By: Mirza Jahanzeb Beg
It was a beautiful sight, to witness people uniting in different parts of Jammu and Kashmir irrespective of their political ideologies and inclinations, to keep a right wing BJP government at bay. The BJP has not only brought along with itself, the streak of communal violence and polarization that it successfully unleashed in India to fuel its political expansion, to Jammu and Kashmir but also increased the problems of the region already battling with Violence and Conflict. Having badly crushed the opposition in Jammu and Kashmir like the rest of India through various questionable means, BJP pushed all the mainstream politicians in Jammu and Kashmir back to the wall. This Bullying forced all the stakeholders at variance with each other to come together as a one group, because it takes two to make a quarrel. Remarkable!
Though a lot of politically positive developments were seen as a result of this union, there’s a dark side of this seemingly victorious battle that I cannot choose to ignore.
“Unity should not be a trump card, to be saved and savoured only at the time of crisis.”
Yes, Unity should not be the last option on our priority list. We have a history of keeping the agenda of Unity on the back burner. While we were busy fighting, hating and hurting each other over plethora of petty indifferences and ego issues on all the levels, the bad guys were busy planting the seeds of Communal Hatred, Sectarian and Religious Chauvinism, Division and Radicalisation. We knew about the threats it can pose, we knew the prognosis of this sickness, but we chose to fight with each other till the end of it, missing no single chance, till there was no ammo left in our arsenal, till the water reached above our heads, but at what cost? Everyone who lives on this land has the best assessment of the damage done to us.
We always know Unity is a choice but it seems like the people at the helm of affairs use it only to threaten the Centre. It sounds like saying, ‘Don’t mess with us or we will unite against you’. If we know Unity is the best Policy and we also know when the time is ripe enough for us to unite, does this mean we are responsible for willingly not working towards achieving our collective Unity-Goals and thus have been preventing Unity all the while? Isn’t this a disservice to the society? Or is it that we want to be the flag bearers of Unity only when it’s in our interests or suits our agenda and we will abandon this flag and act otherwise when needed? This reflects the element of hypocrisy across the cross-section of our social fabric. This line of thought puts every one of us, who has ever been in a leadership position, in deep trouble. Well, I don’t want to put anyone in a difficult situation, all I want is for you all to think on this and reflect upon what has been said. If you understand what I’m trying to say, you know what needs to be done from now onwards.
“The believers are brothers to each other therefore make peace between your two brothers and fear Allah, so that you may gain mercy.” (Quran; 49:10)
(Mirza Jahanzeb Beg is a Renowned Human Rights researcher, Political Analyst and a Clinical Psychologist. He has Studied International Law, Diplomacy and United Nations Mechanism. Mirza was nominated as the Ambassador of Peace by European Union based think tank Institute of Peace and Development in 2018. He currently serves as the Director of YoungDiplomats, an International think-tank organisation on Diplomacy, International Relations and Geopolitics and can be reached out at mirzajahanzebbeg@gmail.com)
