Of Hartals and Shutdowns

Sometimes a compulsion achieves what logic can’t and the decision taken by the Pulwama Traders Federation not to observe a ‘shutdown’ on January, 26, is an example. The sixteen daylong shutdowns due to the martyrs’ memorial protests have really hit the business community very hard with estimated losses running into crores. This has forced the Pulwama Traders Federation to break the tradition of observing a shutdown on India’s Republic Day in response to the separatists’ call. One is not sure how the separatist conglomerate would react to this decision but if the issue is analysed dispassionately, then it would emerge that the customary January, 26, shutdown call that the separatists have been giving for all these years makes little sense and let’s see why?

Though the separatists may claim that India is in ‘Illegal occupation’ of J&K, neither the UN, nor the international community shares this view. Nevertheless, for the sake of carrying this argument forward, let us accept what the separatists’ say to be true and proceed ahead. Now, even if New Delhi is ‘illegally occupying’ J&K, will any separatist leader be kind enough to educate us on the connection that this ‘illegal occupation’ of Kashmir has with the Republic Day of India? Would we have been free from ‘forced occupation’ if India was not a republic? So, if the issue of J&K’s ‘illegal occupation’ and India being a republic doesn’t have even the remotest connection, where is the logic in observing a shutdown on this day?

Our leaders do not seem to have ever thought about the negatives of calling for a hartal or shutdown at the mere drop of a hat. There is no requirement to hire the services of experts in analysing public opinion to know whether our proclivity for hartals and shutdowns is doing the Kashmir movement good or bad as the old saying that “Too much of everything is bad” says it all! With hartals and shutdowns becoming an everyday affair, how can the separatists expect daily wagers to feed their families? And what can be more disgraceful than the incident in which these daily wagers who are forced to go out to earn are attacked and sometimes even killed by our own people for their ‘crime’ not observing the hartal or shutdown call?

Come to think of it, calling for hartals and shutdowns on India’s independence and republic days is downright ridiculous, as there can be no plausible reason for protesting against these. Unless of course we feel angry that India got its independence or became a republic and thus the protests on these days. And despite Huriyat (G) chairman SAS Geelani maintaining that the people of Kashmir have wish India well and have no ill feelings towards its people, hartals and shutdowns on India’s independence and republic days conveys an entirely different impression. Yet our leaders don’t seem to see the light and by indulging in what can easily be misinterpreted as an anti Indian outlook they continue sending ambiguous signals to the world regarding the aim, objective and philosophy behind the Kashmir struggle.

There is a requirement for the separatist leadership to realise that the continuing ‘overdose’ of hartals and shutdowns can prove to be dangerous for the overall health of the movement for the ‘right to self determination’. We have far too many “Black Days” and observing each with a hartal or shutdown tends to turn the same into ‘non-events’. Is it not a fact that hartals and shutdown in Kashmir no longer make headlines outside the State? So, the question that each Kashmiri should ask himself or herself is that besides inconveniencing our own people, what else are these frequent hartals and shutdowns achieving? 

Now that the Pulwama Traders Federation has shown us the way (albeit by compulsion), it’s the right time for all of us to wake up and smell the coffee!

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