NaMo buys Premiership!

After a massive sales promotion financed by the corporates, Narendra Modi appears to have bought the Premiership of India!

Most of the exit polls indicate that NDA may get the majority and their Prime Ministerial candidate may finally become the Prime Minister of India! Even though these exit polls have gone wrong many times in the past, yet the general impression given by all the channels is that NDA may get a comfortable majority to form the new government. From the extensive media coverage it was evident that Narendra Modi was selling himself as a product rather than a living person with feelings, emotions, and principles. He was advertised as a very attractive and nice buyable product promising moon to poor Indians. Thousands of crores were spent on this product promotion. Continuous coverage on electronic media, thousands of hoardings all over India, all sorts of goodies distributed among the prospective voters including even bread stamped as “Modi”! There was no dearth of money. Arundhati Roy has been proved right in her claim that India is an “Upper Caste Corporate Hindu Republic”! This election confirmed that fact starkly. Corporates boosted NaMo as their man!
India claims to be the largest democracy in the world and also a secular country. Both these claims have been torn to shreds by this election. The slogan of the present election was “A Billion Votes!” It was proclaimed all over the world by all the media channels even though some foreign channels including CNN pointed out that there were only 800 million voters. However, no one educated the viewers as to what kind of voters these people were? 70% Indians live in rural areas. Almost 35% population of India is below poverty line who cannot even afford a square meal. A rural poor has no notion of political ideology or the modern development and governance. He needs, “Roti, Kapda aur Makaan”, the bread, cloth, and shelter. To them Modi was presented as a saviour promising to fulfil all their material needs. The same voters were earlier presented Indira Gandhi as Indira Rani and even as the Goddess Durga. Even though during the present election, the one slogan given everywhere was development and governance, yet in reality the religion and the caste were the main thrust areas. The think tanks for the campaign were from RSS whose nominee Narendra Modi is. They even discarded the stalwarts like Advani and Jaswant Singh in preference to Modi. It was the RSS dream to have the Akhand Bharat which they wanted to realise through Narendra Modi who became notorious after the Gujarat massacre of Muslims. For them Narendra Modi fulfilled all the requisite criteria to become a “Hindu Hitler”. Incidentally, the Nazi swastika is also the symbol of these Hindutva brigades. It is said that Hitler adopted the symbol from India itself as it represents the pure Aryan race, the purity of which was his obsession! In fact, Shehzad Poonawalla in an article, Hitler “Modi-fied”, published in Countercurrents relates very sinister similarities between the rise of Adolf Hitler in Germany and NaMo in India!The possible taking over of Modi as the Prime Minister of India has sent alarm signals in many quarters especially among the Muslim minority of India. People are apprehensive that Modi will immediately unleash the Hindutva agenda in every sphere. Even Pakistanis have been alarmed as was evident from the declaration of their Army Chief regarding Kashmir being their jugular vein. However, in reality that may not happen. He will definitely follow the policy outlined by Chanakya in his famous treatise, the Arthshastra. Even in their earlier tenure, the BJP took its own time to infiltrate the administrative and security apparatus while wearing the mask of “Insaniyat” (humanity). This was evident from the large number of the former security and administrative personnel joining the BJP bandwagon just before the election. The first and foremost task for NaMo will be to get acceptability in the West as also with India’s neighbours. At the present moment India appears to be in a confrontational attitude with all its neighbours. Following the footsteps of Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany, NaMo may also wear the Vajpayee’s mask of humanity and go soft till he takes the grip of the administrative and the security apparatus and gains acceptability both within and outside India. Kashmir may naturally go on the back-burner in view of other pressing problems. Raising the communal pitch and national security issues during the election is different than facing the problems of governance and development head on for which people have generally voted him. Kashmir has always been the last handle to be used in case of failure of other pressing measures. In fact, a few years back during the mass upheaval in Kashmir, some of the ideologues of RSS had suggested disinvesting Kashmir in the larger economic interests of India. It was suggested that to get massive NRI investments in corporate sector it may be worthwhile to get rid of Kashmir along with the perennial uncertainty resultant from it in the entire sub-continent. One will have to keep the fingers crossed and hope for the best!

