New Delhi :
Union Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday accused the terrorists in Kashmir and Maoists, who have also infiltrated into human rights outfits in tribal areas, of gross human right violations while raising an accusing finger at the government whose policy is to save the human rights of every Indian, be it a tribal or a Kashmiri.
In a lengthy article on “Who is threatening human rights?,” he lambasted those caught in the idiom of ‘muscular policy in Kashmir’ to describe how the Centre will try to act in Jammu and Kashmir since imposition of the Governor’s rule in the state after collapse of the elected coalition government, asserting not to call the rule of law as ‘muscular.’
Asserting as paramount to protest India’s sovereignty and the right to life of its citizens, Jaitley argues: “To deal with a killer is also a law and order issue. It can’t wait a political solution. A Fidayeen is willing to die. He is also willing to kill. Should he be dealt with by offering Satyagraha before him? When he advances to kill, should the security forces that confront him, ask him to sit on a table and have dialogue with them?
“A policy, therefore, has to be to protect the ordinary citizen of the valley; get him freedom from the terror; provide him with a better quality of life and environment. A terrorist who refuses to surrender and refuses a ceasefire offer has to be dealt with as anybody taking law in his own hand. This is not ‘muscular’. It is the rule of law.”
Turning to the Maoists, Jaitley says their sponsored human rights organisations only espouse the cause of separatism and violence – be it in Kashmir or Chhattisgarh. “They have brought a bad name to a very precious and valuable concept of human rights. Their international affiliates are no different.”
He also puts the separatist leaders of Kashmir at par with the terrorists, asserting that “among the Jehadis and the separatists, there are many who are trained by our western neighbour (Pakistan) and actively financed by it.”
Their prime objective is to create disaffection against the Indian State and some local youth have also joined them, he said.
The Jehadis believe there is space for only one religion while the Maoists, primarily in some tribal districts in central India but their ideological supporters spread all over the country, believe that there is space for none, Jaitley said, noting that of late a visible coordination between the two is becoming more and more apparent.
“They use violence as a means of impacting a political change. In the system that they perceive, there is no democracy, no elections, no equality, no free speech and no guarantee of life and liberty. On the contrary, most of them believe that power flows from the barrel of the gun.”
Asking who is threatening the human rights of the citizens in Jammu and Kashmir, Jaitley says the entire Kashmiri Pandit community has been banished from the state and most of the Sikhs after the Chittissinghpura massacre in 2000. Most of the people left in the valley belong to the majority community (read Muslims).
Asserting that most of them don’’t support secessionism, he points out how many of them have moved to other cities in India, while the youth are going to other states for education and jobs. “In the last few years most innocent citizens that the terrorist are killing in the valley, are fellow Kashmiri themselves. In fact, one of the worst victims of the Pakistan’’s misconceived Kashmir policy has been the residents of Kashmir valley.
“For the past three years, the terrorists up their activities in the months of April, May and June so that the economic lifeline of the valley suffers in the tourism season. They terrorise courts; they kill editors; they kill innocent citizens and they don’’t allow any alternate religion to be practised. Who is threatening the human rights of the citizens of Kashmir? It is obvious that it is the terrorists and the Jehadis who have done it. The whole country bears a large cost by putting its security personnel in the region in order to protect the innocent citizens. Many security personnel have been martyred.”
Turning to the Maoists, he accuses them of not allowing development activity in the tribal regions where they have a presence and then points out that in early 80’’s, the ultra-left started infiltrating into the human rights organisations like the PUCL and the PUDR. The Maoiss also started forming human rights organisations and made the non-weaponised ideological Maoists as the face of these organisations, which were always in touch with the underground Maoist leaders and acted as their communication channel to rationalise Maoist violence even in the media by arguing that the “root cause” of the violence needs to be addressed.
Jaitley then refers to the Maoists’’ propaganda policy to influence not only the opinion makers and human rights organisations in the western world but even earned sympathy of Rahul Gandhi, “even though the Congress historically and ideologically would have opposed these groups.” He had no qualms about joining those who raised subversive slogans at JNU and Hyderabad.
The BJP leader regrets that others among the so called federal front have forgotten the dangers of these groups to India and Indian democracy as the political adventurists in parties like AAP, TMC and the like only look for a political opportunity in these groups. These human right organisations are an over-ground face of the underground. In the system that they believe in, there is no place for life, liberty, equality and free speech, rather no space for election or Parliamentary democracy, he added.