Kashmir: Discussion on TV

I was watching TIMES NOW on TV.  This is some time ago, but relevant even today. 

One guy says, ‘Let us have freedoms. Let us talk about freedoms.  We should have freedoms.  But don’t push it to ridiculous extent.  Like Azadi.  Why Azadi? From whom?  I find this whole Azadi thing ridiculous’.

The other guy says, ‘Think of nation’s sentiments.  Respect India’s sentiments.  Let’s live together.  Think in the right perspective.’

The anchor says, ‘Why are you taking support from Pakistan? Isn’t that country the one which is intolerant?  Pakistan is the one which is intolerant. Not India.  Aren’t Mohajirs discriminated in Pakistan? Why do you want to take refuge in Pakistan’s support?’

And I find something grossly wrong with the whole proceedings though most of my Indian brothers and sisters are OK with these discussions.   Today, once again Kashmir is burning.  More than 20 protestors were shot dead by the Indian forces stationed in Kashmir.   According to TIMES OF INDIA, In Iraq, there is 1 soldier every 166 people, and in Kashmir, there is 1 for every 20, nearly 8 times more.   It’s like living in the Bangalore city with nearly 3 lakh troops, one-fourth of Indian Army. 

In the discussion above, the first guy thinks that we all should have freedoms, but not Azadi (freedom).   Whom are we duping here?  Why is Azadi a ridiculous proposition?  We all want to be free.  Every human being wants to be free.  Who wants to wake up to face the gun on a daily basis?  Who wants armies stationed in their towns and villages on a daily basis? Who wants their sisters raped, brothers killed, uncles gone missing? 

The second guy is worse.  He wants the Kashmiri Muslims to respect our sentiments?  Why should someone respect the sentiments of a bully?  He wants them to think of the nation. Which nation? The nation that has been ruling them at the point of gun for nearly two decades now, in whom they have lost all faith?  ‘Let’s live together’, he says.  That’s the ridiculous proposition, not the demand for freedom.  Why should someone be forced into living together?  Why can’t someone have an option to say, ‘look, I don’t want to live with you, not when you beat me up on a daily basis and treat me like street dog’.  What is right perspective?  Our perspective? Or their perspective?

And the anchor is downright stupid.   When the Kashmiri Muslim is saying, ‘look I don’t want to live with you because you don’t even provide me with food,’ and we say, ‘why do you take food from that other guy? Isn’t he worse than me? I beat you only once in a while.  There is a good chance he may beat you every day.’

I am disappointed.  With my countrymen who think that freedom is their birthright but not the right of others.  I am a sad Indian who pays taxes to feed an army that coerces people into submission, makes these people lick our feet, taking their self-respect by force, treating them as numbers but not humans. 

There has to be a way out of this, so that we are not asked to pay for our sins when we stand at the gates of Hell.  I am not sure what answer I would have, other than the feeble excuse that, ‘look, I expressed by disapproval, I wrote a blog’.