Asif khan
Kashmir has seen many ups and downs as far as politics is concerned. Those claiming to be devoted towards the welfare of the people have been often seeing betraying people, once brought into power. Every political party tries its level best to dominate the theme of conflict and play with the sufferings of the people. They paint a picture in front of the people showing that peace can be achieved and that they are all committed to work for the welfare of the people. They bag votes, in the name of resolving conflict and bringing peace, later we realize that we had given chameleons the power to govern us. Now a days, the big story doing rounds throughout Kashmir and the rest of India is Shah Faisal’s resignation from the civil services. Shah Faisal, who shot to fame when he topped the Indian civil services(IAS) in 2010. He has been very active on social media and his various tweets have made news in recent years. After the Kathua gang rape and murder case, Shah Faisal made a sarcastic tweet in reaction to which a departmental inquiry was ordered .His series of tweets had given an indication of his future plans.
New Delhi’s CM Arvind Kejriwal and The PM of Pakistan, the two personalities from whom Shah Faisal claims to draw his inspiration too smells of ambiguity. Both of them rose to power on the name of change and it seems Shah Faisal wants people to see him as an ally to them. He may be eyeing to use the platform already set by both Kejriwal and Imran khan. The new PM of Pakistan presented the slogan of ‘Naya Pakistan’, which is mainly based on the theme of change from the orthodox politics that has been happening in Pakistan. Kejriwal, on the other side came up with the slogan ‘Paanch saal Kejriwal’, which became so popular in Delhi that his party ended up rewriting the electoral history by winning 67 of 70 assembly seats, at a time when BJP dominated. Shah Faisal may be trying to fit into their shoes. Shah Faisal has very intelligently used these names and tries to draw a contrast in the minds of the people. It is a known fact that a good number of the people of Kashmir do love Pakistan and its new PM and Kejriwal’s rise to power is also not hidden to us. His simple way of living and the pro people politics has attracted the public eye and people seem inspired by him even in Kashmir. Here, by taking these two names The IAS topper as can be expected, may be mind playing with us. Imran Khan and Kejriwal’s achievements may take youth out of their homes and make them vote for him. And being the first IAS topper from the valley of Kashmir, he enjoys a massive following on the social media. Being an icon of the youth, he is being watched, followed by the people. He may be successful in what he calls, disrupting the politics.
But before reaching a conclusion, we should keep the entire scenario in front of us. He believes in reform through governance and doesn’t invest his faith in the way people have been going through so far. And the claim that the situation can be made better. Isn’t it a direct contradiction with the ideologies of those who have offered their lives for the solution of Kashmir? The bad governance had forced them to pick up arms. Had the issue been properly addressed, we may not have had such huge number of known and unknown graves, orphans, Widow’s and half widows. Every drop of the blood of Kashmiris speaks of betrayal of the oppressor. The same system has ditched us right from the very beginning. It had no love for the people of Kashmir whatsoever. The same system choked the freedom of our people and forced them to pick up arms. Our women sacrificed it all for the solution of the problem. The system did no justice to them. It’s noteworthy that a single tweet landed Shah Faisal in trouble, what he expects from the system which couldn’t bear his single tweet.
Times have proven that the system has failed in coping up with the demands of the people. Shah Faisal is standing parallel to all those sacrifices which have been offered by the people of Kashmir. He is compelling people to vote indirectly for him in the name of change. This issue was of some importance earlier but now it can be said that only the cover has changed, the book remains the same. And on every page of that book, there is nothing but mere suffering for the masses. Shah Faisal had said that he can’t take the Hurriyat’s way as they go through the toughest struggles and that he doesn’t have the same strength in character as they do. And, at this stage of his life, he can’t think of going through those struggles. He would try to bring a change through the electoral process, when in reality no such solution has been possible. Our problem is far big than the problems of water, electricity and roads and he himself has confessed this. There are political problems in Kashmir that we need to solve first. Now it remains to be seen whether people will come out and vote or be faithful to their orthodox approach.
(The writer is the author of the book Prisoners of Paradise and presently pursues his masters in mass communication and journalism at Kashmir University. Views are his own)