The pied pipers of Kashmir

Shishoo During the last six decades politics in the State has presented rapid changing features, as experiments have tended to outstrip the hypothesis from which it started.

Kashmiris witnessed short sighted and self-centered politicians claiming larger than life share in limelight, including those groping blindly along the line of least resistance.

The political situation in the State remained highly uncertain from day one of independence and for any demagogue intending to bring all the fish into his net, it was just easy to infuse fear and authority.

The people did start functioning unconsciously and exercising the essential functions of parliamentary democracy for the consumption of free world but in practice the system limped on postponing the evil days.

The politicians with freak morality and no commitment to the people came to wield absolute power essentially on their personal might and this led to intense corruption and nepotism fought with unprecedented catastrophe.

Governments were formed and dismantled at will by the vested interests and all of them dug deep in the natural wealth of the State.

Kashmir was systematically deprived of almost every materialistic necessity of life and in a few decades the State lost nearly seventy percent of her forest cover and more than half the area under water bodies.

In order to cover the tracks of mis-governance and trail of corrupt practices, the men in power manipulated the political system and added fuel to the fire to create problems that had no easy solution for the common mind.

They inflicted greatest harm to the State by striking at the heart of fragile unity of the three regions, consciously and in a reckless manner.

As the sins of their omission and commission increased beyond endurance, desperate young men took up the arms to settle the political and economic problems for the common man.

History was created when the most known ethnic group of Kashmir was committed to final exodus from their homeland enmass, to secure their life and honour.

Dogras who had made Jammu famous for their valor were edged out as soon as power passed on from them to the people and no leader who could express independently and stand taller than the bosses was encouraged in the Jammu region.

The opportunist politicians did not spare even Ladakh that was known from ages for religious and cultural harmony and by bringing about apolitical divide in the name of Kargil and Ladakh they destroyed more than they created.

The leaders who could generate the will of the people for the political and economic stability of the State were after personal profit and power.

While great mass of people subsisted at a level below the poorest unemployed worker, politicians and their relatives created and consolidated invisible empires.

The perception of individual rights and individual liberty were scornfully uprooted and as the man in the street lost faith in the politicians and the public institutions, an undefined fear factor took hold of his mind and soul.

The great mass of people comprising the State were like a river with current and velocity and had the potential power to uproot any obstacle but by systematically taking hold of their intellect, politicians left behind a static reservoir with neither life nor soul.

The People have no respect for the politicians for whom compromise is the cardinal political virtue but a strange apathy has overcome them and this is not a healthy sign in democracy.

The scores of Newspapers that are published in the State have over the years become the conscience keepers of people but they will have to make greater effort to become a powerful vehicle to discourage narrow opportunism and encourage independent thought.

The keenest observation on social and political issues are made by satirists and cartoonists and these are instantly recognised by the common man but sadly a man of vision and conviction like late Shamim Ahmed Shamim is missing.

Legislature neglected and ineffective for long has become a convenient instrument by which vested interest groups keep fighting for a share in the loot.

Adversity makes strange bedfellows and those who have been talking loudest in the past about bad governance and nepotism and corruption are now in the same business shaking hands with friends in unlikely quarters.

People and parties less compromised by the moral and political responsibilities have come to power, promising to change the old and worn out system and together they, prop up a Government that has only superficial claim to act on vital issues.

Weakness arising out of human selfishness is not the monopoly of politicians in other States but our own hordes have excelled in the art of seeking a pound of flesh.

Power and wealth have such a corrupting influence that one can never say what an ordinary good person starting with the best of motives will not do when he is in a position exercising unrestricted power .Among all the ambiguities, vagueness and contradictions that exists in the present system of governance, there is least to comfort the people who lack the right connection.

Being near the corridors of power can cover up the sins of even the known scoundrels but for others to get along they have to go along.

The: present Government is not short of alibis on its performance but nothing is as it first appears because what is said remains un-interpreted by a demoralized opposition and what is not said or left unsaid is behind what really is.

The people who hold the reigns of power can not claim the high standards of morality because they keep on succumbing to the pressure of concentrated and organized interest groups just to stay in power.

