Sir,

The analysis preseted in the statement entitled `Who is responsible for Jammu & Kashmir burning?’ bears the hallmark of sound analysis.

The immediate cause for the recent problems in Kashmir has been the deliberate stoking of a controversy as regards the land acquisition for the Amarnath Yatra. The shrine has been of great respect for millions from all over India and also from Kashmir. The sinister stoking of the controversy smells disgustingly familiar as in the past over Babri Masjid or over Operation Bluestar. The state always finds one rationale or another for its activities, always citing `law and order’ as one reason, or even worse of declaring the people of India or one particular region itself as a problem! 

The timing of these events suggest that the ruling circles have begun their preparations for the upcoming general elections and several state elections, and would like to sort out their differences over a boiling cauldron of one kind of another. What better cauldron than the issue of Kashmir and indeed that of the Jammu region to polarize the population?  The statement also points out that the events come at a time when the Indian bourgeoisie is on the offensive on the world stage and wishes to show that it is not subservient to any one or any opinion, and that it can do as it pleases in domestic or in international issues.  Such is the background in which the present tragedy of Kashmir has manifested itself.

The Indian Union has been cobbled out of the princely states and British India, and has been an uneasy union.  Rather than sort out the problems of this union, the Union has resorted to brutal methods of army occupation, draconian law and crushing of all dissent at every given stage. The bankruptcy of the Union manifests itself each time an issue in Kashmir boils over. The task of Communists is to demonstrate that this unjust and unequal union is the root of the problem. In this regard, all the peoples of India share the problems that have been left behind by colonialism. More alarmingly, the former colony has reinvented itself as an imperialist power, at least in the estimation of its ruling circles. Such a path is one of disaster for all the peoples of India. The solution to the problems faced by the people of Kashmir can only be part and parcel of the solution to the problems faced by all the Indian people. We communists must engage with this question on an urgent basis and be at the forefront of the elaboration of this theory. 

Sincerely,
S. Nair, Kochi