Readers’ comments: Harvard alums should not involve themselves – Kashmir is India’s internal matter

Half an Independence Day

A very nicely written article! (On an uneasy Independence Day, I cannot bear to listen to my favourite freedom song) I am so happy to see there is some sanity left in India. Please, more of you need to speak up or forever be silenced. [Do] you think [Narendra] Modi will stop here? He will go after all minorities. This is a recipe for disaster for the unity of your land. We from across the border have always envied you as being an educated and level headed society but come on, this is not India! – Muhammad Bilal

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Please be responsible before publishing such negative news. Each nation has the right to protect its sovereignty and is free to take decisions in the interest of the nation. Why do you people always cry about democracy for Muslims? Are Kashmiri pandits not a part of this country? – Jaydeep Mahida

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The whole notion of various people making a clarion call for abstaining from Independence Day commemoration, in light of the recent revocation of Article 370, is preposterous. This is because of the fact that it’s a bit rich to demean and denigrate a day made to remember our greatest heroes from the freedom struggle, in the name of a deplorable act done by the present Right-wing ruling dispensation. Neither is there anything for us to cherish about the Sangh Parivar on what they have done to the country thus far, nor what they did during our freedom struggle! Rather, our celebration should be a refutation to their idea of India. – Yadul Krishna

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Where were you all when Kashmiri Pandit families – including ladies, grown-up daughters and children – were driven out of their motherland overnight? They fled Kashmir and were living in the streets of Delhi and other places. Why you all didn’t support them at that time? To bring them back to their homeland the scrapping of this article is necessary. To maintain law and order, for some time everyone has to cooperate. Shouldn’t make a big hue and cry. – Rajasekaran S

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With all due respect, I would like say that you don’t know ground realities about what is happening in Kashmir, which is part of the Indian union (Who detained Kashmiri politician Shah Faesal and under what law?).

This fellow used all the facilities and the money provided by our government to get himself degrees including his becoming of an Indian Administration Services officer. If our government was against him they would have easily prevented him from becoming an IAS officer. This proves we Indians have not treated him differently.

After becoming an IAS officer acting against the government is not acceptable. Please touch your hearts and say, if an American in the US does such activities against the US government [would it be okay?]. Please don’t tell our government what to do. You all better mind your own business. – Ganesh Ram

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Shah Faesal was spreading propaganda against the government’s move in Kashmir so shouldn’t he be detained? – Zita Mendes

Harvard for Kashmir

How long will a democratic right be used to the detriment of the local inhabitants and of the nation as a whole? (Jammu and Kashmir: Harvard University members seek immediate release of Shah Faesal, other leaders) One has to view the matter in totality. You will have to be aware of the inhuman excesses made with bonafide residents who have been driven out. The wanton misuse of funds for personal gains and deprivation of those who earnestly and genuinely needed [funds] needs stoppage. Sitting on the periphery being vocal in chanting about democracy [has no use]. No country in the world has been or will be a better democracy than us. – DS Upadhyay

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Where were all these Harvard guys when 450,000 Hindus were mercilessly driven out from Kashmir in 1990? What has [Shah] Faesal done in the past 30 years to rehabilitate them? According to these people, massacre or expulsion of Hindus doesn’t amount to a violation of human rights. According to them, Hindus don’t deserve human rights. – Ganesh Kini

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Why [does] Harvard have special interest or concern for Kashmir and Faesal? And nothing about the fate of the Pandits of Kashmir, minorities living in Pakistan, the Chinese occupation of Tibet or the current situation in Hong Kong. Why has Faesal made this move now? To get media attention and attract publicity. He was neither detained nor arrested all these days. He has been detained so that he will not instigate Kashmiris. Peace and normalcy will soon be restored in Kashmir. – Venkata Kasala

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You all are anti-national thinkers. Your ideology either belongs to China or Russian, both of which are Communist countries. Today’s failure episode is the main problem of Communists. – GR Chandak

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Harvard students will be better off concentrating on their own studies. Sitting in the safety of their five-star classrooms and dorms, they would never have heard of the ethnic cleansing that took place in the 1990s. Shah Faesal and a few families have not allowed the development of Kashmir for 70 years. Instead, they have looted the bank and deprived the ordinary Kashmiri of basic human rights and liberty – things that Americans always clamour about.