Leave us alone

Whose `Jugular Vein' and whose `Integral Part' are we?

Pakistanis have been calling the land of Kashmir as their “Jugular Vein” right from 1947. Sometimes they forget it even if it is bleeding and at other times they suddenly wake up to proclaim its existence for their own security. On the other hand, the Indians claim Kashmir to be their “Integral Part”. They have further classified it as the crown of India. The latest in this regard was the declaration of the new Pakistan Army Chief General Raheel that Kashmir is Pakistan’s jugular vein. This was given as a rebuttal to Narendra Modi’s comments about Dawood Ibrahim allegedly hiding in Pakistan. The comments of the General drew a lot of ire from all the Indian leaders who completely united against Pakistan. It has been often observed that the only thing which unites Indians of all hues and shades is the enmity to Pakistan. Similar is the case on the other side. They think enmity to India ensures Pakistan’s survival. In fact, one of the Indian leaders made a counter claim if Pakistanis consider Kashmir as their jugular vein, they should know that Kashmir is India’s heart. He forgot to mention that it is a Muslim heart of a Hindu India! Indians have been proudly boasting Kashmir to be the crown of India! Incidentally, it has so far proved to be a crown of thorns for them!
Both the countries have been virtually at each other’s jugular veins all these years to physically possess Kashmir. India wants to keep Kashmir no matter what the cost to its people. Pakistan wants to snatch Kashmir regardless of consequences. For this they have fought three wars and have turned Kashmir into a battle ground of a perennial proxy war. However, neither has been truly concerned about the plight of poor Kashmiris. Rather Kashmiris have proved to be the proverbial golden goose laying the golden eggs for the both. In the process, it is Kashmiris who have been profusely bleeding all these years. In spite of their jugular vein being in the possession of Indians, the Pakistanis have survived with the American oxygen. The Indians on the other hand hugged the Russian bear for some time but have now gone into the lap of the American corporates. The two opposing blocks made both the countries spend colossal amount of money on armaments. This money could have easily converted both these countries into real welfare states if it had been spent on the teeming millions on the either side. The only beneficiaries have been the rich capitalists and the feudal landlords on the two sides who have fattened out of proportion.
What have Kashmiris got all these years because of being claimed to be the jugular vein or the integral part? Nothing but loads of suffering and oppression. Hundreds of thousands of youth were slaughtered, women raped, villages torched as collateral damage. The worst was the total economic dependence on the dole from Delhi. Though the jugular vein has given unhindered water, the life blood to Pakistanis, yet itself it has suffered tremendously especially because of a power famine in spite of having the resources for thousands of megawatts of hydro-electric power. On the Indian side at one time almost all the railway tracks were lined with the timber from Kashmir forests. Thousands of crores have been pumped by both the sides into Kashmir but through the most corrupt political and administrative systems which not only created a class of reckless and dishonest nouveau riche but destroyed all the basic values of the society. Greed, dishonesty, corruption both material and moral has plagued almost every sphere of the society. Truth has been banished from Kashmir. Everything can be bought with money. Kashmiris have become an expendable commodity weighed in terms of money only!
The only silver lining is the youth, the new generation born and brought up in turmoil and conflict. They do not carry any baggage of partition or of those early years of betrayal. They see and experience things as these are now at the present moment. Attempts have been made to corrupt this generation too but without any major success. Only the fringe elements connected with the dynastic rule with their cronies may have been swayed but the majority of this new generation follows convictions and means business. This has been starkly demonstrated by the upheavals of 2008 and 2010 and the recent parliament elections. Earlier the boycott of elections was a tame affair involving people sitting in their homes. However, there is a major change now. The boycott has turned into physical resistance. Another change has been a leader decrying the calling of Kashmir as a jugular vein. This is what the new generation needs to understand that Kashmir is neither a jugular vein nor an integral part. It is the land of Kashmiris where they have been living from the earliest times. They need to live with self-respect and dignity and to do that they must ask all their claimants to leave them alone and let them decide and shape their own destiny themselves. That should be the first real and practical step towards total and ultimate emancipation. This is precisely what has been happening during the last few years. In spite of all the misgivings, apprehensions, and despair, one can see the bright and young light at the end of the tunnel.

