Kashmiri Students & Cricket: Increasing 'Dil ki Doori', One UAPA Case At a Time

Playing cricket alone can't help India-Pak reach a “final settlement” of Kashmir dispute. But it creates hope.

Image used for representational purposes.

(Photo altered by The Quint)

Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri, Pakistan’s former foreign minister and a good friend of India, invariably tells a cricket story whenever he gives a talk on why he is optimistic about improving India-Pakistan relations.

In April 2004, the Indian cricket team toured Pakistan to play a three-Test series. The tour, unthinkable in Modi Raj, was made possible because of the earnest efforts by the Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf to normalise bilateral relations. Before the Indian team left for Pakistan, Vajpayee hosted a reception for it at his official residence. He presented a bat to the team captain, Saurav Ganguly, on which he had inscribed a message in his own hand-writing: "Khel hi nahin, dil bhi jeetiye – Shubhkaamnanyen” (Win hearts, not just games. Best wishes).

Once Upon a Time Fans in India & Pakistan Cheered for Good Cricket

The Indian team won both. It won the Test series 2-1. Virender Sehwag scored a triple century, Rahul Dravid hit a double century, and Sachin Tendulkar was 194 not out. Although Pakistan lost the series on home turf, Pakistani fans warmly applauded Indian stars everywhere. Some even joined the Indian team’s victory lap at the stadium in Rawalpindi. “It was a sight to behold,” says Kasuri.

“The bonhomie reinforced my conviction that common people in both India and Pakistan want peace and friendship. Cricket, cultural exchanges, and people-to-people contacts can build mutual trust, which in turn can help our governments solve the big problems facing us.”

What happened in Pakistan is not an exception. When India lost to Pakistan by 12 runs in a thrilling Test match in Chennai in 1999, almost every person in Chepaulk Stadium stood up and clapped as the Pakistani team took a victory lap.

Punishment for Cheering the 'Wrong' Team

Contrast this with what Kashmir witnessed last week. The Jammu and Kashmir police registered FIRs against the management and students of the prestigious Government Medical College (GMC) and Sher-i-Kashmir

Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) in Srinagar. Reason? For allegedly celebrating the Pakistani cricket team’s victory over India with “pro-Pakistan slogans” after the T20 World Cup match on October 24. The FIRs have been filed under the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, the punishment for which may extend to seven years’ imprisonment. Even before the trial, the punishment has already begun because the students are marked as overground workers (OGWs) of anti-Indian organisations. This means, no government jobs and no benefits in government-funded schemes to them.

Such abominable incidents, which demean India, have taken place elsewhere, too. Three Kashmiri students in Agra were arrested for reportedly celebrating Pakistan's win during the same match. They were thrashed by ‘deshbhakts’ — some of them lawyers — in the presence of police, while being produced in a city court.

UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath said sedition charges would be invoked against them.

Not surprising. He has to whip up anti-Pakistan and anti-Muslim frenzy ahead of the crucial assembly elections early next year.

As is well known, India’s notoriously inefficient criminal justice system takes years to complete the trial and establish the guilt in such cases. Sometimes the trial doesn’t even begin, and the cases are simply dropped. Last week, the media reported that the investigation was making no headway in the infamous Disha Ravi toolkit case, and that the cops would simply file a closure report. And what was this 22-year-old climate activist in Bengaluru sent to jail for? Sedition, promoting enmity and criminal conspiracy for supporting the farmers’ agitation.

Why do Some Kashmiris Harbour Anti-India Sentiments?

We do not know whether the police version of the incident in Srinagar is true or not. Even if it is true — and it is likely to be true since cricket is a potent part of the India vs. Kashmir narrative in a section of Kashmiri society — three important questions arise.

