Only 2% from J&K prefer Pakistan ?

Only 2% from J&K prefer Pakistan ?


By DR. JITENDRA SINGH

A widely reported survey published last week reveals that only 2 percent of the people of Jammu and Kashmir want to be a part of Pakistan. But, the real question is: what do the rest of the 98 percent want ? The survey report only partly addresses this question even though one of the conclusions drawn by it is that ‘‘58 percent of Kashmiris are willing to accept the LoC as a permanent soft border’’.
Is it easy to infer that the 98 percent of people who do not want to go with Pakistan are necessarily in favour of staying with India ? Do they or a significant percentage of them want independence or ‘‘Azaadi’’? If so, is such an ‘‘Azaadi’’ possible to sustain without logistic support including financial and defence support from India ? About the 58 percent reportedly favouring to accept LoC as a permanent soft border, it is again not clear whether they are ready to be governed by the sovereign republic of India ?
In other words, the final conclusions of the survey continue to remain as ambiguous as the final opinions of the Kashmir based activists. For example, if you confront a Kashmir-centric protagonist or a Kashmir-centric intellectual with a straight question ‘‘what precisely is the solution to socalled Kashmir imbroglio ?’’ the answer is never going to be straight. Often, you are likely to hear either lofty philosophical platitudes like, for instance, ‘‘the genuine aspirations of the people of Kashmir ought to be addressed ’’ or you are likely to be suggested scholarly but vague formulae like, for instance, ‘‘independence short of Azaadi’’, ‘‘Azaadi short of Defence affairs’’, ‘‘Bhutan model etc., Even the socalled mainstream but Kashmir-centric political parties put forward self-righteous solutions like ‘‘autonomy’’ or ‘‘self-rule’’ which hold the prospect of their own continuance in power.
From time to time there has been evidence to believe that there is hardly any difference between Kashmir's separatist politician and Kashmir's non-separatist politician. They are two sides of the same coin and exchange roles depending on the expediency of situation or sometimes depending on who is in power and who is out of power. The most striking commonality among all of them is a relentless endeavour to simultaneously blackmail both New Delhi as well as Islamabad while at the same time consciously nursing their respective populist agenda. None of them is honest to the state of a common Kashmiri and all of them know very well in their heart of hearts that nothing is going to change with relation to Jammu and Kashmir atleast in foreseeable future and therefore they can continue playing their games to hoodwink India and Pakistan on the one hand and a common Kashmiri on the other hand.
Meanwhile, the common man in Kashmir continues to be taken for a ride and his misery continues to be compounded by addition of further confusion to it. At the end of the day, the common man is so puzzled that he is unable to offer a clear solution to the socalled Kashmir problem if at all there exists a Kashmir problem while his self-proclaimed saviours consume him by inches only to invite Umapathy's poetic refrain ‘‘Aaj Deewar Kha Gayi Saaya....Aaj Maine Yeh Vaakya Dekha !’’