There must be something shallow and pitifully immature about our politics that senior ministers of the Narendra Modi government should venomously criticise Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, implying that he is speaking for Pakistan, for trying to draw attention to the conditions that people in Kashmir are living after the recent change in J&K’s status.
This, in fact, has been challenged in the Supreme Court through a dozen petitions, besides being censured in sharp language by the Opposition parties.
The fusillade against the Congress leader seems suspiciously communal as I&B minister Prakash Javdekar hit the trough Wednesday when he said that being elected from Kerala’s Wayanad, where the minority communities have a major presence, seemed to have coloured the Congress leader’s views on Kashmir, a Muslim-majority region.
Kashmir is very much a part of this country. When the government has done much to comprehensively alienate its populace, it is incumbent on the political system to take up the cause of people there. The government’s version of events cannot be verified in curfew-like conditions, amid a communications blackout, and when literally thousands are in jail or detention.
The Pakistani authorities appear to have used stories published in the foreign press and Mr Gandhi’s observations to criticise New Delhi. After this, Mr Gandhi emphasised on Wednesday that Kashmir was an “internal” Indian matter and Pakistan had no business poking its nose. The matter should have rested there, but even J&K Governor Satya Pal Malik, a constitutional functionary, joined battle, choosing to launch a personalised attack against Mr Gandhi. In contrast, Pakistan’s domestic politics has shown more balance. Senior opposition figures there have not been traduced by the government as Indian agents for taking apart its handling of the Kashmir issue internationally.
