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Political chinwag as foreign policy tenet

By Sidharth Mishra

Last week your reporter had the chance to participate in a seminar on India-Pakistan relations. Held at Delhi University’s fast rising institution Maharaja Agrasen College, the discussions veered from Indus Waters Treaty to the Role of Media in the ongoing crisis in the relation between the two nations.

The audience, which largely constituted of undergraduate students of the political science department of the college and their teachers, sounded more perplexed at the ongoing war within the media than the escalating conflict between the two neighbouring countries. In his very scholarly delineation on the finer points of water treaties, Uttam Kumar Sinha, who is a long-time fellow at the prestigious IDSA and also edits their journal Strategic Analysis, showed that diplomacy over rivers was not as easy as opening or closing water taps.

His advice to the young crowd was to not get carried away by media reports but do their own research and draw conclusions accordingly. In the course of the discussion, a piercing question was shot at your reporter, on the media’s propagandist role and when media had the freedom to act “waywardly” why not the politicians especially with the reference to episodes involving Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi.
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Mutilated, moth-eaten Pakistan

By Sidharth Mishra

The headline is inspired by the famous words of the founder of Pakistan, Quaid-e-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah. In 1944, as the world war neared its end, the famous talks between Mahatma Gandhi and Jinnah began on the way forward to Independence. Though Gandhi, in principle, never believed that the Hindus and the Muslims formed two separate nations, as the Muslim League espoused, he agreed to push his close aide C Rajagopalachari’s proposal to “have plebiscite in the districts perceived to be Muslim majority” whether partition was called for.
Rejecting the formula, Jinnah said, “It (the formula) was grossest travesty, a ridiculous proposal, offering a shadow and a husk – a maimed, mutilated, and moth-eaten Pakistan.” Jinnah rejected the formula out of the fear that it would lead to division of Bengal and Punjab.
Ironically a few years later Jinnah was forced to accept “a mutilated, moth-eaten Pakistan,” as the British proposal divided the two states into East and West Punjab and East and West Bengal through the line drawn by Cyril Radcliffe, chairman of the Border Commission. Today Radcliffe Line forms India’s international border with two nations – Pakistan and Bangladesh.
This is extraordinary irony as Pakistan, which continues to “stand by the people of Kashmir”, has been unable to hold onto and govern the territories which India agreed to part with following the notification of the Radcliffe Line on August 17, 1947. In less than quarter of a century, East Pakistan declared Independence.
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Attempting a new narrative

By Sidharth Mishra

In journalism, there is one thing for sure, that no reporter is ever Mr Know All. His or her knowledge depends on the desire of his sources, to the quantum and quality of information they would want to share. A reporter’s ability comes into play in authenticating the source’s information on the whetstone of his understanding developed over the years through reporting on a particular subject.
There is another thing for sure that the television anchors, howsoever, urbane or garrulous, have seldom done the requisite legwork to develop that “instinct” which comes from years of spending time in the field and not lecturing in the studio. About a decade ago, in an essay published in an anthology brought out by the Oxford University Press, your reporter had mentioned that the best person to report during the elections are not those trained in political reportage but those who have worked on mundane city beats like crime, sewer, water supply, etc. These city reporters understand the mundane but basic issues and have their finger on the pulse of the voter.
Thus, in the name of reportage on Kashmir, what we are witnessing today across media forums is the dissemination of information as per the desire of the source; and of course on television, each channel playing to their respective galleries. Newspapers, unfortunately, too, are falling prey to “biased” reporting. Today Srinagar has locally bred Kashmiris working as correspondents for the national dailies. This has become one of the biggest stumbling blocks in “fair reporting” on the Kashmir issue.
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End disparity for Paralympians

By Sidharth Mishra
Let me begin with the disclaimer that this week’s Notebook doesn’t intend to be a thesis on the able-bodied and disabled sportspersons of the country. A sportsperson plays for the team and the flag s/he represents. Inside the sporting arena, they are like the soldiers in the battlefield, giving their sweat and blood for their flag and their paltan (team).
 
