Putting Showkat Gani rant in perspective

Recent controversy triggered by undesired remarks of a lawmaker identifying a militant as martyr has brought to fore curious case of lack of elite power project sought to be achieved by misleading the society. Opposition National Conference sponsored member of the Upper House Showkat Ganai recently said at the Floor of the House that Hizbul Mujahideen’s slain militant Burhan Wani is a ‘martyr’. After his killing on July last year Wani doesn’t count in the list of ordinary militants, let’s frankly admit. What is important to remember in this discussion is that Wani’s killing stirred sentiments in the Valley to such a level that at least 76 persons died in confrontation with the security forces who tried to quell the protests over next five months. This is a harsh truth. Now we have to understand in right earnest that who was Wani and what did he represent. Though no involved in any killing or other incidents of terrorism, but Wani was clearly a listed militant and he represented a sentiment which seeks to break away from India. The lawmakers who take oath under the constitution of Jammu and Kashmir and constitution of India are expected to have clarity of heart and mind whether they belong to the sentiment Wani represented or do they believe in integrity and sovereignty of the country. Showkat Gani has offered a remarkable justification on why he called Burhan Wani a ‘martyr’. To summarise what he said ‘wrong policies of Indian State in Kashmir produced phenomenon like Wani’. Agreed, there have been a plethora of wrongs in Kashmir. But to understand this in more holistic manner, Wani and his ilk have to go back within his party to find out whether there have been all unilateral wrongs committed by New Delhi or Kashmir’s political structures are also responsible for that. Since the eruption of militancy in late 1980s and across the decade 1990s the political parties, mainly the National Conference, have taken a clear stand on militants putting them in the context of us versus them. However, after the arrival of Peoples Democratic Party in 1999, there has been a competitive soft separatism between it and the National Conference. When PDP’s founder Mufti Mohammad Sayeed campaigned for dialogue, the then Chief Minister and NC leader Farooq Abdullah would recommend jailing the separatists for whole lifetime and bombing Pakistan. It had been a long story of role reversals but let’s get straight into last year’s development. The PDP minces no words in calling Burhan a terrorist and his supporters a misguided, unruly mob, the NC members look at them as martyrs. It looks more like a case of power struggle within the Kashmiri elite which is ruthlessly walking over the genuine causes and issues to reach the offices of profits. Isn’t it?