JK PANORAMA

Is the gun our friend or foe?
ike a good physician, a political
leader keeps a constant watch
Lover his people. He makes
prescriptions according to the changing mood
of the people as does the physician prescribe
according to Health State of his patient. When a
nation begins its struggle for realization of its
rights, the leadership takes full care that the
people are made to make as little sacrifice as is
possible. If the objectives are not realized
through civil disobedience, then the
prescription for political struggle can be
changed. In 1918, Gandhiji had launched the
struggle against the colonial power. A crowd in
Calcutta got enraged and set a police station on
fire in which a few Englishmen and some local
police personnel were killed. Gandhiji
immediately stopped his movement saying that
he would not place the foundation of his
freedom movement on the blood of innocent
people. He knew that a violent movement
would consume the lives of millions of people.
Unfortunately, pseudo-leadership leads the
people in Kashmir. It is neither able to diagnose
the disease nor prescribe a proper remedy. Their
prescription at the moment is violence and the
use of gun, which serves the interests of many
actors on the scene. They do not mind if the
patient dies by inches just for the improper
treatment meted out to him. In a struggle of
violence when weapons are used, one with
larger resources, weaponry, manpower and
better technology has the upper hand. However,
in some cases, the world opinion did help the
weaker struggling nations to achieve their goal
as in Vietnam and in Afghanistan. The truth is
that at both the places, the real fighting was
between two super powers of the day, the USA
HASHIM QURESHI
and the erstwhile Soviet Union.
The gun has brought an end to the
culture of coexistence in Kashmir society. It has
exacerbated extremism and sown the seeds of
communalism secular polity has been devoured
by the monster of communalism. The gun has
consumed the generation of Kashmiri youth in
streets and market places, in mountains and
gorges, in streams and over glaciers. Thousands
of young women have been widowed and
thousands of children have been rendered
orphans. The gun has actually strengthened the
criminal elements in society. Family feuds and
personal vendetta are being settled through the
use of gun. On the basis of gun, properties have
been acquired forcibly and declared the act as
legal and permissible. The weapon is being
used for petty purposes and interests to the
extent that under the fear of gun, matrimonial
relations have been imposed upon unwilling
partners. The gun has destroyed all such
institutions as are essential infrastructure for the
social and cultural development of a society
like the schools, colleges, hospitals, bridges and
other structures. The gun has closed the path to
reason and found a short cut to the resolution of
political differences by liquidating the political
opponents. This difference of opinion has
consumed many a distinguished scholar,
intellectual, physician, and many others whom
the society finds after centuries of waiting and
expectation. What a tragedy that this enormous
national treasure has been reduced to dust by the
gun. Take whatever dimension of Kashmir
politics during the last one decade, you will find
that violence and gun culture have spread
nothing but wholesale destruction of Kashmir
and the new generation of Kashmir's. Indian
13 July 2017 Panorama