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Kashmir is far ahead of PoK in quality of life, says author Sheikh Khalid Jehangir

Kashmir has remained in the global spotlight for seven decades. Most of that narrative has been bloody, controversial and run by Pakistan. With the guns doing most of the talking, Kashmiris themselves had little to say all this while.

Local Kashmiri politicians, despite being intertwined with mainstream Indian politics, have only contributed to the marginalisation of Kashmir through their shady brand of politics—pretending to be loyal to India while parroting the Pakistani line. A book, The Two Kashmirs, released recently says that despite the shadow of terrorism, Indian Kashmir is way ahead in progress and Indian Kashmiris much better as compared to people in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK).

India Narrative catches up with author Sheikh Khalid Jehangir to discuss Kashmiri politics, Kashmiri people and the state of Kashmir over the years. Jehangir is also the secretary general of the Delhi-based think tank – International Centre for Peace Studies (ICPS) and has been an international journalist.

Excerpts from the interview:

What motivated you to write this book comparing Indian Kashmir with POK?

SKJ: I wrote the book because I want to share Pakistan’s debilitating role in Indian Kashmir and what Islamabad did to us—the Kashmiri Muslims. Pakistan has tried to end our prosperity, our education and what we are.

But I have to first tell you about my life in Kashmir.

I was born in Srinagar and saw a complete circle take place in the lives of Kashmiris in the Valley. The cycle of living a normal life, followed by strife and now a changing Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370.

Born in 1976 I had my schooling at Burn Hall School in a very normal J&K where Hindus, Kashmiri Pandits and the wives of army officers were our teachers. Our classmates were Hindus, Sikhs, Punjabis and we used to celebrate Diwali, Eid and Christmas. Our morning prayer was the national anthem and the principal of our school was a Roman Catholic. This was that peaceful Kashmir when I had my schooling.

In 1991, our school principal Father Dominic announced in the assembly that three blasts had taken place. I remember him announcing that this would be the last Jana Gana Mana.

Kashmir was in the throes of a massive change.

Students were beginning to carry guns and grenades. By the time I joined college, full-fledged militancy had taken root.

I was the vice president of the SP College students’ union. One day I organised a seminar on Gandhi and politics in 1994. Militants, probably from Hizbul Mujahideen, fired shots outside the college. We were not scared as other groups of militants were supporting us. Srinagar was overflowing with guns. A totally different kind of atmosphere began to develop in Kashmir.

Foreign militants started coming in. Besides terrorism, they were also interested in local girls, and that is how information about them leaked out.

While in college I also began to visit Geneva to attend the UN human rights conferences as the student ambassador for India. Once Sartaz Aziz, the Pakistani minister offered me money to speak against India at the UN but I refused.

J&K LG @ManojSinhaOffc releases book – The Two Kashmirs by author @sheikhkhalid Jehangir,
Secretary General of International Centre for Peace Studies.@Vitastapublish @india_narrative @Aditijan @sunandavashisht @AshaKhosa pic.twitter.com/bJND6K4VLY

— Rahul Kumar (@rahulkumarindia) October 26, 2022

IN: Tell us more about what Pakistan has done to Kashmir?

SKJ: Pakistan sees Kashmir’s integration with India as a threat to POK. The Pakistani army and ISI are not interested in the welfare of the Kashmiri people. They are interested only in our lands.

Pakistan’s involvement in Kashmir is to keep the two-nation theory alive among their people in POK. All that Pakistan has been telling people in POK is that Muslims cannot live in India and they are third-grade citizens in India.

Kashmiri Muslims are different from Muslims in the rest of India and Pakistan. We are far ahead of other Muslim communities in the continent as we are more liberal and practice Sufi Islam.

IN:  Has life improved in Kashmir after the removal of Article 370?

SKJ: Our Prime Minister says the abrogation was a historic process. But Pakistani politicians and the mainstream Kashmiri politicians say it is a failure.

The leaders of the mainstream political parties in Kashmir are trying to undermine the government of India’s development plans. They do not want benefits to come to the Kashmiri people. They are not supporting the development plans in Kashmir.

Our own Kashmiri leaders from 1947 till now have opposed India. All mainstream Kashmiri politicians want to defeat India in Kashmir. The dynastic politicians take favours from India but parrot Pakistani propaganda. However, these issues are not understood by the powers in Delhi.

People do not realise that Kashmiri Muslims are deeply integrated with India. This is perceived as a threat by Pakistan. We are in fact more integrated with India than are other Muslims.