The difference between them is perpetuated by those who look for commerce from the sports; be it in the name of increasing brand equity of a product or of a personality. Last week I received an interesting comment from a university contemporary, now on a senior position in the bureaucracy.
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Delhi has new canon on Kashmir

By Sidharth Mishra

An uncompromising and perhaps uncompromisable struggle of two ways of life, two concepts of political organisation, two scales of values, two spiritual attitudes.” – Josef Korbel, UN official on India-Pak dispute on J&K
Last week, I came across some interesting data circulated on one of the retired defence personnel email groups. Titled “Eye-Opener”, it said, that the Kashmir valley consisted just 15 percent of the total land area under the Indian control. The data pointed out that the largest chunk was with Ladakh with 59 percent, and then Jammu with 26 percent.
Thereafter, it took to the argument that 85 percent of the area under Indian occupation was not Muslim majority and thus to paint the state as “Muslim-dominated” was incorrect. To counter those of overall Kashmiri majority on the basis of language spoken, it said, just 55 lakh of the 1.25 crore population spoke Kashmiri with Dogri, Punjabi, Hindi, Pahari, Gujjari, and Ladakhi also spoken by a large number of people of the state.
Then there was a proposition that there are 22 districts in J&K, out of which only five – Srinagar, Anantnag, Baramulla, Kulgam, and Pulwama, are under the sway of the separatists. Thus, it said, “Separatists’ writ runs over just 15 percent of the population which are Sunni Muslim dominated.” It added that stone-pelting, hoisting Pakistani flag, and anti-India demonstrations were in just these five districts in Kashmir valley and that the other 17 districts have never participated in such activities.
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Warming up for keen battle

By Sidharth Mishra

A few weeks back, your reporter in this very column had mentioned about the possible role which the Congress could play in the upcoming polls in Uttar Pradesh. The conclusion was that even in the case of the near-dead Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee coming back to life, the possibility of it forming a government was remote. However, alive and kicking Congress in UP certainly has the potential to damage chances of the BJP, which is making an attempt to regain its foothold in Lucknow.
The saffron party’s rule in the state ended in 2002. Thereafter, its political fortunes in the nation’s politically most significant state has been on a downswing - barring 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Under the stewardship of Narendra Modi and with his closest ally Amit Shah playing the navigator, the party managed to win 73 out of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state in 2014. However, managing a rerun of 2014 blitzkrieg in the winter-spring of 2017, when the state goes to polls to elect representatives to the Assembly, has just become a wee bit more difficult with the Congress entering the fray with some gusto.
The pollsters, who have already started entertaining people with their predictions, are indicating a hung Assembly.
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Kashmiriyat under siege

By Sidharth Mishra

In the summer of 1999, I visited Poonch-Rajouri sector of Jammu and Kashmir. There is a place called Thana Mandi midway between Poonch and Rajouri. I do not recall which district that was but remember the place for its scenic beauty, and often making headlines for subversive activities by the ultras coming over from Pakistan. It’s pretty close to the Line of Control.
This was the time when the Kargil war had just ended and infiltration by Pakistan-backed militants had shifted southward. The assignment from the newspaper was to cover both the firing from beyond the Line of Control and from within. We had to cover both the forward infantry battalions and the Rashtriya Rifles (RR) units combing the hinterland, and also interact with the civilian population. In the course of this visit, I was taken to this beautiful shrine Shahdra Sharief about four kilometres out of Thana Mandi town.
The Shahzada Nashin (the high priest) of the Sufi shrine received us well and gave us very sweet tea to drink. When I mentioned to him that it was impossible to finish that huge cup, he smiled and said, “Kashmir mein chai, namkeen roti ke saath peete hain” (In Kashmir one drinks tea with salted bread). Next, I dipped the bread in steaming tea and the bite was more than invigorating.
There at the shrine I met two Muslim brothers, both jawans with Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry (JAKLI), who had come to the mazar for thanksgiving having come back alive from the just concluded war. To me this was quite a learning experience, the two brothers sounded so different from the Srinagar-bred Kashmiri folks we keep bumping into.
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Message of Tricolour in Tral

By Sidharth Mishra

The developments in the past month have made it abundantly clear that the Centre this time around has made up its mind to get the violence mongers in Jammu and Kashmir, as the cliché goes, by their neck. On the morning of Independence Day, WhatsApp groups were fed with a video clip which showed the Tricolour being unfurled from a telecom tower in Tral, the hometown of neutralised terrorist Burhan Wani.
As the flag proudly fluttered, it was captured on the camera and later released on social media with AR Rahman’s “Vande Mataram” playing in the background. The clear message being that the Government is going to follow a policy of domination in the Valley. If any doubts remained, it soon got dispelled when Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke from the ramparts of Red Fort. In asking the Kashmiri youth to drop the stone and hold the laptop for a prosperous future, Modi made clear that he is in no haste for an early “political solution” to violence in the Valley.
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