First: Is there anything fundamentally anti-national and seditious in rejoicing Pakistan’s victory over India in a cricket match? Is backing the Indian cricket team — or every Indian team in every other game every time — a mandatory requirement for proving one’s patriotism? Let’s recall what happened in Dubai last Sunday. Babar Azam, Mohammed Rizwan, Shaheen Afridi and others in Pakistan’s team undoubtedly played superior cricket on a day when — and it often happens in any sport — Virat Kohli’s boys in blue were not in their best form. So, what’s wrong if some cricket lovers in India cheered for the boys in green?

Second: Is slapping UAPA the right way to deal with those Kashmiri youth who might have celebrated Pakistan’s victory over India in a cricket match? The answer is obvious: far from deterring Pakistan’s supporters in Kashmir, it will most likely drive them further into the camp of secessionists.

Third — and this question goes to the heart of the matter as far as the Kashmir dispute is concerned: Why is there an anti-India and pro-Pakistan sentiment in a section of the Kashmiri population? Why do some Kashmiris feel India is ill-treating them? Are Kashmiris alone to blame for this? Are the rulers in New Delhi, and their backers, blemishless?

We’ve got to be dead honest in seeking the right answers to these questions. Let’s take a brief peep into the origin of the Kashmir problem. It began way back in 1947 when Hari Singh, the Hindu maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir, refused to accede to India or Pakistan on 14-15 August. He was toying with the idea of keeping his state independent. When Pakistan-backed tribal fighters invaded Kashmir, he actually fled Srinagar and went to Jammu. Who stood by India then?

It was common Kashmiris, mostly Muslims, who helped the Indian army in repulsing the invaders. It was Shaikh Abdullah, the tallest Kashmiri leader then, who rebuffed the Muslim League’s pressure to consent to Kashmir’s merger with Pakistan. Instead, he opted for joining the Indian Union, with some conditions, because he respected the secular leadership of Mahatma Gandhi and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.

Article 370: Did it End ‘Dil ki doori’ and ‘Dilli ki doori’?

If pro-Pakistan or pro-azaadi sentiments gradually gained ground in Kashmir over the subsequent decades, it is mainly because of a series of follies committed by successive governments in New Delhi. No doubt, Pakistan too is guilty because it exploited the situation by aiding and abetting religious extremism, terrorism and secessionism.

New Delhi’s biggest folly was committed on August 5, 2019, when the Narendra Modi government abrogated Article 370 of the Constitution, bifurcated the state of Jammu and Kashmir, and downgraded it to a union territory.

There was not even a semblance of democratic consultation with them on a matter that impacted their lives and their state’s destiny. It was as if India — the ‘Mother of Democracies’, as Modi described in his recent speech at the United Nations General Assembly — believes that only the territory of Kashmir is its “atoot ang” (inseparable part of the body), and not the people of Kashmir.

Prime Minister Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and the rest of the BJP leadership made several boastful claims at the time. They said abrogation of Article 370 had finally, and fully, integrated Kashmir into the Indian Union. They further claimed that it had put an end to Pakistan-sponsored terrorism in Kashmir once and for all.

More than two years later, the bitter truth is staring at our face. There is a deep sense of despair, resentment and suppressed anger among Kashmiri Muslims. I felt it, and I saw it, when I spent a week in Kashmir in early August. Yes, there is outward calm. But that is because of the heavy and ubiquitous presence of the army and other security forces.

Prime Minister Modi himself, in a rare expression of candour, said during his meeting with the leaders of mainstream political parties June 24 this year that there is both “Dil ki doori” and “Dilli ki door” — emotional alienation of Kashmiris and political estrangement between New Delhi and Srinagar. He promised that his government would take steps to reduce them. So far, few steps have been taken.

Amit Shah Made Disingenuous Statements in Kashmir

It took nearly two years for Shah to make his first trip to the state after the abrogation of Article 370. He went there against the backdrop of 11 terrorist killings, of both Hindus and Muslims, in just one month. Among the statements Shah made in Srinagar, the one that merits scrutiny — and helps us understand why there is anti-India feeling in a section of the Kashmiri society — is this: “We will rather talk to the people of Kashmir than Pakistan.”