There are families like ours which are stoutly nationalist. My grandfather was the zaildar to the maharaja of Kashmir while my father was in his army. He later joined the defence ministry.

IN: One can understand that you got information about development in Indian Kashmir, but how did you obtain information on POK’s development indices?

SKJ: My team at ICPS was able to procure good research papers on POK from across the border. People in POK gave us credible information and then we cross-checked the data provided to us.

IN: While writing the book and comparing development in Indian Kashmir with POK, did you come across any surprising revelations?

SKJ: There is a big difference in the quality of life in the two Kashmirs in terms of health, education, travel and housing.

Muzaffarabad, which is the capital of POK does not have an airport. To be able to travel out of POK, Pakistanis have to travel to Islamabad by road from where they take a flight to other cities in Pakistan. Here, the Srinagar airport is an international airport with nearly 100 flights every day to various Indian cities.

There is no central university in Muzaffarabad. Even their health facilities are poor. All of Muzaffarabad has less hospitals as compared to one district on our side of Kashmir.

News Source: https://www.indianarrative.com/opinion-news/dynastic-politicians-in-kashmir-against-development-says-author-sheikh-khalid-jehangir-69724.html/amp

After the abrogation of Article 370, many political parties have come up in Jammu and Kashmir but these formations are selling the “old wine in new bottle.”

In democracy, competition is always welcome. But it doesn’t mean that one forms a party by bringing together the disgruntled elements from other parties together.

The political formations that have emerged on the scene during the past three years have stolen ideas and slogans from other parties and have repackaged them as their own.

These parties neither have a different political ideology nor have they got any innovative ideas through which these formations can claim that they have something new to offer to the people.

There is every possibility about the assembly elections being held in Jammu and Kashmir in the coming months but these parties are beating round the bush and seem to lack agenda.

Till now they have not even mentioned a single word about how they would address the socio-economic needs of the people, how can they improve the governance system and how can they empower youth?

These parties are focusing more on pulling leaders and activists from other parties rather than projecting new and young faces who can bring the much needed change and handle the burning issues.                 

It’s unfortunate but true that leaders of the new parties haven’t understood the real meaning of democracy. For them the democratic polity is nothing more than theatrics and they believe that they can lure the voters by staging dramas and by projecting themselves as the “war lords.” 

Someone needs to tell them that one cannot reach out to the people by roaming in bulletproof land cruisers like Afghanistan leader,  Gulbideen Hikmatyaar. 

If they really want to reach out to the people then they will have to follow the footsteps of great leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, who fought for India’s independence without even wearing a slipper.

The great movements in our country where started by honest and genuine leaders. They brought the required change by living with the people.  
History stands witness to the fact that no fancy businessman turned politician in the world has ever succeeded in bringing the much desired change. Only the leaders who emerged from the ground fought the elite and were accepted as leaders.  

The so-called leaders who beg for security from the establishment cannot claim to be the ones who can represent the common people. For such leaders armed men accompanying them is nothing more than a status symbol. They use their personal security guards for performing their household chores, which includes even fetching groceries from the provisional stores. 

Most of the time these guards are used by the protected leaders to scare a common man and send a message that they are powerful people and no one should mess with them.

The state needs to ponder upon its policy about providing security to such people, who don’t have any locus-standi.

The politics in Jammu and Kashmir has become more about show off rather than representing the real cause of the people.

The protected persons in J&K include bank defaulters, land grabbers and the ones who were involved in Hawala transactions and other wrong doings.

This is unacceptable in “New India” which is being headed by a great leader, Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, who has sacrificed his personal comforts and interests for the sake of his people.     

The world leaders today are fighting issues like corruption, nepotism, red-tapeism, poverty etc. But in J&K the politics revolves around who would get the strength from whom. 

Politicians who have built castles by hoodwinking the common people in J&K need to be unveiled. They have one home in J&K and another in a foreign country.

This trend was first introduced by the Congress leaders, who initially sent their children abroad to acquire education and then used other excuses to park the illegal money earned by them in the foreign bank accounts.

Any region from where money is drained out and sent to other countries can never prosper. The government needs to frame a comprehensive policy to deal with the people who in the garb of politics are working for their vested interests.

It’s high time to show the war-lords their right place and send a message to them that “Range-Rover” politics won’t work and only sincere and dedicated leaders, who can work for the welfare of people can fit in the system while the ones who think that politics is also a business will be ejected.   

Source: https://www.greaterkashmir.com/todays-paper/editorial-page/new-political-parties-selling-old-wine-in-new-bottle-to-kashmiris