Idiot Philosophies

Administrative incompetence in India manifests andarticulates itself in some of the most imaginative guises, and the meltdown inJammu & Kashmir (J&K) over the past weeks, unsurprisingly, produced somedisingenuous formulations. The most creative among these was a theory of‘decompression’ enunciated by a senior state police officer, which assertedthat the best way to deal with the rising tensions in both the valley and inJammu was simply to withdraw forces and allow often-violent demonstrators freerun of the state’s capital cities (Srinagar is the summer, and Jammu thewinter capital of J&K). It was this ‘idiot philosophy’ of administrationthat resulted in sectarian and separatist mobs simply and repeatedly taking overboth towns, even as the security forces (SFs) withdrew under specific orders notto confront or obstruct the crowds. As a result, separatist mobilisationproduced two ‘mass rallies’ on August 18 and 22, 2008, in Srinagar,gathering crowds estimated at about 125,000 and 250,000, respectively. Thismobilisation was mirrored by communal mobilisation over the Amarnath landallocation controversy by Hindu right wing organisations in Jammu.

Another ‘stream of thought’ -- enunciated in two diametrically oppositeperspectives -- also found sympathetic audiences at the highest echelons ofpower, both in the state and at the centre. In one formulation, the breakdown inJammu was a ‘mere law and order problem’, while events in the valleyreflected a ‘political problem’. Jammu was, consequently, to be‘tackled’ through stern police action, while a ‘military’ or‘police’ response in Kashmir would be entirely counter-productive, and thestate’s agencies could profit most through conciliation of and negotiationwith separatists in the valley. Conversely, in the opinion of other residentsages, the ‘street rage’ in Jammu was rooted in a long history of injury andneglect, and needed to be ‘handled sensitively’, but the separatist excessesin the valley deserved no leniency, and were to be abruptly suppressed throughthe use of all means necessary. While both theses were advanced by officials ofimpeccable ‘secular’ credentials, there are no prizes for guessing thereligious identity of the respective backers of each proposal. 

It is significant that no coherent advocacy of the rule of law, the necessityof imposing the writ of the state, or of protecting the lives, properties andfreedom of movement of the common people, found any meaningful space in thefrenetic policy discourse over weeks of crisis. 

What is astonishing is that such gratuitous nonsense was not only given ahearing, it produced abject state paralysis in both Srinagar and Jammu, as wellas at the centre, despite grave anxieties expressed by intelligence agencies andcentral security forces. It is significant that these ideas found currencywithin the context of a collapse of confidence that had followed the August 11secessionist march to the Line of Control (LoC) in which severely inadequateforce deployment had resulted in "murderous street clashes between Policeand protestors" which claimed some 20 lives.

In any event, the government, both at the centre and in the state, celebratedthe fact that the demonstrations by separatist elements at Srinagar on August 18and 22, as also the total bandh (shutdown) they imposed in the intervening days,"passed off peacefully". It was, of course, of trivial importance thatseparatist mobs had taken over the heart of Srinagar town for days at end; theirleaders had delivered incendiary speeches; and slogans of ‘Pakistan Zindabad’(Long Live Pakistan) and ‘Bharat teri maut aayi, Lashkar aayi, Lashkar aayi’(India, your death has come, the Lashkar has come, the Lashkar has come), amongothers, were raised. 

On the same days, Jammu town was handed over to another rabble demandingrestoration of the allocation of land to the Amarnath Shrine Board, which tookto the streets and engaged in several acts of vandalism. Once again, the policeand security forces had been ordered out of the affected areas in order to‘avoid confrontation’. 

But if peace is to be secured by simply withdrawing the state’s securitypresence from all areas of possible confrontation and conflict, then it will notbe long before the Indian state vacates its entire jurisdiction and lapses intothe territorial extent of what was evocatively described in the terminal stagesof the Mughal era: Sultanat-e-Shah Alam/ Az Dilli ta Palam [The Empire ofShah Alam (extends) from Delhi to Palam].