More than just a boycott!

The happenings during the present election of Parliament members in Kashmir seem to be more than a simple boycott. The violent resistance does not bode well for the forthcoming assembly elections!

Election boycott has been in vogue in Kashmir for a pretty long time. In the past, there have been occasions when the boycott was quite effective and sometimes almost total. All the parties leading Kashmir’s popular movement have been giving calls for boycotting the elections under the Indian Constitution. In spite of such calls, on some occasions, people in large numbers have come out to vote while as at some other times there has been almost total boycott. The plea of the people giving calls for boycott has been that these elections are used for propaganda by the Indian Government to show to the world that the majority of Kashmiris respect and favour Indian Constitution and are with India. It is only a minority instigated by Pakistan which is against the association of Kashmir with India. It is also alleged that on many an occasion, people have been forced to come out for voting and allegedly sometimes the security forces have been used for this purpose which action has been described as “escorting” the voters for voting! No such report was made this time.
During the last election when a considerable number of people came out for voting, the general impression given by the mainstream political parties was that these elections are only for good governance. It was emphasized by one and all that these are not going to affect the overall political problem regarding the final solution to the future dispensation of Kashmir. The most common slogan was that the elections are for “Bijli, Pani, aur Sadak!” (Power, Water, and Roads!”) People really believed in this gimmickry of the mainstream political parties. However, even though the people overlooked their long term aspirations and ambitions of total emancipation to get some sort of effective and good governance, they were completely disappointed and disgusted by the results of last five years. Had there been good governance, people might have thought of coming out to vote to at least improve their living conditions. Such a possibility seems remote in view of the most corrupt political and administrative set up patronised by Delhi all the time in Kashmir. The people in general and the youth in particular seem to be convinced that these elections will neither help in improving the living conditions nor will these lead to a political solution.
However, the most marked difference in the previous boycotts and the present one is the vehemence with which the youth have been enforcing the boycott. In both the phases of the election held so far there was not only violence including attacks on the polling booths and the polling staff but there were also clashes between the youth and the police. The youth seemed bent upon preventing polling in many places. Earlier boycotts were demonstrative of the lack of faith the people had in the process and they used to very quietly stay away. However, this time there was resistance in allowing the voting to take place. People were being forcibly prevented from voting by the restive youth. Even if the government figures of about 27% polling are taken to be correct, what were the other 73% of the people thinking about the whole process? Sham elections for propaganda only! What do they really want? As reported by some journalists the reasons given by the youth for the boycott reveal that they have no faith in the elections under Indian supervision. The youth have stated that they cannot forget their brethren martyred in previous years. They want final solution of the basic political problem rather than improvement in living conditions and the development!
The violence and resistance still took place in spite of the arrest of almost 600 to 1000 young men in the valley and detaining and house arresting almost all the “Azadi” leaders. This effective enforced boycott must have given a positive feeling of achievement to the youth and there may be much more serious trouble during the assembly elections in November next. The killing of the youth in firing at the close of the election in Srinagar and the subsequent imposition of curfew indicate the possible violence in future elections. There seems to be a major change in perception about the elections. Instead of an exercise to elect the same coterie of mainstream leaders usually boycotted quietly by the people it is turning into another avenue of resistance. This clearly shows the extent of alienation as well as the impatience of the youth in getting the basic problem resolved at the earliest. Thus the present election has seen much more than a simple boycott. A grim warning to all concerned interested in getting the basic political problem resolved peacefully that the time is running out and we may soon face an eruption more virulent than the earlier ones!

