Hurriyat & Hartals

Hartals (Public protests) are a common and acceptable way of expressing public angst against government apathy towards the concerns and aspirations of the people and in a democracy, this form of protest is a very effective weapon in the hands of the masses. An example of how well a planned and peacefully conducted protest can send the government in a tizzy and force it to act can be found in the Anna Hazare led Lok Pal Bill implementation movement of 2012. In Kashmir too, hartals called for by the All Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) are common place and just last week the Valley witnessed two hartals, the first on October 23 to protest against the visit of Prime Minister Modi and the second on October 27 to protest against arrival of the Indian Army in Kashmir 67 years ago! 

Calling for a hartal on October 27 has become an annual ritual for the APHC and over the years, the public has come to accept this as an inevitable event due to which its response to this call has become equally mechanical. While most prefer to remain indoors on this day, those who come out to protest invariably start indulging in acts of violence like damaging public property or pelting stones at the police and paramilitary forces on maintenance of law and order duties. In the absence of any actions taken by the APHC leaders to restrain protesters, they often end up taking law into their own hands. Once this happens, things invariably go out of hand and when protesting crowds turn into emotionally charged mobs, they unnecessarily get exposed to bodily harm when the law enforcement forces use force to prevent the situation from spiraling out of control. 

Reports filed by journalists from “ground-zero” regarding the hartal call given by the AHPC for October 27 reveal that this year the public response has been poor and there was no complete shutdown as expected. Visuals show people going about their normal activities and transport plying as usual. Yet, the AHPC is trying to tell the world that this year the October 27 hartal call received an overwhelming response and has tried to justify the indifferent public approach to the arrest of its leaders and intimidation of public by intelligence and law enforcing agencies. These explanations are not convincing, because just like the routine APHC call for a hartal on October 27, the arrest of its leaders on the eve of this hartal too has become a ritual for the police. Therefore, there was nothing extra that the state administration did this time to scuttle the hartal and so, there must be other reasons for the poor public response. 

The main reason for poor public response may be the fact that due to indiscriminate calls for hartals, which throw normal life out of gear, the people have become ‘hartal-weary’. Moreover, after the people of Kashmir have been recently devastated by the massive floods and that too just before the onset of winters and are still struggling to reclaim their livelihood, the very idea of observing two hartals within a week is atrocious. It is sad that instead of supporting its people during their hour of crisis, the APHC is trying to impede their efforts of rebuilding their lives by giving frequent calls for hartals. The APHC may be right in its own way of ensuring that its struggle continues, but when this is at the cost of the common man, it only indicates that the APHC may be losing touch with reality and this is not a good sign.

There is an old saying “Too much of everything is bad.” This is a universal adage and is equally applicable to hartals too. As long as hartals relate to valid reasons, it matters and makes a difference. However, when hartals become a matter of routine, then they lose their significance. Logically speaking, observing a hartal simply because the Prime Minister is visiting the state makes no sense and impresses none. As far as the October 27 hartal is concerned, this protest too is meaningless as the Government of India sent in its army to Kashmir on the explicit request of the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir, who at that time was internationally accepted as the head of state. The APHC should realise that even though the UN has passed resolutions on the Kashmir issue and called for plebiscite, it has not even once declared the arrival of Indian troops in Kashmir an illegal act!

The APHC should not take the people of Kashmir for granted and get over the habit of calling for hartals at the drop of the hat. The APHC is using hartals to bring the Kashmir issue to the notice of the international community and there is nothing wrong is doing so. However, by its frequent hartal calls on frivolous issues, the APHC has ended in making it a regular affair that no longer attracts attention of the international community. For example, why call for hartals on August 15 and January 26 every year to protest against India’s independence and its becoming a republic? Surely the people of Kashmir harbour no grudge about India getting its independence or becoming a republic! Therefore, the APHC should revisit its ‘hartal strategy’ and reinvigorate this powerful tool of expressing public dissent by making it more of an exception rather than a rule. 

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