Shafiq Mir
Nobody knows when or where the saying “Business over dead bodies” started. Many people even doubt that the saying actually exists.
But in India and in Kashmir, it actually happens – business is done over dead bodies, by mainstream politicians and separatists alike.
In the past three decades almost, a group of separatist politicians has been demanding the body of Mohammad Maqbool Bhat who was hanged by government of India in 1984 for waging war against the country and killing some people. After hanging, Bhat was buried inside the Tihar jail in Delhi.
The Indian government did not follow its own legal procedure of handing over Bhat’s body: thus it is they who provided the separatists with an issue. Since Bhat’s hanging, the group has been demanding his body while India has been denying it.
God knows what India achieved by keeping the body in Tihar, but here in Kashmir, Maqbool Bhat definitely achieved the status of freedom fighter and also that of a martyr.
Similarly, on February 9, 2013, another Kashmiri, Mohammad Afzal Guru accused of carrying attack on Indian parliament was hanged in the same prison in Delhi. Moreover in a similar fashion, the Indian government again buried the body inside the prison premises and refused to handover the body to his family.
Now, politics has begun again.
In Jammu and Kashmir, not only the separatist politicians, even the mainstream political parties have been demanding that the body be returned to the family. This time, some of the political parties have even announced to discuss and raise this issue in the coming assembly session of the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
The politics on dead body can be gauged with the fact that even Indian prime minister has said that the issue of handing over the body of Guru will be discussed in Indian parliament – the biggest elected forum – of Indian politics .
Here in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, the state assembly elections are to be held in 2014. That is why all the major political parties in the state have made this issue as their poll plank .
There will be no surprise if some of the mainstream parties include this issue in their election manifesto.
Interestingly, all the political parties in the state, particularly mainstream parties like ruling National Conference and principal opposition party PDP did nothing in the past ten years for Guru, over whose dead body they are shedding crocodile tears. Now, after his hanging these parties have made his dead body as their “prime issue”.
Not only the mainstream political parties, the separatist leaders who now claim to be the real champions of Kashmiris did nothing during the past ten years when the trial of Guru was going in the different courts of the country. But now they have declared him as real hero of their “ freedom” struggle.
Interestingly, in the past ten years none of the separatist organization even owned him as their man . It is very unfortunate that in the 21st century when the world is planning to develop new colonies on the other planets, Kashmiris are forced to demand only dead bodies.
The issue will be resolved if India hands over Guru’s body to the relatives. And it is in the interest of India itself if it wants to see the peace in Kashmir.
(The author is Chairman, All Jammu and Kashmir Panchayat Conference. Views are his own)
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