Amarnath to Tosamaidan!

The Kashmiris’ anger in regard to the land transfer or lease in both the cases should be an eye opener to all claiming Kashmiris’ reconciliation to the status quo!

The two instances of popular outburst involving the transfer of land/ extension in the lease of the land already transferred amply demonstrate the peoples’ sentiments in regard to the future dispensation of Kashmir. In fact, in a recent article in the Citizen titled, “Tosamaidan is a Trigger in Election Year”, General Hasnain, the former Commander of the Indian Army’s Srinagar based 15th Corps has stated that the case of the extension of lease in case of the Tosamaidan firing range could result in another agitation on the pattern of the Amarnath land transfer upheaval of 2008. No doubt the possession of land in Kashmir is the most volatile issue especially because of the revolutionary legislation giving the land to the tiller enacted during the first tenure of Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah. The Kashmiri peasant had gained total control of the land he had been tilling for ages with this law, the only one of its kind in the entire sub-continent. Till that time the land had been snatched from the tillers by the landlords and the tillers could hardly get a small portion of the produce resulting from their blood and sweat to keep their body and soul together. Having regained the possession of the land and all rights over it, it is the most painful thing for a Kashmiri if someone even just talks of taking this land away from him. The possession of the land is deeply embedded in the sub-conscious of a Kashmiri. Anything in this regard is sure to trigger deep emotions as has already been seen during the Amarnath land agitation.
However, the land in question in both agitations, the Amarnath and Tosamaidan was/is not the land of a tiller. In case of Amarnath it was the land at the start of the pilgrimage and en route for creating permanent facilities. In case of Tosamaidan it is a high-altitude meadow surrounded by forests. In both cases, the main problem is the damage to bio-diversity and total environmental degradation. It has been the general sentiment and the feeling that the outsiders are planning to take possession of the land which belongs to a Kashmiri. Here, it may be pointed out that there are already thousands of acres of land with the Army and paramilitary forces all over the state. There are dozens of cantonments, ammunition dumps, and a number of various other facilities of the security forces in all parts of the state. There has never been a popular movement or an agitation to get all these lands vacated. The State Government itself has been trying to get some areas freed within the city like the Tattoo Ground. However, there has been a continuous demand in the recent past to get the security presence deep inside the civilian areas vacated along with the revocation of the notorious legislation AFSPA giving unbridled powers with total immunity to these forces.
There has been a marked change in perception about the Army and other security forces after the decade of nineties. The Army came to Kashmir in 1947 supposedly as saviours and in spite of some earlier instances like the 1965 infiltration of Azad Kashmir forces and the subsequent war, they continued to be very close to the civilian population with the least security hassles. However, the upheaval of nineties changed everything. The Army came to be looked upon as an occupation force after the brutalities of this decade. Kashmiris developed an inside hatred which all the Sadbhavana programmes have not been able to remove. It is an extreme alienation especially in the generation which came up through the turmoil and the brutalities of the nineties. The continued highest level of security and the refusal of the security forces to face the accountability have been deepening this alienation especially among the new generation.  
General Hasnain has correctly pointed out that the extension in the Tosamaidan lease would be providing a trigger in the election year. However, it needs to be stated in explicit terms as to what the trigger is going to unleash?  Another mass upheaval? If so, why? The plain and simple truth is that the Kashmiri refuses to accept the status quo. He uses every excuse to demonstrate his discontentment. Incidentally, the discontent with the oppressive security has been coupled with the worst kind of mis-governance by the most corrupt political and administrative set up the Kashmiris have seen since 1947. All these are the consequences of a situation of perennial uncertainty about the basic political problem. These are only the symptoms and not the real disease or malaise. The real problem is the unsettled future of Kashmir. At the present moment the Kashmiris do not see any light at the end of the tunnel. They have neither got good governance for a reasonably good day to day living nor is there any visible movement to the final solution of the basic political problem. Their boat appears to be adrift and is being tossed from side to side by winds coming from different directions. In fact it is a boat without any oarsman being tossed by the waves! Shifting of a firing range or any other similar action will not solve the basic problem. Both the Amarnath agitation and the Tosamaidan upheaval should open the eyes of the authorities who instead of taking the firefighting measures for temporary management should honestly and sincerely try to address the basic political problem to usher in real peace. Otherwise we will continue to see many more Amarnaths and Tosamaidans in a more virulent form!

