woeful tales. The HINDU FUNDAMENTALISTS are increasingly targeting  Kashmiris, attacking them using petrol bombs and sometimes even burning them. They are harassed and their trucks torched. The governor announced that it was safe for Kashmiris to export their fruit produce, but on 19th, the drivers were again attacked. This questions the commitment of the governor of removing the economic blocade and allowing free movement of trucks.

Now coming to my views. I don’t understand what makes innocent Kashmiris their target. During the agitation here,in Kashmir, not a single non-muslim was harassed. And instead they (non-muslims) also participated in our agitation, because the issue was not communalized here. The protests were a medium to stop the land transfer to non-Kashmiris. I fail to understand from where the religion came into the protests. The support of our sikh brothers should be lauded as they walked hand in hand with us during the protests and also provided Langars at various places.

Its very astonishing to learn that BJP, which is spear-heading the protests and communalizing  this issue, itself has limited Kavad yatra in Uttarkhand. Citing environmental reasons, the BJP government itself reduced the number of pilgrims who could attend the yatra and also reduced its duration. They have limited the number of pilgrims to 150 per day and closed down all the food outlets, banned the movement of general public and ponies. If they can limit the yatra to save Goumukh glacier, why doesn’t anyone think about the Kolohoi glacier. Just because ours is a Muslim majority state, these baseless points are being raised. How can they stop yatra in their state and then raise such issues in other state? In this case, where did their Hindutva attitude go. How could they allow this thing to happen in a state ruled by themselves? Its clear that they are doing this to gain vote bank. Quoting Sachin Pilot, a Congress MP, ‘We should be very thankful to BJP. What Pakistan couldn’t do in 20 years, BJP did it in 10 days.’ He said this while commenting on division of state.

The major solution to end this crisis is to divide the state. Jammu along with Kathua and half of the Udhampur should constitute a separate state. Also Indian government should consider repealing of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), which entitles the Indian security forces to arrest anyone or shoot on mere suspicion. Second one is opening the LOC for trade purposes and allow free movement of Kashmiris. The last one would be freeing all the political prisoners.

The Indian government has been doing a hell load of injustices to us. The protests in Jammu were more violent than in Kashmir. Still more protesters died in Kashmir. The people in Jammu burnt “The Holy Qur’an”, while as no disrespect was shown towards any religion here in Kashmir. Still more kashmiris were killed. The Jammuites enforced an economic blocade on Kashmir. when Kashmiris protested they were again killed. I ask these questions to every human being, whenever we ask for our fundamental rights, why do we always get bullets? Why is a Kashmiri life so under-valued? Why are our sentiments always played with? If India considers us a part of it, then why does it have such an indifferent attitude towards Kashmiris? Perhaps there would be no answer to my questions, because no one ever wants to answer them. It hardly matters to them that daily we loose a brother and eventually we have become used to it. Everyone wants and has the right to live a peaceful life, but here you don’t let us do the same.