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A misplaced ‘Ehsas’

Kashmir Times. Dated: 9/8/2013 11:27:29 PM

Dear Editor,
As you know I had in a viewpoint statement in the Kashmir Times of August 30 argued that the Zubin Mehta concert ought not to be credited with the power to project the case that all disputes are over with respect to the state of Jammu and Kashmir, just as the holding of an Indian passport by dissenting Kashmiris need not be read as their assent to the accession of the state to India.
Subsequent developments seem to suggest to me that, contrary to the calculations of the state, if such were their calculations, and to the fears of the dissenters, the concert may indeed, if anything, underscore rather than contest the disputed conditions in the state.
The sad fact that the concert seems to have entailed keeping the bulk of Kashmiris away from the event, even as it is nomenclatured ‘Ehsas e Kashmir’, and quarantining the venue for long kilometers cannot but tell its own tale.
Ironically, therefore, the concert may infact do wonders for those who hold that this 'political initiative' ought not to be allowed to reflect a normalcy that does not exist.
It seems all set to prove the case of the dissenters.
—Badri Raina