Can Kashmir become Egypt?

THERE IS NO POINT DRAWING PARALLELS BETWEEN EGYPT AND KASHMIR, UNDERLINES NAYEEMA AHMAD MAHJOOR

Are there any lessons to be learnt from the recent revolution in Egypt which was secured by peaceful means? This is the hot topic of debate among most Kashmiri Diaspora on Facebook, Twitter or other Internet social networking sites. The answer is yes in theory, but no in practice. Yes, because the movement achieved the first goal which it had set out to achieve and no, because the circumstances are altogether different in the Valley. However, many parallels are drawn and similarities are identified between the regions; both are infested with militancy, Islamic extremism, autocratic rule and a brutal way of crushing the genuine political movements.

If Egyptians were waiting for thirty years to achieve the objectives of democracy, fundamental rights and civil liberties which they have never had the opportunity during their lives to experience in their own country, they are yet to reach the final destination because it is yet unclear how far a military government backed by the United States, supported by Israel and mostly funded by Saudi petrol dollars is going to give such rights to people whose initial demand would be to secede connections with the aforesaid regimes. According to some analysts there is a long way ahead full of bumps and barricades.

It is partly true that US and Israel are not responsible for all the ills of the Egyptians but it is not untrue that Western governments had deliberately supported the despots, dictators and monarchs in the Middle East considered to be the most tribal, nomadic and wild and too immature to govern them. The region has more resources than sand dunes, more petrol than water and more sacred places than dwellings.  And, most important of all, it has a favourite nation of the West, Israel, on its border that has made itself an indispensable asset for super powers. Muslims getting the basic right of life or good governance is of no concern for the West; it is the existence of Israel and whether the movement spills beyond Egypt which is what the West does trouble itself with. Due to this fact the US government has hardly slept for the last three weeks and the political manoeuvring took time to get Egypt under its powerful army before ousting Husni Mubarak.

Kashmir, Chechnya and even Palestine are different in nature and circumstances. However, it is a matter of high concern for the US to resolve Palestine at this critical juncture because there is every reason to believe that the revolution is making its way to Jordan, Syria and might reach even inside the Saudi that would prove detrimental to Israel’s ability to hold onto the occupation it has achieved with the help of the West and the despotic old and ailing Muslim rulers of the Middle East. Chechnya is under the constant vigil of the brutal forces of Russia and the US has succeeded in taking Moscow on board so far as the counter ‘Islamic insurgency’ is concerned.  

Kashmir can hardly match the Palestine though both came on the map of the conflict at the same time. Apart from the border forces, Kashmir has become a cantonment for more than seven hundred thousand Indian security forces since the early nineties whose people consider them to be the worst forces of the world for their track record of human rights violations.  That is not the case in Egypt where the army belongs to people and has shown a great restraint in recent protests even if Mubarak wanted it to quell the unrest by using tanks. It has protected people even from the notorious police force.

Kashmir more or less lost its strategic position on the day Pakistan gave its corner to China. The divided northern areas between two countries had damaged the unique position of the Valley. Both countries have used it as a trump card when dealing with China or US. Aksai chin might be a barren snow capped tip of the mountain but it holds an important position for China that has got access to Pakistan militarily as well as economically. India as usual followed its arch enemy by allowing US forces to do a joint military exercise in the Ladakh region. It might be symbolic but it had a tough message for China too. The game does not stop here. If India has come close to the US by doing trade to nuclear deals, Pakistan has so much bargained on its sovereignty that it has not only provided access to US forces to flush out its own created Taliban militants but also handed over air bases for its operation in Afghanistan. So, both countries are competing to have the upper edge with the help of allies in the region for their own interests. 

Kashmir is their least concern. If India has tried hard to curb the Azadi sentiment, Pakistan has never supported the independence movement. If India has killed thousands of Kashmiri militants, Pakistan wrote their death warrant by providing guns in their hands.  Both countries seem to have vowed to settle their scores with the blood of Kashmir.  Never has Pakistan let Kashmir fight its own war or to feel comfortable with its peaceful movements. 

It is beyond anybody’s imagination that people protesting on the streets of Kashmir will not meet bullets by security forces. If people demanding bijli, pani or employment have been showered with live bullets by their own police, how can one expect that Kashmir will get inspiration from Egypt to succeed with a peaceful revolution? When eight year old boys are killed by soldiers or when hundreds of students are put behind the bars on the pretext of the Public Safety Act, how can one expect that the traumatic population of the Valley would storm the Lal Chowk like Tahrir Square. Kashmir has already witnessed hundreds of Tahrir Square demonstrations that have ended in massacres. In the early nineties huge public protests had left hundreds bleeding on the road when Indian forces gunned them to silence. Tahrir Square is not a battlefield for two of the world’s biggest armies for which the people of Kashmir had become a usual sport. 

Kashmir has done more than what the Egyptians did in two weeks and it has been going on there for the last six decades. The Egyptian army might be hand in glove with Israel or the US yet hats off to the army that did not shower the protesters with machine guns. 

Kashmir and Egypt have nothing in common.  Egypt has a border with Israel, it is the heart of the Middle East, it has strategic significance and a small tremor could result in an earthquake in the region. On the contrary, Kashmir has no resources, no petrol, no strategic importance and moreover, the West cannot afford to antagonise India that has become a strong economic power and trade partner at a time when most of the Western governments are living on bailout packages due to the economic crisis. 

It is useless to draw parallels with Egypt when Kashmir has been reduced to an emotional problem, as India says to the West, and an unfinished task of the partition by Pakistan, though it has become meaningless after the creation of Bangladesh. Not a single democracy in the world treats it as a human tragedy even if seven or eight year children are killed for demanding the basic right of life. So the champions of democracy and human values are all safeguarding their own interests and protecting their people whereas Muslim rulers from Husni Mubarak to Zardari to Crown Abdullah are providing them financial support, logistics and information at the expense of their masses.  

(Nayeema Ahmed Mehjoor is a London based Kashmiri journalist working with BBC Urdu service.  Feedback at nayeema7@gmail.com)