First thing that the NIT students, whether they are Kashmiris or drawn from other parts of the country, should know that all politicians and parties are playing politics with them. No one has come forward to save their lives and careers. And they should remember that they have made it to the prestigious institute because of their hard work and merit.
Some of them are from very modest origin from the plains of UP and Bihar and Rajasthan. Those who are trying to divide them and call these institutes as an extension of “colonisation” are the ones who have used Kashmiri youth as cannon fodder. Hence, they should study and pass out in a dignified manner.
Secondly, let both sides also understand that the NIT is in the Valley because there is an attempt to provide an opportunity to all the areas to have institutes of prestige. It is the Ministry of Human Resource Development that has set up the institute, not any state government.
Thirdly, the outstation students are yearning for a sense of security. This security will come to them only when they will generate a sense of security among themselves with the hand holding by the locals. No force can ever provide them with that sense of security. Kashmir’s hallmark is its hospitality.
Having said this, I believe that the situation has been grossly mishandled by the NIT administration in the first place. It allowed things go out of hand and the matters were worsened by the state police, which behaved in a highly partisan manner and with vengeance against the outstation students. Worse still, when the politicians of all hues started speaking to further their communal and myopic agendas without caring for careers of the students.
Some of them have resumed the game of Muslim Kashmir versus Hindu India. Some men holding responsible positions instigated the students as if harassing the outstation students would deliver them “azadi”.
On the other hand, there were others messaging the non-locals for upholding the patriotic values. Both sides are playing with fire. I am afraid that that will consume the careers of the students. Nobody survives when the narrative of hate is promoted.
After the March 31 episode, it became quite clear that the outstation students were at the receiving end of the NIT management, MHRD team, state administration and state police as they were told not only by Syed Ali Shah Geelani, but others too, from whom they were expecting a sense of fairness and justice, that “Kashmir is not India”. They were not equals here, it was made clear to them.
If there were any doubts, those were cleared by Geelani: “You are guests here, but mind it that it is not UP, Bihar or any other Indian state, it’s a disputed territory.” So, if these outstation NIT students were seeking parity, the J&K Police told them with their lathis how such demands in Kashmir were dealt with.
The police justified the April 5 action, saying force was used because had they reached the road, things would have been terrible. It was unsafe for the outstation students to step out of the campus. It proved the students’ point that their security concerns were genuine. And that’s why they were asking for migration as well. Seeking migration, whether justified or not, is not a communal demand.
How could the MHRD send a team in response to the plea of besieged outstation students? How could the CRPF be deployed? It was a cry of injustice, with a pointed question: “Why doesn’t it happen when Kashmiri students are harassed in other parts of the country?” It was a charge of double standard against the Government of India and articulation of inequality by Kashmiris.
It was also argued that no outstation student was ever harmed during the 2008 Amarnath land row agitation and the street protests in 2010. All the narrators glossed over the fact that no educational institution was open during these two agitations in Kashmir and even many locals had fled the Valley in 2010.
There is a theory of demographic composition as well. The non-locals were in a majority in the NIT. Fifty per cent from outside the state, some 10 per cent from Jammu and 5 per cent from Ladakh (Jammu and Ladakh here were profiled as non-locals). So, there were only 35 per cent Kashmiri students.
But, this minority had the backing of the nearly 7 million population in the Valley. No one is telling that. All their backers were around while the parents and friends of non-locals were sitting hundreds of miles away.
A fierce contest of equals versus un-equals was on from both sides. It is time to act in a dispassionate manner as the ambivalence will not help anyone. Leaders should stand clear and upright in such situations.
Stop playing politics over NIT, it will consume their careers : Arun Joshi