In the turbulent days of protests preceding the August 18 ‘mass rally’,security officers who had done their duty had been summarily transferred out,humiliated, and, in at least one case, denied rightful and hard-earnedIndependence Day honours. Areas of the old town in Srinagar, which had beenhotbeds of terrorism in the 1990s, and had been recovered at great sacrifice bythe security forces, had once again been abandoned, without contest, to theextremists. Worse, demonstrators dispersing from the mass rallies pelted stoneson Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel in the old city, forcing thetroopers -- under strict orders not to fire at the crowds -- to withdraw, andthen proceeded to smash their bunkers. One report spoke of, "groups ofphenomenally emboldened secessionists dismantling hundreds of CRPF bunkers inthe capital city." In all, state authority visibly crumbled across both thevalley and Jammu, even as evidence of direct Pakistani interference in thecurrent troubles mounted, and repeated violations of the ceasefire along the LoCwere registered.

At the time of writing, however, the stateadministration -- on apparent instructions from a hitherto palsied centre -- isbeginning to display some incipient evidence of a spine. The separatists, led bythe Tehreek-e-Hurriyat’s Syed Ali Shah Geelani and the All Party HurriyatConference’s (APHC) Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, had announced another three-day bandhafter the August 22 ‘mass rally’, to be followed by another mass rally, atLal Chowk, on August 25. In the night of August 23, however, a curfew wasannounced, and orders were passed out to the SFs to arrest second-rungsecessionist leaders (the principal mobilisers), and to block off the movementof protestors from rural Kashmir into Srinagar. Geelani and Farooq were alsoarrested on the morning of the 25th, hours before the announced 'mass rally'.Initial reports suggest that the Lal Chowk area has been effectively‘sealed’, and the possibility of a significant gathering remains remote,though a handful of minor incidents had been reported from different locationsin the valley at the time of writing. 

At the same time, action has also been initiated against communal leadersresponsible for violence in Jammu, and several prominent agitationists have beenarrested under the Public Safety Act. 

Negotiations with saner elements on both sides have, moreover, reportedlyproduced the outlines of a settlement of the Amarnath Shrine Board dispute, witha draft agreement providing for a restoration of the disputed land to the Board,explicitly for temporary use during the period of the annual yatra (pilgrimage),and with provisions for the reconstitution of the Board with members drawn fromboth Hindu and Muslim state subjects. 

The agitation in the valley, however, has left the Amarnath land controversyfar behind. While utterly cynical falsification of the issue had helped sparkthe initial demonstrations in Kashmir, it is now the case that these have nowtaken a momentum and direction entirely unrelated to the apparent proximateprovocation, and have dovetailed perfectly into the wider objectives of massseparatist mobilisation -- objectives that have been vigorously, thoughunsuccessfully, pursued over the past two years by Pakistan-backed overgroundorganisations in the state. 

Administrative decisions over the past weeks have resulted in tremendousdemoralisation among SFs in J&K, and a loss of confidence in the state’spolice and administrative leadership. They have also resulted in the destructionof specific capacities -- large numbers of bunkers and police posts -- and of SFdominance in traditionally ‘difficult’ areas, all of which will require atremendous effort of restoration. More significantly, the days of anarchy havedemonstrated extraordinary vulnerabilities of the Indian state and have not only"phenomenally emboldened" the secessionists, but brought about anabrupt -- albeit tenuous -- unity of purpose across historically fractiousformations. 

The belated state response will, of course, result in some semblance ofimmediate order, but the subversive impulse that has found new momentum inKashmir will not easily disappear, and separatist elements will continue withintensifying efforts to capitalise on the developments of the past weeks throughnew alignments and new initiatives. Any sign of infirmity in the Indian statewill even further encourage such developments, and while excess of force willhave its own adverse consequences, any hesitation in the use of judicious forcewill be calamitous. 

The state in India has, for far too long, privileged violent dissent at theexpense of the constitutional and democratic constituencies. This, precisely,has not only infinitely widened the separatist spaces in J&K, it has alsomade moderate and secular politics nigh impossible, forcing ideologicallynationalist and secular political formations to adopt increasingly radicalplatforms, merely in order to be heard, or to secure a meaningful presence intheir interface with government and with the people. The environment ofexceptionalism and impunity that has long strengthened subversion, extremism andterrorism in J&K must be brought to an end, and democratic politics berestored to its primacy in the state. To this end, any argument advocatingdelays in the holding of state assembly elections must be brusquely rejected.India has held elections in circumstances infinitely worse than what currentlyprevails in J&K. The state must rebuild confidence in its instrumentalitiesand restore an elected government to power in the state at the earliest.

Ajai Sahni is Editor, SAIR; Executive Director, Institute for ConflictManagement. Courtesy, the South Asia Intelligence Review of the SouthAsia Terrorism Portal