The tragic killing of our brave and young paramilitary personnel in a terror attack last week has numbed the nation.
We must seek accountability, fix responsibility for the loss of lives, and prevent a repetition of such tragedy particularly when the Jammu and Kashmir Governor talks of intelligence failure. In 2008, after the Mumbai terror attack, Union Home Minister and Maharashtra Chief Minister had to resign. The current establishment cannot hide behind the coffins of our martyred Jawans.
The security failure at Pulwama is embedded in the colossal failure of politics in Jammu and Kashmir, under this Modi government which has been in power both at the state and the centre. The number of local militants has risen, the number of civilian deaths has risen too, more security forces personnel have died. In playing petty politics, Modi govt has finished all middle ground in Kashmir and strengthened the militancy. Who is accountable for the mess now? BJP Governors speak of boycotts of Kashmiris? Will this enable normalcy to return?
Instead of fixing responsibility, upholding the basic democratic norm of accountability, we see that Modi govt has misused the support given by the political opposition to bring the perpetrators of this heinous terror attack to justice, to hide its failures. It has tacitly and overtly created a situation where calls for violence against Kashmiris, who are as much a citizen of India as any RSS member, are being openly given and executed.
This is shameful, undemocratic and blatantly ‘anti-national’ politics from BJP-RSS.
(This post first appeared on Sitaram Yechury‘s Facebook)
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