Tilting at the windmills...

Noted author and political activist, late Balraj Puri, once recorded in his columns that a delegation of Kashmiris complained to the Dogra ruler, Ranbir Singh, (1865-1885) that their community was not being recruited in the military.  

A career in the army was an elite option those days, similar to the civil services today. The ruler immediately asked his army chief to raise a battalion of Kashmiri youth.  

The order was carried out and the battalion was trained at the Badami Bagh cantonment — currently headquarters of the strategically-significant Srinagar-based 15 Corps.

After completing the initial training, they were asked to march towards Udhampur — the headquarters of Dogra Army — via Banihal highway. The new army unit refused to comply.  

After several reminders, they were issued a show cause notice. The battalion commander replied that they were ready to march, but the police would not provide an escort for their security along the Banihal highway, despite several requests.   

The ruler immediately ordered disbanding of this military battalion, which needed police security for its movement!

The recent blanket ban on the movement of civilian traffic twice a week on the National Highway along Udhampur, Srinagar and Baramulla, reflects a similar mindset. Security forces, which are meant to provide for the safety of civilians, are themselves insecure. 

Former Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Gen Ved Prakash Malik has described this ban on civilian traffic as a “dumb idea”. In a tweet, the former army chief said that prohibitory orders on civil movement on the highway go against the core object of winning hearts and minds. 

The security brass both at Srinagar and New Delhi say they had nothing to do with the order to reserve Sunday and Wednesday entirely for the movement of troops. 

While the decision to ban civilian traffic on these two days was taken at a meeting chaired by Governor Satyapal Malik to prevent recurrence of a Pulwama-type attack, the armed forces have made it clear that two days were simply not enough for their movements, given the level of deployment.  

After a lot of hue and cry, and when parallels were raised between Kashmir and Palestine, even Apartheid-era South Africa, a Home Ministry statement blandly said that too much was being made out of a non-issue. 

Officials added, for good effect,  that alternate routes, including the old National Highway, were available for civilian movement. 

The Srinagar-Muzaffarabad-Rawalpindi road is this old National Highway, which stands closed after Pakistan occupied the lands across Uri. This highway, not just connects the rest of the country with the Kashmir Valley, it is also the main arterial road that links towns and villages of the Kashmir Valley as well. There is no other road that connects Anantnag with Srinagar and Srinagar with Baramulla and Sopore.

The government has appointed around 100 magistrates to oversee the movement of convoys and enforce the ban. While the order stipulates that those on emergency duties will be exempted, the magistrates have to decide on the nature of the emergencies. And they can be very eclectic.

A magistrate in Anantnag issued a permit to a groom to take 12 baratis with him on the National Highway to reach Doda, while another magistrate, in order to save paper, put stamp and signature on the hand of a passenger! 

Though tourists are exempted, tour operator Yakub Dunoo was quoted as saying that his visitors were stopped 50 times between Srinagar and Bejbehara. 

Students and teachers have both been severely hit by the order. Several students at the Kashmir University, who have to travel from other districts of the valley, could not attend their classes. 

Although the university has managed bus passes for its students and staff on the day of the traffic ban, a faculty member said that academic work had been badly affected. 

Former government servants, academics, analysts and civil society members, have asked  Union home minister Rajnath Singh to reconsider the ban on the movement of civilians. These include some of the most distinguished names in this country.  

In 2005, two years after the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had defeated the National Conference (NC) to come to power in Jammu and Kashmir, this writer was returning to Srinagar from North Kashmir’s apple-rich Sopore town. The driver of the eight-seater Tata Sumo quipped, ‘haalaat Kashmir mein bohot theek hogayee hein’(the situation has improved a lot in Kashmir). When asked about the basis of his observation, the driver innocently pointed out that he can now overtake army vehicles with ease, while plying on the busy Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road!

He did so, waving to soldiers who were either guarding the road or boarding vehicles with their packed baggage, to support his point. 

For years, villages in South Kashmir had to observe blackouts. In winters, villages would go dark as early as 5 pm, making it almost impossible for children to do their homework. Chief minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, in consultation with then 15 Corps Commander, Lt General VG Patankar, ended this practice and allowed villages to light up lamps or switch to electric bulbs.

After years of turbulence coupled with bloodshed and security parades, people on the ground sniffed a whiff of fresh air. 

Fourteen years later, it is not merely overtaking that is prohibited, but the movement of entire civilian traffic has been banned, sending all the goodwill generated over the years into the drain.

Author is a noted writer