SOURCE : Tribune News Service
Apart from a few anxieties, Kashmir is immune to the US President Donald Trump’s visit to India beginning Monday. Its silence and self-acquired normalcy defines its response to the visit that has attracted wide attention in the rest of the country.
Kashmir has a horrific memory of 2000 when during the then US President Bill Clinton’s visit coincided with the massacre pf 36 Sikhs in Chittisinghpora in south Kashmir. The tragedy still haunts the Sikh community in the Valley. And, each time a US President visits the country, the community becomes apprehensive. This time, too, its leaders have voiced fears.
Militants had massacred Sikhs in a dusty village in south Kashmir on March 19, 2000, that had coincided with Bill Clinton’s visit to India, and that had shaken the community across the world.
Jagmohan Singh Raina, chairman of the All Parties Sikh Coordination Committee, said in a statement in Srinagar on Saturday, “The Sikhs are feeling insecure and they fear that something untoward might happen on the eve of the US President’s visit.
While there is no official word about any fears about the situation in the Valley, which has seen sustained anti-militancy operations, particularly after August 5, the first concerns and alarm was sounded by J&K BJP chief Ravinder Raina, who related the deferment of the polls to Trump’s visit and the possibility of something bad happening as what had unfolded in 2000 during Clinton’s visit.
Raina had attributed the postponement of the Panchayat polls in J&K on Tuesday to the fears of Pakistan and ISI-sponsored “terrorist violence in Kashmir” during the high-profile visit. However, state police chief Dilbag Singh had not listed any reason for the postponement of the polls. He, in fact, had hoped that the “Valley would stay peaceful”.
The BJP that had failed to get candidates for all seats of panches and sarpanches in Kashmir in 2018, when there was the original start of the panchayat polls, perhaps, was scared to embrace the same embarrassment this time. This could have led the party to conclude the reason for the postponement of polls in Trump’s visit and the fears of violence by Pakistan-sponsored terrorist network. The chronology of the plan of the visit and that of the schedule of the panchayat polls tells a different story altogether.
Kashmiris, who have wrapped themselves in unbreakable silence since August 5, 2019, when the erstwhile state of J&K was stripped off its special status and statehood – J&K is now a Union Territory – are not even speculating about the outcome of the visit .
“The US has already taken a stand on Kashmir that it was India’s internal affair, so we don’t expect Trump to say anything that would annoy his hosts despite his often articulated offer of mediation between India and Pakistan to address the Kashmir issue,” said a university professor requesting anonymity. The university has started functioning, that is enough indication of the behaviour of people, the professor said.
“More important for young people here (in the Valley) is the restoration of the Internet. That is more important to them than Trump’s visit,” the professor said. Kashmiris are disillusioned by the international community. This is the common refrain that when the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) refuses to call a session, no other world leader can speak for them.
They are also watching the “normalcy” legitimising itself in the opening of shops, working of offices and streets full of people going about their routine work. They are watching silently unlike the past when they would eagerly wait for the “K” word to be uttered by the visiting US leaders.
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