It would be more worthwhile if these Harvard University students solved some of their own backyard problems like gun control, prison reforms, illegal immigrants, inequality within society and so on; not to forget, offering a humanitarian and viable solution to the Mexican border problem President [Donald] Trump has made a mess of. Remember that saying about people who live in glass houses? – Shankar Menon

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It is not that tough to realise that you are putting pressure on the centre to release Omar, Mufti and others. You need not rope in the so-called intellectuals of Harvard University to press for their release. Intellectuals like you, your staff and your hardcore supporters may not be bothered about what was going on in Jammu and Kashmir but we the common people or the lesser-intellectuals are. So please do not destroy the peace of the country. There are so many other issues that you can take up and criticise. Let the common people of the country live in peace. Its a request to you. – Vijaykumar AS

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A gang of students of Harvard University want an anti-national person who was known to be making anti-India comments in a BBC interview to be allowed to go out and vitiate the calm atmosphere prevailing in Jammu and Kashmir. Why? These cowardly members of the student community will hide in some secret place and won’t make a sound if you ask them to go and protest along with the Hong Kong protestors. China has already kept battle tanks ready on the Hong Kong border and the Chinese spokesperson has already said that the protest is going beyond the control of the local administration, and the Chinese government will help the local administration in quelling the demonstration. Hope these weaklings, members of the anti-India brigade – people who are perhaps on the bankroll of Wahhabi funds – will show some courage. The Chinese government will break their back. – Vasu Baliga

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I am sorry but have to say that your anti-Hindu and anti-India journalism is now hurting Indians and compelling them to live in fear of what will happen if a non-BJP government get elected in the next election. The removal of Article 370 and triple talaq have been long pending demands of all Indians. However, the Congress, for their Muslim vote bank politics have never done it. Please don’t misrepresent the fact and unnecessarily try to bring up the matter of third-parties. We all are very happy with the government’s actions and the way they have handled the situation. – Gaurav Lohia

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I think respected Harvard needs to concentrate on its own business, rather than ordering the government of India. It is our internal matter, we know how to handle it. – Mahesh Kanasageri

Did these great intellectuals say anything when Kashmiri Pandits were being thrown out of Kashmir? (Full text: Over 250 scholars, artists and activists express concern about ‘inhuman clampdown’ in J&K) No, because they would have been shot. – Mohinder Khanna

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How can we add our names to this letter? Thousands more will sign – please tell us where to sign up. – Rosemary Thomas

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I was reading one of your articles – which are all generally rather anti-India – you never talked about the democratic rights of Kashmiri Brahmins but are more concerned about terrorist’s rights or their sympathisers’. This suggests that either you are one of them, or a sympathiser or you are one of the terror funders. Please write an article about yourself as well. I mean to say – about where separatists and people like you get funds from. – Kim Kukreti

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Please ask the international forum to do justice with the people of Kashmir (UNSC to discuss Kashmir at a closed-door meeting on Friday after Pakistan’s request, say reports). As an Indian, myself, I don’t want any bloodshed and the violation of any human rights in the valley. – Smiley Chaudhuri

Gandhi’s samosa

It appears the lobby of Bharatiya Janata Party bhakts [followers] are competing with each other to spread unauthenticated fake news/videos without verification before any other bhakt spreads it. (Fact check: Did Rahul Gandhi chomp down on samosas as he did an aerial survey of flood-hit Wayanad?) This act of Madhu Kishwar’s is shameful for which she should apologise to Rahul Gandhi. Is this is the culture of BJP supporters – to spread fake news while Modi is preaching high morality? – Narendra Aggarwal

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Basically, this is an old video. What if as he had skipped his meal and might be taking [eating] something? Is it such big news to make a fuss about? [It is] better [that] we raise our standards. – ST Chandrasekhar Babu