The Lotus Eaters

Kashmiris have an uncanny resemblance to the mythological “Lotus Eaters” of the famous Greek tragedy, “Ulysses”

It is a well-known fact that Kashmiris are very fond of eating the lotus roots (Nadroo) and lotus seeds (Pambach). It would be interesting to recapitulate the story of the lotus eaters as given in the Greek tragedy Ulysses.  Interestingly, the behaviour of Kashmiris very much resembles the people living in the land of lotus eaters as described in the Greek mythology. As per the account in Wikipedia, “In Greek mythology the lotus-eaters also referred to as the lotophagi or lotophaguses were a race of people living on an island near North Africa (possibly Djerba) dominated by lotus plants. The lotus fruits and flowers were the primary food of the island and were narcotic, causing the people to sleep in peaceful apathy.”
According to the account in the Greek tragedy, the hero Odysseus on his return journey from the Trojan War encounters many strange creatures like Cyclops and Sirens. He also comes to an Island called the land of the “Lotus Eaters”. He sends some of his sailors to explore the land. They discover there people very fond of eating lotus plants. They too eat these and fall into a stupor and are unable to move till Odysseus rescues them. These sailors are crying but they do not want to leave the island. Odysseus has to tie these sailors with chains to the benches to prevent them from running back to the island.
In ancient Egypt, there are legends about the Blue Lotus. The Egyptian high priests used these in their ceremonies. The petals of the Blue Lotus were scattered on the tomb of Tutankhamen and the flower has been featured in the ancient Egyptian art.                                         
 It is reported that the preparations from the root of the Blue Lotus which very much resembles the Nadroo of Kashmir possess certain psychedelic properties. It is a fact that Kashmiris too are supposed to be somewhat lethargic and full of apathy. However, there are also bouts of awakening which surprise many. Generally people remain in a very stoic state unmoved by events around them. During last decade or so there have been a couple of mass upheavals. One was about the Amarnath land transfer and the other about the killing of innocent boys. Entire Kashmir was under siege. Millions had taken to roads. It appeared the anger of the people would be impossible to suppress. However, with a large number of killings of youth, continuous declared and undeclared curfew, the upheaval was contained. Anyone who had visited Kashmir during the upheaval and after would not believe these were the same people!
During the entire history of Kashmir’s movement for “Azadi” which generally means total emancipation, there have been many ups and downs. Many times between the upheavals the people appear to resemble the “Lotus Eaters” of the Ulysses. However, at some other times they behave like true revolutionaries who would be impossible to suppress. That may be the major difference in the two categories of “Lotus Eaters”, the ones depicted in Ulysses and the other living in this serene and calm mystic valley of saints. May be the reason for this strange swinging behaviour is the fact that we do not eat Nadroos and Pambach all the time? We only occasionally eat the lotus roots and the seeds while as the in the Island of lotus eaters in Ulysses they only ate the lotus and its other off shoots and it was their main and probably the only diet. It would be worthwhile for our scientists to conduct some research in regard to the eating of lotus roots and the behaviour of Kashmiris!

