Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar made controversial remarks on Monday while hailing Narendra Modi’s decision to demonetise 500 and 1,000 rupee notes. He said the move has brought down the number of stone-pelting instances in the Valley, which is currently shrouded in hostility.
Earlier there were rates – Rs 500 for stone pelting (on security forces) and Rs 1,000 for doing something else but PM has brought terror-funding to zero.Manohar Parrikar, Defence Minister
However, the ground reality suggests the remark was not only misleading but it could not have been further from the truth. Stone pelting in Kashmir has been on the decline for over a month, say reporters on the ground, which, more importantly, is corroborated by the Jammu and Kashmir government’s figures.
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Fall in Stone-Pelting Instances
The endemic of protests began on 8 July, after Hizbul militant Burhan Wani was killed in an encounter. The remainder of the month witnessed 820 instances of stone-pelting, according to the government figures obtained and reported by the Rising Kashmir newspaper. In the month of August, the number came down to 747, and it further dwindled to 119 in September. It went up a notch in October at 157. More critically, from November 9 to 14, after demonetisation, 15 cases of stone-pelting have transpired.
Journalists and commentators in Kashmir believe someone of the stature of the defence minister should avoid making baseless remarks that cast aspersions on the sentiment of people in the Valley. The steady reduction in stone-pelting, they say, is primarily because of the ongoing exams, along with winters and fatigue setting in. A senior journalist, off the record, even laughed saying demonetisation apparently achieved what even the security forces could not.
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Unrest Can’t be Resolved by Demonetisation
Srinagar-based reporter Sameer Yasir said most of the stone-pelters in Kashmir are students, who have exams on their minds and have been busy preparing for them. “It is one of the major reasons behind the reduction in stone-pelting,” he said. “Also, we are heading into the winter in Kashmir. It is physically difficult to indulge in stone-pelting in freezing cold temperatures.”
Since Wani’s killing, the security forces have cracked down on the protesters with thousands losing eyesight to pellets and around a hundred being killed. With several thousand protesters still in jail, reporters on the ground say the intensity of protests on the whole has been on decline. It has been four months and fatigue seems to be setting in. Shops open up at flexible hours, the streets are busier than what they used to be a month ago. Even the exams saw a 94 percent turnout of students.
Editor of Rising Kashmir, Shujaat Bukhari, said the remark only shows Delhi’s denial of the political reality in Kashmir. “There is absolutely no merit in what Parrikar has said,” he said. “Is he suggesting the problem of Kashmir is now solved by demonetisation?”
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PDP Too Disagrees with Parrikar
Even the PDP, BJP’s partner in Kashmir, has not endorsed the Defence Minister’s comment. PDP spokesperson Waheed-ur-parra-Rahman said Delhi needs to look at Kashmir through a different prism. “Apart from the fact it is too early to make a comment like that, it is also unfair to generalise,” he said. “We do not see much of an impact of demonetisation in Kashmir. If Parrikar is right, infiltration should also have decreased, there should not be encounters or stone-pelting at all.”
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Denigrating Kashmiris
However, this is not the first time such an allegation has been made to distract attention from the core problem. Commentators say this insinuation not only exposes the lack of understanding of the quagmire in the Valley, but also denigrates the plight of Kashmiris. An old confessional video of a youngster saying he was given 500 bucks and drugs by Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani to throw stones on police resurfaced during the current turmoil, and a channel aired it as well. However, the youth approached local journalists and contested the video by saying he was tortured by the CRPF men and was forced to say what he did.
Former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Omar Abdullah had said immediately after Wani was killed that the protestors are not fighting for money or a financial package from the centre. “Educated youngsters from well-to-do backgrounds, obviously they are not fighting for money,” he had said.
I dare say that in the hundreds of thousands of people that participated in the funeral (of Burhan Wani), a lot of them would have been employed.Omar Abdullah, Former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir
Veracity of Parrikar’s Remarks
Reporters on the ground ask if Parrikar’s comment has any merits, why have the police not arrested a single person distributing cash to protestors. “You have 700,000 security forces in Kashmir with a strong network,” said a senior journalist, requesting anonymity. “Not even one of them has been able to catch someone doling out money? I have not come across a single instance where police have said they have arrested a man with stacks of cash for stone-pelters. Moreover, thousands of arrests have been made. At least someone would have cracked under pressure and disclosed that he was paid to do what he did.”
(The writer is special correspondent with LA Times. He can be reached at @parthpunter. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)
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