J&K: Congress should stop diatribe, join healing process

To a question on who wants to internationalise the Kashmir issue more (compared to Pakistan), an immediate answer that strikes is the Congress.

Look at the way some of the top leaders of the Congress are reacting. After claiming that Kashmir situation is under UN monitoring, the party's Parliamentary Party leader in the Lok Sabha went on to question whether Kashmir was an internal affair.

Shockingly, he said so because none of the Congress leaders ever said so. Now comes another shocker from the same leader. He says Kashmir has turned out to be a concentration camp.

Then Ghulam Nabi Azad, a Kashmiri himself, goes ahead and says 'Kashmiris could be bought for money' while referring to National Security Advisor Ajit Doval's visit to Srinagar and his interaction with the locals.

Every word uttered by them is being lapped up by the Pakistani leadership and are using the same before the world to buttress their argument.

The language of our enemy is the same as that of our Congress leaders. Several senior Congress leaders as well the younger ones have gone ahead and welcomed the amendment brought to the Article 370 by the Centre.

If the separatist leaders of Kashmir speak this language, it is understandable. But even they would not call their own brethren in Azad's words. It is but natural that those who do not have self-respect, will never respect others.

Kashmiris and their Kashmiriyat cannot be understood from a distance. It is difficult to find a Kashmiri begging for anything. The kind of ordeal they have undergone over the years is enough to supplement the argument.

Months of curfew has not broken their will. Years of terrorism and its consequences have not made them crumble. All that they expect is a dignified life.

They do not seek and are not seeking creature comforts as their leaders of all hues do. Kashmiris know pretty well how much they have been exploited by the political parties and the corrupt bureaucracy over the years.

They also know how much money flows into the homes of the separatists from across the borders. Kashmiris in general are happy to acknowledge the fact that their life could change now due to the revocation of special powers to their State.

If the Congress wants to exist in some form or the other in the future, it should realise all this and join hands in the healing process.

If they cannot do anything else, at least they should remain tight lipped. The Centre too must quickly begin the healing process. Delaying the arrival of normalcy is not welcome.

The more days it consumes in normalising the process, the more harm could come to them in the form of Pakistan intervention. Terror groups in Pakistan are now seething in anger against India. They are bound to mount relentless attacks on us.

Kashmiris will be the collateral damage. Hence, the Centre should slowly open up Kashmir and carefully. Id is just round the corner.

Leave the borders to the Army and begin the psychological integration work at once. Id is the best time for it.