Get Well Soon Arundhati Roy

Dear Ms Arundhati Roy,

This is in reference to your open letter published in The Hindu (page 15) on 27 October 2010. You have opined that you did not mean harm to India but instead wanted justice for the people of Kashmir. I think you take the problems prevalent in Kashmir very simple to base your judgment and opinions on and feel free to air your views thinking that you have all the inputs required to base your judgment on. The comments of readers in the Hindu the same day your letter was published should give you some more inputs to think again in a balanced manner and I would like to add more inputs to help you.

The military in Kashmir is not there out of its own will. It’s there because the militants are trained in military warfare by Pakistani agencies. You have said that in Kashmir the perpetrators of rapes and murder are not brought to justice. Would you please tell me in which part of India there is 100% success rate in solving of such cases? Would you please tell me in which part of India 100% of the population is living a happy and prosperous life? These incidents are used by separatists to instill the feeling in the hearts of Kashmiris that military is the sole reason for all their problems. Some of the stupid personnel of armed forces too act in irresponsible manner to give credibility to the fraudulent and false claims of separatists and thus aid them indirectly in spreading hatred against India. This lack of faith is too dangerous and chief of armed forces must think deep to correct such stray incidents which are always sought after by the separatists. Once people loose faith in them, they shall be blamed for every criminal activity in the state. Then it shall be very difficult for them to prove themselves innocent, particularly because the judiciary too would have lost faith of the common man due to the propaganda of the separatists.

One friend of mine who lives in Kashmir to run his sweets shop told me once that the stone palters get the supply of stones in trucks. These stone pelting incidents are not spontaneous but are doctored and staged by conspirators who misguide the local youth. The soldier who has gone there leaving the comforts of his home to do his duty too wants to live in peace and feels helpless by not being able to do anything while being stoned. Some of these soldiers while being silent in the day take the revenge when no body sees them. These soldiers too are human being and are definitely not Gandhians.

Do you assume that the Pak Occupied Kashmir is a heaven without any problems? If it seems so, it’s only because the problems there have not been compounded by terrorists from a foreign nation. Why don’t you go to Pak Occupied Kashmir and talk about justice for the victims of rapes and other crimes there? Why didn’t you go to the house of the brave girl who killed a terrorist recently? Have you enquired the Indian Government about what is it doing for her family’s security? Why didn’t you go to the families whose members have been killed by terrorists because they informed Armed Forces about some terrorists? Did you ask for justice to their families from Indian Government? I know why, because you are surrounded by the separatists who would not like you to see above their shoulders.

If Kashmir was never an intergral part of India, which of the Indian states were? Even what do you mean by India when you talk of India prior to Independence? I think you mean the India as is explained in Pakistani textbooks. Kashmir could not merge well with India because of the special status given to it. Had it been like every other state, it would have embraced India as its country long ago like other states did. People from other states would have gone there and people from Kashmir would have spread to other parts of India for business, employment etc and would have come out of the pre Independence regional mindset which thought of the province as the nation.

Problems are everywhere and I feel Kashmir enjoys a privileged status in India as far as attention of Government is concerned. Funds that should have been given to some of the underdeveloped states are diverted to Kashmir so that separatists do not get one more reason to spread hatred against India. Even then if it seems to be teeming with problems its because of the following reasons.

1) Unemployment and poverty of Pakistani citizen who find it better to die for a ‘cause’ with their family members and themselves feeding on dry fruits than due to hunger.

2) Imbalanced and myopic foreign policy of USA who sees the father of terrorists called Pakistan as its ally in fight against terrorism and indirectly funds ISI, the mother of terrorists.

3) Propaganda by separatists who are at present highly paid employees of the Pakistan Government and who see their future as some minister in so called aazaad Kashmir.

4) Stupid and तुनकमिज़ाज soldiers who do are not able to set aside their ego, frustration and anger for the larger cause of national integration.

5) Central as well as state politicians who are busier in increasing their personal bank balance than faith of the public in the system.

6) People who have their relatives in POK and think those two parts of Kashmir and their separated families can only be united once India withdraws from the state. Indian stance to maintain status quo on LOC makes them feel even more so.

7) People like you who enjoy a coveted fan following and who think that they can suggest solutions to the problems with just a few inputs without realizing that they are not normal human beings and their utterances shall be termed as gospel truth by the larger number of their blind followers.

What according to me is the solution to the Kashmir’s problem (I do not like to call ‘Kashmir problem’, It may have a problem like other states have but it’s not a problem in itself)?

Madam, I would not commit the same mistake that you did. I just would like to leave the judgment part to the Government and the researchers with a request for a balanced approach and would like to request you to help them rather than complicating their already mammoth task by speaking ‘your mind’ without much input and without realizing the sensitivity of the issue.

Anyway, I too do not support sedition charges against you but I expect Government to question you for such careless remarks despite being a celebrity and assist you in forming a balanced viewpoint by giving you inputs along with proofs (I understand Government is too busy hiding money from scams and scandals and diverting attention of general public from them). Till the time you will have to depend on self styled preachers like us J

Get well soon.

God bless India!

MARCH