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Miscellaneous musings

I want to extend my deepest appreciation for your article on pakhawaj paramparas or traditions (Listen: Pakhawaj players of the Nana Saheb Panse gharana, with roots in the Indore court). I would encourage you to consider publishing an article on the Nathdwara Parampara. Nathdwara, Kudao Singh, Punjab and Nana Panse are the primary paramparas. The Nathdwara parampara is characterised by calmness and spirituality and is currently represented by Pandit Totaram Sharma, Pandit Mohan Shyam Sharma, Pandit Dalchand Sharma, among others. It has very unique compositions called Pushpmalas that are created imagining the act of garlanding Shrinath [the god]. Pandit Totaram Sharma has recently published a book called Shuk Mridang Vilas that has wealth of information on the pakhawaj and hundreds of parans. He lives in Vrindavan. – Rahul Bhattacharyya

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Very well put (Full text: BJP has made baiting Nehru-Gandhi family fashionable, says social activist Agnivesh). I recall spending a day with him during the 1975 Emergency days when he was in hiding. I never thought he would be this candid about Congress and Sonia [Gandhi]. I am glad to get a feeling that there are still people [who speak up] and that there remains a chance of saving our democracy. – Amitabh

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Your writer’s article is a half-baked story without proper research (50 years ago today, Indira Gandhi got the Indian Air Force to bomb its own people). The author seems to be a Leftist from the tukde-tukde [bipartisan] gang. If he had even read Wikipedia, he would have had a better idea about the use of the Air Force at that point of time.

I have served with the Assam Rifles in Mizoram and let me state that your author does not understand the genesis of incidents in history. That way every state would cry about dominance by India. What is India? It consists of all the people residing in its territory, irrespective of caste, creed, colour and religion. People derive safety from the might of a nation-state and not inimical forces challenging its [the state’s] might.

Let me educate your author about Mizoram. The failure of the civil administration of the state government of Assam at that point of time, can’t be a reason to take up arms against the state. That way, the whole country would be continually in flames as everyone has some grievance or the other.

On March 1, 1966, the Mizo National Army started an armed rebellion simultaneously all over then Lushai Hill District – now Mizoram. Intelligence agencies did not have a clue – such was the Mizo tribal’s loyalty that even Mizo troops in the know of the date and time of the rebellion serving in Assam Rifles did not inform their superiors about the impending rebellion. During the morning’s stand to alert, which is when troops take up their position at posts early in the morning – at a few small isolated posts under Mizo non-commissioned officers of havildar rank, Mizo soldiers killed their fellow non-Mizo soldiers and butchered their family and children residing with them at those posts and then ran away with arms and ammunition.

They had captured all the government treasuries including that of the district headquarter in Aizwal. Deputy Commissioner Aizwal took shelter at one Assam Rifles headquarter. Posts at other important places like Champhai, Farkawn, Lawngtalai, Seling, Lunglei and few more places had been overrun and almost all civil officials and border road detachments along with their families were being held hostage. It goes without saying that they had been trained by Inter-Services Intelligence of the East Pakistan Army and the People’s Liberation Army of China, but your author would not research their archival inputs.

India had then fought the ’62 war and had just finished fighting the ’65 war. The Mizo National Army thought it to be the right moment for them to start a rebellion as the Army was busy/deployed on the Eastern and Western front with Pakistan and China. They shot at a helicopter bringing rations and ammunition to encircled Garrison of 1 Assam Rifles, the last holding under the authority of the government of India that had to be saved at any cost.

The plot of rebels went little awry as they had planned a victory rally to announce a Mizo nation within six days from the start of rebellion on March 3, 1966. The helicopter of the Eastern Army Commander then General Sam Manekshaw too was fired at, reinforcement columns of Indian Army were facing resistance and delays en route their march from Silchar to Aizwal, Champhai and other places and they could not have reached in time to reinforce and save last Indian remaining authority of 1 Assam Rifles HQ.

There was no other choice then but to bomb them to avoid the capture of the headquarters at Aizwal. Had it not been done then Mizoram would have been lost or remained a disputed territory as Pakistan, China and USA then would have readily recognized their nation status. In extraordinary times, extraordinary measures have to be undertaken. Collateral damage will always be there. By the way, tribal loyalties then were very strong and the civil population too were active participants and not mute spectators. The author has no tears to shed on the members of the Forces or families and children butchered by Mizo rebels? – Sanjay Kumar