A Day in Our Lives
Yesterday Srinagar saw 5 bombs blowing off with 6 casualties and many injured but it all drowned in the Mumbai mayhem. It is understandable. The damage was more in Mumbai. 200 lives plucked out for no fault of theirs. I shiver when I think of the moment when the blasts went off. I shiver when I think of the families of those dead. But the accumulated losses of Kashmir far outnumber Mumbai. The state has been subjected to systematic violence for last two decades. A recent study said Kashmir has the highest number of orphans and widows in the country. I wonder why should these women and children bear the cross of history? Why must they live the harshness of the Indo-Pak polemic? Who would guarantee their fundamental right to a decent life? When will there be a political will to amend, atone and push forward an agenda which has an average Kashmiri's well-being at its core. And I am not talking of just Kashmiri Muslims here. This also addresses the displaced Kashmiri Hindu population. The last I wish is a communally tainted debate here on this blog.
If I further raise my hood then there are three flashpoints across the globe: Kashmir, Iraq and Palestine. Hardly a day passes when you do not hear about these three places in the news. I think if we take any arbit week and survey the news reports, these three centres will feature at least once. The War of Civilization will be on till the end of this world, so would be the Shia-Sunni polemic, the Indo-Pak polemic, the Hindu-Musim polemic but are these differences so sharp that we cannot dull them and give peace a chance.
And we've not even touched Sudan and Somalia, the Liberian crisis, the African warlords, Bosnia, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Tibet, the list just goes on.
Must we need a Mumbai, a New York, a Madrid, a London or a Tokyo to rock our boat? What is in it for a common person like you and me. When would we stick our necks out and tell our respective governments enough is enough. We need a white paper, a better understanding, a policy with more teeth to counter this menace and at the same time undoing the historical wrongs. When will we push forward justice?
I do not wish to end with any grand statement but I guess Arthur Koestler had a point when he said, "God surely had a purpose in equipping us with a neck, he meant us to stick it out."
If I further raise my hood then there are three flashpoints across the globe: Kashmir, Iraq and Palestine. Hardly a day passes when you do not hear about these three places in the news. I think if we take any arbit week and survey the news reports, these three centres will feature at least once. The War of Civilization will be on till the end of this world, so would be the Shia-Sunni polemic, the Indo-Pak polemic, the Hindu-Musim polemic but are these differences so sharp that we cannot dull them and give peace a chance.
And we've not even touched Sudan and Somalia, the Liberian crisis, the African warlords, Bosnia, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Tibet, the list just goes on.
Must we need a Mumbai, a New York, a Madrid, a London or a Tokyo to rock our boat? What is in it for a common person like you and me. When would we stick our necks out and tell our respective governments enough is enough. We need a white paper, a better understanding, a policy with more teeth to counter this menace and at the same time undoing the historical wrongs. When will we push forward justice?
I do not wish to end with any grand statement but I guess Arthur Koestler had a point when he said, "God surely had a purpose in equipping us with a neck, he meant us to stick it out."
Murtaza Danish Husain
posted by Innocent Bullet at 5:11 pm
2 Comments:
well said bhai
Wonderfully said Dan.
Post a Comment
Comments are moderated. Please be patient - an admin will be along soon to check on the pending list.
<< Home