Hypocrisy of the Freedom of expression

The principle has been battered in Kashmir during the recent times

The recent incident involving threats to Kashmir based columnists has raised many questions about the most cherished human right of the freedom of expression. In fact any talk about this right is becoming hypocritical. One of the most fundamental pillars in a democratic set up is the right of a person to express freely without any fear his views on any subject including the functioning of the state itself through any medium he desires to use. Constitutions of all free and democratic countries guarantee this right to their citizens. Wikipedia gives an interesting detail including the history of the right of freedom of speech and expression. It would be useful to quote some of the passages in original:
“Concepts of freedom of speech can be found in early human rights documents. England’s Bill of Rights 1689 granted 'freedom of speech in Parliament' and is still in effect. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, adopted during the French Revolution in 1789, specifically affirmed freedom of speech as an inalienable right. The Declaration provides for freedom of expression in Article 11, which states that: “The free communication of ideas and opinions is one of the most precious of the rights of man. Every citizen may, accordingly, speak, write, and print with freedom, but shall be responsible for such abuses of this freedom as shall be defined by law." Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in 1948, states that: "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."
Today freedom of speech, or the freedom of expression, is recognized in international and regional human rights law. The right is enshrined in Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, Article 13 of the American Convention on Human Rights and Article 9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights.”
The height of hypocrisy is the way India treats this right in Kashmir. Article 19. 1 (a) and (b) of the Constitution of India states that “All citizens shall have a right to freedom of speech and expression and to assemble peacefully without arms.” These expressions seem to have disappeared from the copies of the Constitution of India which cross into Jammu & Kashmir from the Indian mainland. For last couple of decades every attempt at free assembly and expression has been curtailed by the authorities by employing various overt and covert means. This fact has been repeatedly commented upon and vehemently opposed by the International Watch Dog Organisations of the fundamental human rights. However, in view of the violence from all sides, the major concern in this part of the world has been regarding the right to life which too remains suspended due to certain draconian legislations giving total and absolute immunity to the security forces for all their alleged acts of killings. The major concern of one and all at the moment is to make the security forces accountable for all their actions. Incidentally, the exercise of the right to write does not seem to bother the authorities so much. One can see many writings criticising the authorities in all spheres incisively in most of the print media.
On the contrary, it has been observed that the people who claim to struggle for these very fundamental rights sometimes go to the height of hypocrisy by showing intolerance even for objective and unbiased reporting of facts. Of course, they have every right to question any writing belittling or denigrating a person. Nor does the freedom of expression itself allow abuse or denigration. There are legal as well as moral safeguards for that in every society. In any case, neither the state nor any individual citizen or his supporters have any right whatsoever to threaten a writer for his writings especially if these do not have any denigrating or abusive content and are just objectively reported facts. Normally one would expect people aspiring for ultimate freedom to be more open to even constructive criticism to enlighten them about various possible pitfalls and risks involved in such movements. It sometimes happens that there is an abundance of certain followers who try to be more loyal than the king and by their actions cause more harm than good! However, it is incumbent upon a king to rope in and keep in check such overenthusiastic followers in the interests of the overall movement for its ultimate success. That is the only way to escape the label of hypocrisy. It is a universal truth that often wrong means result in a wrong end and people professing high ideals end up as hypocrites!

The downside of Kashmir Tourism

Because of various adverse effects on environment, commerce and prices of travel as well as commodities, Tourism is proving to be bane rather than boon for common Kashmiris

