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politics

of rupees. Though initially the order politics. It has preferred to stay in the leaders with an ostensible aim to get a
was read as the ban on Jamaat schools background. And from the late-nine- grip on the runaway situation in Valley.
and mosques, later the government ties onwards, it has dissociated from For Kashmir observers, the arrests
clarified they had been kept outside the the militancy, although it stands by its also mean that the centre has given up
scope of seizure and sealing. separatist ideology. on the engagement with the dissident
“Action is being taken against offices, However, Jamaat, through its po- groups in the state and has resolved
assets, properties and other equipment litico-religious activities, its dedicated to exclusively use force to sort out the
of the banned organisation,” J&K gov- cadre of sympathizers, affiliates and issues in the state. But as the current
ernment spokesman Rahul Kansal said members and of course the vast net- situation in Valley reveals, this policy
in a statement. He added that the ban work of schools has made itself an has changed nothing on the ground.
was for five years. organic part of the Kashmir society. “This policy has been in force over
This has created a sense of fear in the Contrary to madrassas which sprang the term of the central government
Valley. “After the patent failure of the up in hundreds across Valley through under the BJP. But far from making
BJP’s muscular policy on Kashmir, one the nineties, Jamaat schools have con- a redeeming difference, it has only
expected that the government would tinue to be forward-looking in matters worsened the situation in Kashmir,”
relook its Kashmir policy and choose of education. While religious instruc- says Naseer Ahmad, author of Kashmir
a policy of a political engagement with tion in these schools is a must, it is not Pending. “By arresting Hurriyat lead-
the state,” says the political commenta- the paramount and exclusive focus ers on trumped up charges, centre has
tor Gowhar Geelani. “But it is only dou- of education like the madrassas. Long also killed the option of an outreach to
bling down on the policy and expecting before madrassas started turning out a separatist political organization. Force
a different result. But this is only going youth with knowledge restricted to was and remains the preferred tool of
to deepen the alienation in the state”. religion, Jamaat produced doctors and this government to deal with Kashmir”.
The crackdown against Jamaat has engineers, scientists and academicians, Adding to the deepening political
created a widespread unease. Jamaat even administrators. vacuum in Kashmir is that the Election
is a cadre based politico-religious par- So, the action against Jamaat will be Commission of India has decided not to
ty but over the past thirty years it has deeply felt by the society. “Besides, it hold Assembly polls in J&K simultane-
largely restricted itself to the propaga- has also foreclosed chances of the cen- ously with the Lok Sabha polls. This has
tion of religion and stayed away from tre’s engagement with the separatist only extended the ongoing central rule
groups,” says Geelani. in the state and which is widely seen to
“If tomorrow, the cen- be implementing the BJP’s ideological
tre chooses to hold agenda in the state. The National Con-
dialogue with dissent- ference and the PDP have criticised
ing Kashmiri groups, it the centre for delaying Assembly polls.
will hardly find any in- The NC leader and the former J&K Chief
terlocutors in the state. Minister Omar Abdullah has termed
More so, when New the postponement of Assembly polls
Delhi has already jailed as “Modi’s surrender to Pakistan”. And
many senior Hurriyat the local media has also opposed the
leaders”. decision.
The jailed Hurriyat “Apparently there seems no rea-
leaders include Shabir son or rationale for the EC to defer the
Shah, Altaf Ahmad Assembly polls. If the deteriorating
Shah Funtoosh Geelani security situation was the reason, the
(son-in-law of Syed elections have been held in the state in
Ali Geelani), Ayaz Ak- even worse conditions,” read an edito-
bar, Raja Merajuddin rial in a local daily. “If the state govern-
Kalwal, Peer Saifullah, ment could hold as grassroots-centric
Aftab Hilali Shah alias an exercise as Panchayat and urban
Shahid-ul-Islam, Nay- local bodies polls without any surge in
eem Khan and Farooq violence and that too in as troubled an
Ahmad Dar alias Bitta area as South Kashmir, there was no
Karate. The message reason why Assembly elections could
is clear: Government not have been held”.
wants to go the whole
hog against separatist letters@tehelka.com

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