Voices of Dissent

By Mantasha Binti Rashid

What does a democracy mean if the people can not hold their representatives responsible? What does it mean when political dissent is silenced with bullets? What does it mean when the representatives of people by virtue of being people-elected go to any extent to retain power ?

It means that democracy is a sham, a cover up to the same old human desire of power wealth and prestige.
It was today that dissent echoed in the heart of the capital city ,Janta Mantar .People shouted anti-system slogans and demanded freedom. This protest was not any other protest in the protest street but one attended by hundreds of people, many of who had directly come from the valley of Kashmir including bussinesmen and students and others consisted of the Kashmiris in Delhi,from all walks of life.All had gathered in solidarity to express their grief and anger against the innocent killings in Kashmir.In over more than a month forty plus people have been killed in the valley of Kashmir by Indian security forces.These killings took place in the public protests ,one starting with the unearthing of the fake encounter in Kupwara .These incidents are not isolated incidents but need to be looked at all in a queue .A long queue which dates back very long in history and directly began with the partition of India in 1947 when Kashmir was divided too .A part occupied by Pakistan and the other by India and some even by China.

Tonight not just Kashmiris but Sikhs from Punjab ,People from North East ,Tamil Nadu and Maoist supporters are were united in Jantar Mantar against the state oppression and all showed solidarity with the former. All have been questioning the sovereignty of India in their respective states and include people who are faced with injustice ,state terrorism and a curb on their civil liberties and basic human rights. They all questioned state’s brutal ways of curbing and crushing dissent .The posters held by protestors displayed young civilians who have been killed in Kashmir. All in their teens,the youngest nine and the eldest 35!

It was a moment of hungry silence which begged to be fed on slogans, observed for the peace of innocent victims of violence. The slogans like “hum kya chahte aazadi” (we want freedom) echoed in the Cental Delhi .Loud enough to reach the deaf and power loathed ears of the people in authority .Media of the democratic country showed vicarious presence but the television sets showed nothing in the night The arguments on News channels in the evening, nowadays host debates discussing what is the anger of Kashmiris against? What do they want?
When they gathered to say it in their cameras ,they were not reported! I wonder if their cameras ad tapes fed on those voices like the bullets feed on the blood of same race, same people !

Now before the ink which should report this protest in newspapers tomorrow dries up by the fear of authority I thought It is better to pen it down .The timing of the protest was in synchronization with the breaks given to Kashmiris back home in the evening after days of curfew. Curfew which orders “shoot at sight ”.A term like Animal treatment to this treatment will upset the animal rights supporters who will feel insulted .After all they do not let animal,s like dogs, get killed!

This protest also requested the common Indian people to wake up to the killings in Kashmir being carried out by their elected government in Delhi and even damned the state government of Kashmir, the N.C lead coalition with Congress. Name hardly matters as the protestors shouted slogans calling them the stooges of central government. There were a few Kashmiri Pandits who made their presence felt but by standing against the group even after requesting to join the gathering as one people belonging to the soil of Kashmir but by not doing so they made their purpose of sabotaging the gathering very clear although many Kashmiri Pandits were a part of the Kashmiri gathering.

“Kashmir atanqwadi nahi” was one slogan which reverbrated in Jantar mantar along with Allah-hu-Akbar to which some protestors objected saying that it was not a communal but a political problem. Leaving a big question to be answered .If all those suffering are Muslims in Kashmir, can not they use religion to bind them, to come to a platform ,to be one? Is it that they have to be under fear of being called communal even if they scream that god is great in Arabic? Till society does not become secular, a secular state means nothing!