As usual there is an outcry among tourism players because of sky high airfares raised by various airlines for travel to Srinagar from various destinations both within the state and outside. The travel trade has been accusing some quarters for sabotaging travel to Kashmir by raising these airfares. However, the raised airfares do not affect the tourists as much as the local Kashmiris traveling to and fro for various reasons including medical treatment, studies, and trade etc. The most affected is the short notice travel. The tourists decide their programmes well in advance and most of the travel houses make block bookings well in advance for the group travel. Because of so called free market economy the airlines allow the market forces to determine the price without any reasonable upper limit. Normally, the airfare regulatory authority of the DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) is supposed to cap the fares. Every airline is supposed to file the upper and lower limit of fares to various destinations with the authority in the start of the season and the authority is expected to keep a continuous check on these fares by regular monitoring. International Airlines have to follow the rules and regulations fixed by the IATA (International Air Transport Association). Last September DGCA fixed the upper and lower limits of fares between Delhi and Mumbai to prevent various airlines going berserk in regard to the upper limit of the fares. In regard to Kashmir, there does not seem to be any upper limit fixed by the DGCA for various airlines and there is a free fall all in this regard especially during summer season.
Almost every politician including the rulers mounts every pulpit to proclaim that the tourism is a big boon for Kashmir although the trade does not constitute even 7% of the State’s GDP. The most adverse effect felt by the common people is on prices including the airfare. All other things do also get adversely affected. The first to be struck is the fragile environment. Be it the water bodies like Dal Lake or the lush green meadows and forests which have been virtually turned into concrete jungles. Every activity is most unfortunately weighed by one and all in terms of its impact on tourism. One of the major factors in the pollution of Dal Lake has been the mushroom growth of hotels on the banks of the Lake and the house boats inside it. The three most scenic and natural meadows of Gulmarg, Pahalgam and Sonamarg have been virtually turned into concrete urban centres by uncontrolled growth of hotels and other facilities. In fact, some of the newer spots are being destroyed by the Tourism Department itself by constructing unnecessary infrastructure by spending hundreds of crores which according to latest CAG report has remained completely unutilised thereby turning the expenditure infructuous. One would not mind the loss of crores pocketed by the constructing agencies in league with local politicians and concerned engineers but the destruction of environment is totally irreversible. The so called Tourism Development Authorities are proving to be money minting rackets at the cost of local environment. In real terms the State has no business to set up the infrastructure. It should have been left to the private sector with government only being a watch dog authority for regulation to ensure sustainable tourism as per carrying capacity of each area.
It is a tragedy that while as the so called tourism promoters are spending hundreds of crores for the illusive tourists, the basic civic facilities have remained unattended due to lack of funds. The recent snow fall resulting in inundating of the most parts of the city is a typical example of the lack of interest and drive in improving civic facilities for the local population. We can find hundreds of crores for Golf Courses and Cable Cars but not for basic civic amenities because of a “Tourism Mania”! Incidentally, even till date the State has to formulate a “Tourism Policy” and a “Perspective Plan” for Tourism Development. The worldwide emphasis on “Sustainable Tourism” does not form part of the lexicon of our local Tourism developers. Money regardless of its colour is the only consideration. Tourism Department instead of going in for “Sustainable Tourism” and preservation of environment is allegedly making plans for an event like the notorious Zubin Mehta concert. Few crores are alleged to be earmarked for participation in a “Film Awards” show in Florida to sell Kashmir to the people whose countries have prohibited them from coming here.
The worst part of the “Tourism Mania” is the tendency among all the mainstream politicians in Delhi and Srinagar to consider tourism as a barometer of political normalcy. Tourists visiting Kashmir are used as propaganda tool worldwide to project peace in Kashmir. No doubt tourism being a service oriented industry provides a large number of seasonal jobs to the local people but the basic requirement for tourism is real and genuine peace. No one wants to go for a holiday to a place of uncertainty. One never knows when the deceptive peace in Kashmir will blow up. At the moment the bulk of traffic is budgeted tourism. The high end travellers are still avoiding Kashmir. With the increased airfares, they would be better off to travel to Europe or South East Asia in the same price. In the ultimate analysis, Tourism has been creating more problems than benefits for the common Kashmiris. The Cambridge dictionary defines boon as “something that is very helpful and improves the quality of life”. In contrast, bane is defined as, “a cause of continuous trouble or unhappiness”. It is for the people to judge whether Tourism is a boon or bane for Kashmir!