Press Release By Janhastakshep – A campaign against fascist designs
The Central rule by proxy in Kashmir has done much the expected by imposing dictatorial, undemocratic and coercive curbs on the electronic and print media in the valley in a bid to throttle any voice of protest from coming out of there and to black out the coverage of heavy handed and inhuman repression unleashed by the Central government forces on the people of Kashmir.
It is noteworthy that in 1931 when the Kashmiri people had risen in revolt against the misrule of Dogra rulers, the feudal Dogra army killed twenty four Kashmiris in a blood bath to put down the rebellion – those were feudal times. It is perhaps a tribute to the ‘Great Indian Democracy’ and the ‘democratic spirit’ of India’s ruling classes that under the ostensible democratic political dispensation in the country since 1947, the ‘nationalistic’ credentials of the Indian security agencies in Kashmir have paled into insignificance the bloodbath indulged in by the feudal Dogra rulers in 1931.
It is indeed sad that the Indian ruling classes, especially the present ruling alliance, has succeeded in justifying the suppression of Kashmiri people in the name of ‘Indian Nationalism’ and for maintaining ‘National Unity.’ Even those who have articulated concern for the suffering of the Kashmiri people seem to emphasize more on the heavy handed manner in which the security forces have been acting and the need for providing relief to the people to alleviate this suffering; they however, have at large been blind to the political aspirations of the people in the valley and have avoided taking a supportive stance for the right to ‘self-determination’ of the Kashmiri people by promising which the Indian rulers had lured the Kashmiri people to join the Indian union in first place.
Though sections of Indian ruling classes may talk of winning over the hearts and minds of the people of Kashmir, the fact remains that they are content to occupy their territory while caring little for the wellbeing of the people.
While condemning the brutal repression unleashed by the Indian security forces in the valley, Janhastakshep calls upon the people to India to see through the designs of Indian ruling classes in Kashmir and rise up in revolt against the repression unleashed on the Kashmiri people in the name of patriotic Indians.
While we would much like Kashmir and Kashmiri people to be a part of truly democratic India and fight together with their Indian brethren for the liberation of suppressed working masses of the country, but choosing to do so is the sovereign right of the Kashmiri people themselves in so far as the ‘right to self-determination’ is their inalienable democratic right to which the government of India pledged itself in the United Nations.
Janhastakshep demands immediate end to the repression in Kashmir; strict punishment for the perpetrators of this violence against the people; and immediate resumption of unconditional dialogue with the non-official, but the real leaders of the Kashmiri people in order to find a lasting solution of the problem that takes into account the democratic aspirations of the people of Kashmir
Prof Ish Mishra
Dr Vikas Bajpai