In order to keep power crazy men satisfied the Government keeps on shopping for support and the State that stays alive on generous aid granted on pretext or the other is made to shoulder the financial burden of irrelevant men who do not deserve it.

The leader who could display a charismatic presence and the will to bring freshness in politics, finance, industrialism and the daily life is sadly missing..

The Finances of the State may be on the path of improvement due to the efforts of a few well-meaning individuals but faced with the economic problems of baffling complexity altogether unintelligible to the man in the street, the Government can not claim to be out of the debt trap.

Even the good men with bad entourage can prop up erratic tendencies, as long as the Government does not open the doors of transparent communication between the administration and the people.

The Government is caught in the vicious spiral ever since it came to power but sooner or later it has to take seriously the demand that is raised in the name of clean and transparent governance.

The schemes of the government are becoming more and more the exclusive property of the people who are demagogues and cranks.

It is natural that the schemes are nothing less than a conspiracy to divert the attention of the public and keep the most vexing issues under carpet.

A State that spends more than 10,000 Crores annually is sadly lacking in an organisation that could keep the corrupt practices in check and bring in some freshness in the system.

The Government keeps on turning blind eye to the massive corruption that prevails in the departments and it pays only lip service to the people who have been rendered helpless against the rapacity of the corrupt officials.

The system that epitomizes the sins of omission and commission of last six decades remains intact and in the age of near uncertainty industrialist, merchants, bureaucrats and politicians keep on waxing rich and getting prosperous.

The piecemeal and half-hearted measures can not bring in fresh air of progress and prosperity, as long as there is not absolute transparency in the system.

The Government that could give fresh impetus to political thought and draw a vision for the future is no where in sight.

Those who are near to the corridors of power continue reaping a golden harvest and their task becomes easier, as the poor have decided to forget the condition in the madness of new kind of materialism.

Corruption like drugs is getting bigger and bigger and more and more aggressive and the cumulative effect of evidence forth coming from the sources that do not intend to reveal first hand official knowledge of the inner system produces a feeling bordering on disbelief.

We are not mentioning all this in condemnation of the present Government but simply as facts that indicate the scale of what is happening even by the yardstick to which we have become accustomed during the last six decades.

The Government that claims credibility can not act in the name of pickpockets and swindlers by preserving the old order .

A generation that has been hypothesized by the long political conflict keeps looking to the sky for the emergence of leaders who have the political wisdom, foresight and courage to draw a roadmap for the future.

Peace and progress is indivisible and there can be no solution to the problem without active participation of the common man.

Hardly has the dialogue about the peaceful settlement of Kashmir problem begun, the politicians in the State have started claiming credit for the resumption of talks between India and Pakistan.

Ironically some of them are the leaders who basked in the sunshine of life while their brothers lived in agony and fear of daily existence.

It is the long suffering, pain and sacrifices offered by the Kashmiris that has brought about a curious change in the mindset of the people at the top and as the people's attitude to violence has perceptibly altered, the future looks hopeful.

Instead of building a definite thought among the people, Mufti Sayed has already begun not altogether unsuccessfully, to assume the role of an arbiter in the dispute giving the impression that he is the apex of the triangle.

The politicians in the State particularly those in power are acting like referees in a wrestling match and have for reasons of fear and lack of popular support decided that the APHC is the sole arbiter of the people's destiny.

Those in power lay tall claims about having secured the mandate and good will of the people but they lack the boldness to express their views in public.

None of them can claim that he has set a process of thought in motion that Can be discussed and improved by the people.

As the talks progress political groups in the State must cast away the old unhappy and far off things masks and make clear perception of the needs in the world of today and get public opinion accept the swift changes.

Kashmiris have offered great sacrifices in the name of change but before vital decisions can be taken and mutual sacrifices offered Democracy must triumph in the State.

Those in power have the highest moral responsibility to encourage a healthy system of governance so that faith completely eroded in the public institutions is restored.

At present there is no evidence to suggest that the healers are preparing the people to take up responsibility for the future in a healthy democratic system but it sure is creating a terrifying Phantom of non-accountability and it does not them are realised and all the political changes in the institutions completely effected, would this be a great happiness for them when morality stands at the lowest level.