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New Delhi, November 23 (IANS) A few days ago, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had commented that an impression is being created across the country that all Kashmiris are somehow responsible for what happened in Delhi.
He even said that “driving a vehicle with Jammu and Kashmir registration number seems like a crime”. His words were not merely an expression of pain. They appeared to be a deliberate attempt to highlight the divide on which mainstream Kashmiri politicians have long depended for relevance.
While Omar Abdullah spoke cautiously, People’s Democratic Party chief and former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti went several steps ahead. He accused the central government of creating a “poisonous atmosphere”, which, according to him, contributed to the blast near the Red Fort.
Addressing a public meeting in Srinagar, he claimed that the Centre’s actions have pushed Kashmiri youth onto a “dangerous path”.
Mufti’s comments were candid: “These people say everything is fine in Kashmir,” he said, “but the problems of Kashmir were expressed in front of the Red Fort in Delhi.”
Such statements by leaders leading the state may seem shocking to those unfamiliar with the political culture of the valley. But the truth is that these comments are neither isolated nor sudden. For decades, a section of Kashmir’s political leadership has thrived on duality – one message for Delhi, another for the Valley. This double talk sometimes turns into openly provocative rhetoric, sometimes bordering on anti-nationalism. And therein lies the deep tragedy of Kashmir: the leaders who have shaped the region’s destiny have rarely tried to bridge the divide; Instead, he has often reinforced them.
It is an inconvenient but undeniable fact that the old psychological divide – “us and them”, or the belief that India begins only beyond the Banihal tunnel – continues in the Valley.
The abrogation of Article 370 in 2019 did not erase that mentality. This could not happen because political, religious and social influencers in Kashmir never tried to eliminate such divisive thinking. If anything, they have kept it alive in various forms and voices depending on political exigency.
This pattern has been going on since the founding years of independent India. When Sheikh Abdullah negotiated Kashmir’s relationship with India in 1947, he secured significant autonomy, a deal that shaped the politics of the valley for generations.
The partnership he forged with fellow Kashmiri and India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru sowed the seeds of separatist politics. This gave rise to a political structure that promoted a sense of difference rather than integration.
Over time, this autonomy evolved into a story of secession, eventually becoming fertile ground for separatist politics. What began as political autonomy gradually turned into a story of disunity, a story that many leaders nurtured and exploited in the subsequent decades.
By the early 1970s, that narrative was no longer mere political posturing. In 1971, an Indian Airlines Fokker F27 aircraft named ‘Ganga’ was hijacked by Kashmiri separatists Hashim Qureshi and Ashraf Qureshi and taken to Lahore, where the aircraft was eventually burnt.
The kidnappers were members of the National Liberation Front, the group that later evolved into the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF). It was a harbinger of the violence that would spread across the valley years later, and an event that signaled the direction Kashmir politics was headed.
But a turning point came in the late 1980s. What started as political isolation turned into full-scale terrorism supported and armed by Pakistan. However, separatism in Kashmir has rarely been about the dream of an independent motherland. Its ideological core lies in religious extremism – the campaign to create an Islamic Kashmir and fulfill Pakistan’s “unfinished agenda of partition”.
Since 1989, terrorism in the Valley has pursued two clear objectives: to forcibly expel Hindus and confiscate their properties, and to establish an Islamic system.
Sadly, both goals have almost been achieved. The ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Pandits is one of the darkest chapters of modern Indian history. Even after the removal of Article 370, there has been little change in the demographic reality of the valley; Some displaced families have returned.
Over the years, the valley has seen infrastructural development, renewed tourism and improved security. But the Pahalgam attack of April 22 once again exposed the problem simmering beneath the surface.
The shocking thing is that many of the people involved were local boys. Now, the same youth who once operated within the confines of the Valley are stepping into the plains of India and trying to create anarchy there too.
The involvement of the local boys shows how deeply fundamentalism simmers beneath the surface. The shock deepened when one of the criminals, Dr Umar Muhammad, released a chilling video before he blew himself up near the Red Fort. Here was a young doctor – educated, affluent, secure – justifying suicide bombing as a religious virtue. He was not a product of poverty or want. Yet he succumbed to fundamentalism – a clear indication of how deeply extremist narratives have penetrated the social fabric of the Valley. He was the product of ideological preaching.
And this raises an important question: Why have political and religious leaders, who have been vocal in their criticism of the Centre, done nothing to counter the radical and extremist narrative spreading among Kashmiri youth? Instead of challenging these ideas, many leaders increase feelings of isolation and grievance. Instead of improving mindsets, they reinforce divisions for political convenience.
Kashmir is in crisis and the blame lies entirely on its political, religious and social leadership. For decades, they have failed to break the psychological barrier of the Banihal Tunnel.
Instead of bridging the divide, they have nurtured it – sometimes for relevance, sometimes for vote bank, and sometimes simply for political gain. They fostered division when healing was needed, exploited fear when clarity was needed, and promoted grievances when accountability was needed.
The problem Kashmir is facing today is not just a security issue. It is the cumulative result of years of deception, duplicity and failed leadership, whether political or religious.
(Deepika Bhan can be contacted at Deepika.b@ians.in)
–IANS
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