Friday, March 29, 2024
 
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Floods - May you wash away the prejudices !




B L Saraf


The humongous floods have inundated the state of Jammu & Kashmir in general and the Valley in particular ; bringing heaps of misery , of varied kinds, to the helpless residents .The destruction caused by the floods in Kashmir is a tragedy of a great magnitude . The devastation brought about is unbelievable and , in most cases , immeasurable . Hundreds of precious lives have perished in the furry - a loss which can never be recompensed.




It is a human problem . The state government is missing from the scene . The Indian Army has made a commendable effort in saving precious lives and providing much needed succour to the needy . Soldiers are working day and night. Situation is , indeed , disastrous . But, as said , every disaster throws up an opportunity . The job done by the armed forces has created an ideal situation to bridge the psychological and emotional divide between the people of state and the rest of the country . Besides , it may allow Army regain the confidence of Kashmiris which , till 1990 , it enjoyed a great deal , by helping them sail through the trying times , as and when situation demanded . Be it the fury of fire which engulfed the towns of Anantnag in early 1960’s and Shopian in late 1970’s , it was the same Army which came to the rescue of the sufferers , thereby earning a gratitude of the residents .It is the same Army which was looked up to for the help when ‘‘ goons “ of the ruling party ,in early 1960, were on prowl to devour young Kashmiri girls . Illustrations galore . Space , however , does not permit elaboration .





Everything , after all , cannot be left to the Army .It is the moral duty of us all to rescue the people facing gravest situation . Some positives have also been thrown up which if properly en cashed would go a long way to foster inter – regional and inter – community relations . The Herculean tasks undertaken by the Army will surely yield gains which must be consolidated by supplementing the effort . This will create understanding and a rapport between the two regions and the communities , ,restore mutual trust , hopefully , remove sense of aloofness and alienation among the Kashmiri masses . There is a silver lining to this dark period . Floods have evoked a Indo-Pak determination to help each other in the unprecedented crisis . Indo- Pak talks seem to be underway . PM Modi’s offer of help and assistance to PM Sharif , to mitigate sufferings of POK people caused by the floods – has been duly acknowledged and reciprocated by the latter . In Kashmir , one prays floods will change the discourse from “ alienation “ “ self rule “ “ abrogation of AFSPA “ “ Human rights violations” etc to the real issues ; issues of good governance and accountability . Over emphasis on these divisive issues has rendered government dysfunctional and hostage to the corrupt forces both within the system and outside



Social media is playing a role . It is heartening to note that general refrain of the comments posted is for reaching out to each other in this moment of trial . The unfortunate events of last two and half decades did not allow us share moments of joy . Let us now , at least , share each other’s grief . We pray that the floods will wash away our sorrows and entrenched prejudices . However , the Kashmir politics – both mainstream and the out of stream – is inherently fickle and changeable . Therefore` it is next to impossible to predict what shape the events will take after waters recede. Though , in the start of stone pelting exercise , at some places , we get the inkling of it .But then we live on hope . And hope opens up avenues of reconciliation and harmony .





(The author is form er Principal District & Sessions Judge)



(Opinions expressed in write-ups/articles/Letters are the sole responsibility of the authors and they may not represent the scoopnews.in)


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