Kashmir: An Open Letter To Prashant Bhushan: (English); Deepak Budki

Kashmir: An Open Letter To Prashant Bhushan:

 (English); Deepak Budki

Dear Shri Bhushan,

At the very outset let me introduce myself. I am neither a rightist nor a leftist, nor even a centrist. I am just one out of one hundred and twenty crores of Indians, and I belong to Kashmir. I am the original inhabitant of Kashmir with history dating back to five thousand years which is older than Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Over a period of last seven centuries I have been reduced to a minuscule minority of not more than five lakh souls due to repeated invasions, proselytizing and persecution. However, I rejoiced the day my country was declared independent in 1947 though I remained in a state of fix because my brothers and sisters in Baramulla were facing genocide and rapine till such time Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir finally decided to accede to India. From that day onwards I preferred to exist without complaint in a state of continuous deprivation and denial.The only solace for me was that I lived in my own homeland and country.

But your recent statement pained me immensely. I had heard similar things earlier from a few more self styled activists like Arundathi Roy who has taken upon herself the burden of the nation just because she has written a book in English which has won her acclaim.Had she written the same in any other language she would not be known even beyond her street for you know the fate of other writers in India. Incidentally I have written seven books in Urdu till date. Your statement came as a bolt from the blue because I had pinned many a hope upon the Anna team since I regard Anna as the saviour of the  country in modern times.

May I again emphasise that I am the original inhabitant of Kashmir which has a hindu tradition of five thousand years. Not only that, Jammu and Kashmir is not inhabited by only Kashmiri Muslims but by Dogras, Sikhs, Budhists and Christians as well. Even among Kashmiri Muslims there are differnt sects and schisms such as sunnis and shias, gujjars, Kargil and Ladakh muslims who do not see eye to eye with each other. When you talk of Plebiscite as the ultimate resolution of Kashmir problem you seem to ignore these facts.The Plebiscite carries certain obligations on the part of all the parties involved viz India, Pakistan and the State of Jammu and Kashmir. You may be aware of Pakistan having annexed parts of erstwhile J&K State like Gilgit, Skardu, Hunza, Nagar and Baltistan with mainland Pakistan and having ceded a part of the state to China for strategic purposes to encircle India. Whatever was left was assigned the nomenclature of Azad Kashmir by Pakistan which ironically never enjoyed freedom and democracy in the past six decades as opposed to the Jammu and Kashmir State, a part of India, where liberty, equality and freedom of worship is enjoyed by all the citizens. The original idea of plebiscite was that it was required to be undertaken on return of normalcy in in whole of J&K state without any attempt of ethnic cleansing in any part. Is this practicable now when whole of Pakistan occupied Kashmir has been homogenised  by the Pakistan government and no hindu, sikh or budhist can be seen in the entire Pakistan occupied Kashmir so much so they carried out this ethnic cleansing in Kashmir valley across the LOC by sponsoring terrorism in the valley.

I would perhaps still agree with you if I could understand the basis of such an opinion. Kashmiri separatist leaders have been asserting all through that they are muslims and would like to be part of a Muslim State called Pakistan or form a separate state with Islam as the state religion. That would mean that we accept the two nation theory once again in the same manner as we accepted in 1947 by default though our leaders have been continuously denying the same notwithstanding the creation of Islamic state of Pakistan. In the event we accept this secession of part of our country what prevents other inimical forces to gain strength and seek independence for states like Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Nagaland, Assam, Mizoram, Manipur, Arunachal and Sikkim.Would this situation be acceptable to you to witness this country get fragmented into small innumerable states just because we could not administer them properly and that people like you and Roy lived in posh glass houses with security given at our nation's expense.

May I further ask you whether Pakistan would also hold such a plebiscite in Sindh, Bulochistan and NWFP? I have not noticed you or Arundhati Roy taking any steps or doing anything substantial to coerce China to hold plebiscite in Tibet or grant independence to them. What action did you take when Sri Lankan Tamils were massacred and butchered by the Sri Lankan Army  recently? You and Arundhati Roy could at least have gone to Colombo, courted arrest and gone on indefinite fast to stop the army of Sri Lanka to conduct such a heinous massacre. But you would not do that because no body would care for you. More so they would have annhilated you in no time. Here in India you can get recognition and big name by speaking such things and posing as pseudo human rights activists and our mass media would give you maximum coverage because they increase their market share by such methods.

I understand your love for human rights and sympathise with you. May I know how many Kashmiri Pandit refugee camps did you visit after their exodus in 1990. How much financial help did you render to them from your personal wealth. How many Kashmiri Pandit refugees did you lodge in your house till they could find some accommodation on their own? If you have not done any of these it does not behove you to talk of human rights and human suffering.

Needless to remind you that USA and European nations, after realising what wrong they had done to the Jews in the past, atoned for it and re-established them in Israel by creating a separate home land for them notwithstanding the opposition from the middle east countries and the whole Islamic bloc. On the contrary, you are keen that Kashmir should secede from India and the Kashmiri Pandits should be deprived of their home land and not allowed to return as also perish in due course of time. I only wish good sense prevails upon you and people like you because parasites grow only at the expense of other's.

With regards,
Yours sincerely, 
Deepak Budki.