Tawfeeq Irshad Mir
“The myriad of voices have been scuttled, the masked agenda of paralysing the social fabric and ethos of Jamat is a futile exercise, it significantly portrays desperation hanging in power corridors to seize the genuine voice in the valley”
Since its inception this socio-religious organisation has never had an underground or subversive agenda. It has been managing and running every activity constitutionally and as per the law of the land. Nobody ever has found it involved in any unlawful activity. Its prime and prior objective has been to foster unity, love and brotherhood among humans indiscriminately through eternal Islamic teachings. It has never indulged in hate mongering and has always stood against it. It has been serving humanity through physical, social and intellectual generosity irrespective of caste, creed, colour and community. It has been a cadre based and disciplined organisation with a devoted, dedicated and down to earth human resource.Jamat has played a key and catalytic role in enlightening the society with education, ethics and etiquettes with nominal material resources at its disposal. Even today every rank and file has an access to the schools running under FAT which teach the books prescribed by NCERT. These schools charge a nominal fee afforded by all and sundry. Jamat has never claimed to have any affiliation with any underground outfit. It is carrying out its programmes in a plain, transparent and peaceful manner.
Now why Jamat has been targeted this time is because of a pro-hindu and an anti-muslim government at centre achieving its objectives through its direct rule in the state for the past quarter a year. One more aim of victimising Jamat is to drag it to electoral politics as the elections were round the corner. The intimidation of its activists is aimed at forcing them to subscribe to the poll exercise so as to reinforce the doctrine of deceit and occupation as also to encourage the other voices of dissent to follow the Jamat cadres to sing the electoral chorus. The voices of dissent continue to be muzzled, suffocated and strangulated to promote the narrative of monopoly and despotism. These undemocratic and unethical tactics have proved counterproductive and had have a backlash in the past and will do so in future also. They say democracy is about dialogue. Convince others and get convinced. You can never build a strong character by taking away man’s initiative and independence. The rulers must bear in mind that democracy is a barter-it gives authority but take responsibility.
You can never cure a disease by merely treating its symptoms. Yes you can experience a momentary relief but will not be liberated of the disease until you address its root cause. The democracy of India has been been served to Kashmiris with a dichotomous dimension. It has been administered with unbalanced dozes to Indians and Kashmiris though the balance. See the recent wave of violence and persecution against Kashmiris in Jammu and the other parts of India- the protesters were dealt with an entirely different yardstick as compared to Kashmir where even the normal and light protests are reciprocated with pellets, pavas, bullets and bombs because they know here they are equipped with a license to kill. This impunity has emboldened the forces to do whatever they want as per their will and convenience.
During the the disastrous floods of 2014,that heralded the whole valley, apparently fewer social organisations were on ground to mitigate the disaster, the way Jamat mobilised it’s forces to far distant places, with utmost accuracy and dispersed it’s services, organised relief camps, to disseminate essential requirements to the affected people, speaks volumes of their credibility and legality. Moreover the reach out to poor, encouraging their participation in education, providing them legal aid, ranging from books to fees, stands testimony to the fact that they continue to be the saviours of humanity. The plethora of educational institutions under its jurisdiction has illuminated millions of students, and these creations have fostered the maximums of teaching and learning process. The prevailing repressive measures against Jamat will serve as the antidotes to its mental agonies. Such repressive measures will make Jamat to emerge as more popular, more organised and more powerful. The tyrannical measures adopted against Jamat will swing the popular sentiment in its favour and lend it a fresh enthusiasm and resolve Insha Allah. They say every cloud has a silver shining and there is always light at the end of the tunnel. May Allah be the guardian and custodian of Jamat and its cadres?
(The author is B SC Honours nursing at GMC Srinagar. Views are his own [email protected])