This statement is disingenuous in the first part, and wrong and counter-productive in the second.

During his three-day visit to Srinagar and Jammu, Shah did not care to meet any of the leaders of mainstream political parties who had been called by the prime minister for the June meeting in New Delhi. None of these leaders — Dr Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah (National Conference); Mehbooba Mufti (People’s Democratic Party): Ghulam Nabi (Congress); Yusuf Tarigami (Communist Party of India Marxist); Muzaffar Shah (J&K Awami National Conference) — is a secessionist. Even in the most difficult periods of insurgency in Kashmir, they have stood by India.

Yet, how did Shah treat these leaders? Not only did he not invite them for a meeting when he was in their own state, but he repeated the slur he and Modi have often used against them in the past — “Three families looted and brought ruin to J&K.”

Difficulty in Trusting Delhi

The message of this is not lost on the pro-Aazadi and pro-Pakistan people in the valley. Some pro-Azaadi persons I spoke to in Srinagar asked me some harsh questions: “If the Modi government can malign and even arrest veteran pro-India leaders like Dr Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, with whom the BJP had shared power in the past, can you imagine how it treats us? Do you expect us to believe it has real love for Kashmir and respect for Kashmiri people? Does it treat even Muslims outside Kashmir as equal Indians? Why is no action taken against mobs that lynched innocent Muslims?”

These words may sound uncomfortable, but they provide some clues to why some youth in Kashmir may have celebrated the defeat of Virat Kohli’s team in Dubai.

India is Missing Vajpayee’s Wise Leadership

Let’s examine the second part of Shah’s statement in Srinagar. Anyone who has a modicum of knowledge about the evolution of the Kashmir issue will not deny that Pakistan is a stakeholder in it. Just one proof is enough. Clause 6 of the 1972 Shimla Agreement, from which India has not officially withdrawn, clearly states that “a final settlement of Jammu and Kashmir” is yet to take place and that the two sides would strive for it through dialogue and peaceful means.

Shah seems to interpret the meaning of a “final settlement” as forcible seizure of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

In fact, he said so explicitly in his speech in Parliament on 5 August 2019, while replying to the debate on ending the special constitution status of Jammu and Kashmir. “We shall give our lives for getting back PoK and Aksai Chin (from China),” he declared.

Let’s not kid ourselves. There is no way India — under Modi or an even more hardline prime minister in future — is going to get PoK back from Pakistan. Similarly, there is no way Pakistan — even under the most hawkish prime minister or army general — can either wrest the Indian side of Kashmir or help make Kashmir ‘independent’. Also, there is no way any Indian government can end the ‘Dil ki doori’ and ‘Dilli ki doori’ with the permanent presence of several lakh gun-toting troops in Kashmir.

Playing Cricket Cannot Bring About the 'Final Settlement'

It is this wise realisation on the part of Vajpayee and Musharraf — and later on the part of Dr Manmohan Singh and Musharraf — which led to bilateral talks, exploration of out-of-the-box solutions to the Kashmir problem, and several tension-easing measures.

Cricket diplomacy was one of them. And it did work to the extent it could. Nobody had any illusion that playing cricket alone could help our two countries reach a “final settlement” of the Kashmir dispute. But it did create bonhomie and hope, which Kasuri Sahab so fondly and wistfully recalls. The Musharraf government did not arrest and slap sedition charges on Pakistani fans who celebrated Indian team’s victory, nor did the Vajpayee government commit any such monstrosity on Indian fans who rejoiced at Pakistani team’s victory.

India—and the BJP—had a wise leader then.

Now? In the very asking of the question lies the answer.

(Sudheendra Kulkarni served as an aide to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and is the founder of the Forum for a New South Asia. He has authored Music of the Spinning Wheel: Mahatma Gandhi’s Manifesto for the Internet Age. His Twitter handle is @SudheenKulkarni and he welcomes comments at [e-mail])