SRINAGAR: Yet again, Kashmiris have been greeted on the eve of Eid-ul-Fitr by politicians from across the political divide, as also by a host of topnotch bureaucrats and Police officers. Do these ritualistic greetings count? “No,” says Tariq Ahmad, a struggling architect, “this has become too ceremonial.”
Tariq points to a growing malaise that has afflicted politicians and who’s who of the POWER. “They feel it mandatory to churn out a press release greeting people. It’s too pretentious.” Many here believe that the politicians would do well if they mix up with people and feel the life’s harder realities from up close. “After all festivals are peoples’ domain. They better cease to be big daddy’s of the society for at least a day. That would be the greatest greeting from them,” says Anjum, Tariq’s assistant.
Wijdaan, 26, shares Tariq’s views, saying, “It’s sad to note that even Hurriyat leaders have fallen prey to the publicity addiction. They have their media departments and they too crank out large messages. They best way to greet people would be to visit common peoples’ houses. It’s not necessary that a boy should die to make a Hurriyat leader to visit a commoner’s house.”
While the people don’t care about the “Eid messages”, the political actors, much in the manner of corporate ads, race to grab attention on such attentions. “A top Police official’s best way of greeting is to ensure safe conduct of religious functions. Similarly an administer can endear himself to people by providing better services not by managing prominent message in a newspaper,” Tariq says adding that Kashmiri society better shun the pretentious approach to even festivals as sacred as Eid-ul-Fitr.
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