Few days ago indian army chief in his statement warned that those kashmiri’s supporting terrorists will be considered anti- national and also warned stone pelters that army will take tough action against them.He also warned local boys who had picked up arms that if they continue with acts of terrorism and continue raise ISIS flags,army will treat them as anti-national and will go helter-skelter for them.He also mentioned that civilian population is not supportive to us.This was first time that an Indian Army Chief has issued such warning and bad part is that he mentioned stone pelters in it who are among the civilian population and said that army will treat them as Over Ground Workers.
As soon as this statement came out some people were critisizing his statement while some were defending it.As Expected Ruling party BJP was defending his statement forgetting that it was the consequence of not having an effective dialogue with people of kashmir whose result army was bearing.They were criticising other political parties for criticising army chief and blamed them of playing politics over the army chiefs statement.But on the other hand they were themselves playing politics on it.
A stone pelter cant be labelled as an Over Ground Worker just because he pelts stones at security forces during an terrorist operation .There is a difference between a militant who has a gun and a stone pelter who uses a stone and just because a stone pelter tries to disturb an anti-terror operation he cant be labelled as OGW’s and what about womens who also throw stones during an operation,will army treat them aslo as OGW’s . what is army going to do when a whole village is disturbing the anti terrorist operations.Is army going to label all of them as Over Ground Workers.Perhaps that is not possible to label a population of 20,000 as OGW’s and its not only one village that gets involved,in recent encounters people from different villages marched towards encounter sites.If all of these are over ground workers then most people in Kashmir are Over Ground Workers.
This all started few years back when people used to march towards encounter sites and clash with security forces.This process gained pace after the killing of burhan wani followed by an unrest.2016 unrest made people more angrier towards Indian state.Knowing that they can get hurt by marching towards an encounter site,people still do it and this is a warning sign for the government.They should get alearted by this.
Section of people were demanding strict action against the stone pelters.Instead of chest beating over the issue of stone pelting they should had tried to find out the reasons that why these people pelt stones.Find out the answers.Backing an army chiefs statement wont do anything good to people of Kashmir. Its the duty of political leadership to try to communicate to people of Kashmir but it has failed to do so and army is facing its burnt.They are facing heavy casualties.
Army chiefs statement cleary showed that he is angry.Any army chief would get angry after seeing his men getting killed and whether it is a civilian getting killed or an army men it feels bad,but if army chief gets angry for the killing of his men then what about kashmiris.What should they get?emotional,angry or live with it.Let’s not go too far ,take 2016 uprising only about 100 people got killed and among them most were in their teens.Death list of that uprising didnt only had males but it also consisted of females and how can one forget about mostly young teens getting blinded by pellets.How should Kashmir react to this.
Over the years army has been doing some greeat work in kashmir just to make people understand that army is not their enemy.This statement will clearly have a negative effect on that.Whatever efforts army has taken to make kashmiri youth shun guns and join the path of peace will prove useless to the people of Kashmir and above all this statement will alienate people more in Kashmir.If army chief thinks that his statement will make kashmiri people think before they pelt stones then unfortunately he has failed to understand Kashmir.He doesn’t know Kashmiri people then.Many experts have been cautioning that kashmiri people are becoming fearless.Even the recent yashwant sinha led delegation said it that youth in valley have become fearless.So army chiefs statement will not make kashmiri people to fear and shun path of pelting stones.During a recent protest in Srinagar protesters were carrying placards which had “We are all Over Ground Workers” written on them.Clearly army chiefs warning doesn’t had any effect on protesting youth.
Rather warning people army chief should have cautioned political leadership that if you dont start a dialogue, kashmir will slip into another unrest.He should have cautioned them that this type of trend of people rushing towards encounter sites is dangerous and some type of solution should be on cards.But insted he decided to go tough on people in kashmir and it will make people more angrier towards indian state.Its for all be it army chief,people of this country or the media try to find out the reason that why are people marching towards encounter sites and trying to save militants.Instead of a blame game try to question the political leadership that what have you done so far in Kashmir what dialogue process have you started and lets make it clear development packages wont do anything for making Kashmir a peaceful place.Dont just blame stone pelters that why are they pelting stones on army try to question the government that why are these people pelting stones what have you done to have a dialogue with them, have you ever tried to do so.Moreover have you talked to the people of Kashmir and made efforts to solve their problems instead of warning them.Untill their is a dialogue with every stakeholder in Kashmir nothing is going to improve in Kashmir and sooner government starts a dialogue better it would for the people of Kashmir.