Amarnath: How the state manufactures fear!

Pahalgam and Sonamarg areas of the Kashmir valley have been declared out of bounds for school excursions “In view of the ensuing Amarnath Yatra”. The timing of the ban imposed by school education department of Kashmir on school picnics to Pahalgam and Sonamarg is quite interesting. The ban comes in the backdrop of the warning of the Indian army about a possible militant attack on the yatra. While as the warning runs contrary to the tall claims of the security establishment in Kashmir that militancy has been, more or less eliminated, but it does serve the purpose of the state to manufacture fear and impose a sense of uncertainity among the people.

One of the important visible aims is to create fear psychosis among the natives as well as the yatris. This manufactured fear is aimed to give legitimacy to the presence of security forces across the length and breadth of Kashmir.  And as a result, all the debates regarding the repeal or partial withdrawal of draconian laws like AFSPA, Disturbed Area Act and Public Safety Act are stealthily laid to rest without much opposition. And the laws continue to be there. The yatra also means that Kashmiri policemen are coerced to be at the disposal of the pilgrims for two months. That their posting is coercive was evidenced by the recent hunger strike and protest by new recruits of the JKP undergoing training at the Ganderbal police training centre. The manufacture of threat is not a new thing in Kashmir. Back in 2012, a cooking gas cylinder blast in a vehicle carrying some tourists, in Islamabad, was initially reported as an grenade attack on yatris in the Indian national media. Similarly, when militants attacked a CRPF camp early this year in Bemina, one of the Indian TV channels went to the extent of falsely reporting it as an attack on a school run by the JK Police and further declared that 5 students died in the attack while as in reality the school was closed on that day and there were no civilian casualties.

One more aspect of this perceived threat is that it reaffirms the Islamic Extremism rhetoric which is often used to downplay the struggle of Kashmiris. It has been a convenient way all along to malign the Kashmiri struggle as being communal and this particular Hindu pilgrimage provides an opportunity for the state to turn the tide in favour of its own narrative. And we know, branding it as Islamic Extremism is the easiest way to turn any struggle of Muslims in any part of the world illegitimate. And Islamic Extremism having with its different shades and different definitions in different parts of the world, when linked with Kashmir, makes it easy for the world to forget the various human rights violations being meted out to Kashmiris on one pretext or the other.

Keeping in view the fact that this threat perception was well received by the central government notwithstanding the clear rejection at the state government level, a political angle cannot be avoided with general elections due next year. Congress may want to turn the tide completely in its favour eyeing the religious Hindu vote base, as if acting as the saviour of the beliefs of majority Hindu community given that Army has already invoked ‘Operation Shiva’ to ‘sanitize the hills around the route’! Furthermore, this decision as well points to the incompetence and irrelevance of the state government and that fact that the it is just an extension of the central government of India. It is just an instrument or interface between the decision maker (central government) and the executing body that is the army. The fact that there was no mention of any militant attack threat in the recent meeting of the Unified Headquarters headed by J&K Chief Minister makes it amply clear that this threat perception has been conceived at the centre only.

It is interesting to note here that even during the peak of the 2008 popular uprising which was sparked off by an issue related to the same Amarnath yatra, the yatra went off peacefully without any harm done to a single pilgrim. This leads to the conclusion that the only visible threat to peace is the state itself.

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This write-up first appeared on PKKH.