Kashmir: Mainstreaming of Muslims cannot wait any longer

The late Balraj Madhok, the then President of the Jana Sangh (the previous avatar of the BJP) had kicked up quite a storm by suggesting that Indian Muslims need to join the country's mainstream. Predictably, liberal-secularist hounds pounced on Madhok, calling him all manner of names. 

But over a period of  time everyone, excluding of course the liberal-secularist crowd, has come to  see merit in Madhok’s prescient prescription. Without mainstreaming Indian Muslims, especially those in Kashmir, India can never hope to have a durable peace. 

We should have no qualms in admitting that without mainstreaming Kashmiri Muslims there shall be no end  to what we euphemistically call the 'Kashmir problem'. 

Actually, not to put too fine a point on it, it is a Muslim problem. Even at the risk of being called names by the self-styled 'thekedars' of secularism, we must ask a simple question. It may be  a no-brainer alright, but it still needs to be asked to reinforce the argument about mainstreaming of Indian Muslims. 

And the question is: Would there be a Kashmir problem if instead of Muslims the Valley were Hindu-majority? 

Of course, not. Only the head-in-the-sand-ostriches from the secularist brigade would respond differently. Even after making due allowance for the undeniable bungling by the post-Partition leadership, the truth is that Pakistan and its agents in Kashmir and elsewhere in India would have given up on the 'snatch-Kashmir-at-all-costs' project by now, were it not for the fact that Kashmir is a Muslim-majority province.  

Now, at this point of time  it may not be possible to change the demographic character of Kashmir.  Of course, you can never contemplate changing geography, can you? But, as Madhok had emphasized back in the mid-60s, had an effort been made by the early Congress leadership to 'mainstream' Indian Muslims, we would not be in such dire straits in Kashmir. 

Tens of thousands of security personnel, zillions of rupees and thousands of lives have been lost because the Kashmiri Muslim is not mainstreamed into Indianness. He may merrily grab everything material and physical from India, as, no doubt, he has. But his heart is not with India. Why? Because our bleeding-heart liberals were so obsessed with do-gooding that they did not mind jeopardizing the wider national interest.

Offering them a life of dignity, socio-economic equality and religious and other freedoms, indeed all possible opportunities that an organized, modern liberal state can offer, hasn’t convinced them to give up their anti-India 'jihad'. 

And this is true even of the few educated Kashmiris that you may happen to meet in the Valley.   

Frankly, all that talk of the healing touch, Kashmiriyat, uninterrupted and uninterruptible dialogue with Pakistan etc., are stock terms bandied about by those who have no clue how to deal with the periodic eruptions of mayhem in Kashmir and still want to look wise and superior. But the truth is all this has been tried several times over only for the Kashmiris to reject everything with utter disdain. 

That is why we suggest that the policy-makers should consider Madhok’s prescription for mainstreaming of Muslims, beginning with Kashmir. Fear of costs and consequences should not deter us from pressing ahead with the only possible remedy which remains untried and may still work since in the last 70 years everything else seems to have failed. 

That was why Madhok was so ahead of his times. We need to mainstream our Muslims. Or else, bigger crises await all of us in the not-so-distant future. Mainstreaming or integrating  the minorities in the larger Indian ethos and culture might  be a civilizational project but somehow, someone has to begin it, now that all else has been failed by the gun-toting thugs who lurk in the half-lit alleys of Srinagar.        

Man-'langoor'

Here is a new line of work for the jobless. The National Media Center, a housing colony predominantly of media persons on the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway, pays someone a princely sum of ₹13,000 every month. His job description? To make sounds like a langoor to frighten away monkeys. That is it.

What if the  monkeys wise up to the deception? We hope not. Poor fellow playing the 'langoor' will be jobless.