Interlocutor’s day out was an introduction to anger, hate and alienation

Kashmir Wire

Srinagar

Delhi’s Point-man Daneshwar Sharma got a first-hand crash course in grounding realities as a group of youth including former militants, stone pelters, a few charge-sheeters and lot many victims of violence interacted with him. The interactions were in-camera and in absence of any government functionary at Pulwama.

“It is a fact that I was part of the procession for freedom,” one young man told Sharma. “But participating in a procession does not require a bullet in which I barely survived.”

Sources said the man who lived somewhere near Awantipore had an emotional brief talk with Sharma. The interlocutor met some of the youth and embraced them after the interaction, those who attended the meeting said. One big delegation comprised nearly 70 youth which was assembled by a political party.

“I am stone pelter but if you are planning to withdraw cases to first time offenders, why not me,” a young man, who said, who was a stone pelter said.

File image of Dineshwar Sharma

The young men told Sharma that they have failed to understand why initiatives follow the killings and violence in Kashmir. “You start talking and then forget and then you are very selective in talking,” another young man is reported to have said. “Why not talk to Pakistan and Hurriyat. Why there are preconditions when there are talks.”

The youngsters told the visiting point man that Kashmir is being treated as second-class subjects while the narrative is that it is a special state. “You give us the scholarship to study and then humiliate us there in those colleges,” another angry man said. “How can these things move together?”

The youth talks about the surrender and the humiliation of it and the systemic failure in follow up. They talked about the families who had come from PaK and are keen to return home because they are not being given even the basic documents.

The hall was filled with alienation and anger when the youth were briefing Sharma. They told him that the youth are not willing to die but they are being forced to do it in reaction to what the governments in Srinagar and Delhi are doing. One young man said that he lifted a loan and wanted to work but the systems did not permit him to stay normal. They alleged that sections within the system have interest in disturbing lives.

Almost all the young men talked about the daily humiliation dose that is broadcast live to their living rooms by various TV channels. Interestingly the youth told the point man that they are not after jobs. “You have taken our resources like water. Once you return we will be able to create our own resources,” one well-educated young man said while referring to the NHPC’s exploitation of the water resources.

Officials said almost a dozen delegations met Sharma. They talked about both “the Kashmir problem” and the “problems of Kashmir”.

 

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