Those of you who expect my blog to be confined to Kashmir can stop reading this post now.

I picked up my morning paper today to see a piece from Aamir Khan’s blog about his dog called Shahrukh. I have always confessed to being an admirer of Aamir Khan’s acting and thought he was a pretty decent human being as well but his blog has left me disappointed. I honestly didn’t expect this pettiness from him. It’s all very well for him to say the dog belongs to the caretakers and they named the dog after the actor but the fact that he posted a blog about it makes one wonder. Does he really need the publicity that badly that he had to resort to shut cheap shots?

Shah Rukh Khan, of whose acting skills I am no great admirer, is without a doubt the number one star in Bollywood today. He’s not an Amitabh Bachan but then the Big B has a few decades more under his belt so he may well be in a few years from now but even Aamir Khan has to realise that he doesn’t have the commercial appeal of Shah Rukh Khan, he’s a much better actor but he’s not a bigger star. These sort of cheap shots make him come across as petty and small minded.

Come on Aamir show your fans that you are not what your blog makes you come across as. Bollywood is big enough for three Khans in fact with Fardeen and Feroz and a few other lesser Khans thrown in to the pot there are enough Khans to go around.

And I thought politicians were petty. Go figure…………………….

This one has no title because it”’’s not a planned, thought out post. It”’’s simply my reaction to some of the stuff that has been said. While I””m not aiming any shots at any of the people who have responded or posted messages on this blog as my mum always said “if the cap fits wear it”.

Lets start with Sheikh Abdullah - yes he is my grandfather and yes it”’’s difficult to be objective but even a blind man can see that he had great qualities. He never claimed to be perfect nor do we in the NC claim that he was. He was human and carried the baggage that any (or after reading this blog you””d have to say almost any) human being carried. That having been said he struggled for a cause and suffered himself. He went to jail, he spent time in exile, he was interrogated but he didn””t sit back and let others do the fighting for him. He didn””t hand over guns to poor Kashmiri boys and keep his own kids out of harms way. He didn””t shut down profitable business establishments through hartals and civil strikes while building his own big palaces. Sheikh Abdullah did what he thought was best for his people and the people responded in kind. Some will argue that his decision in 1947 was wrong - looking at the present state of Pakistan and the side of Kashmir with it, I can””t see how they can justify that argument. Was independence an option? Sure let”’’s ask the tibetans about how it is to survive as an independent country with China, India and Pakistan for neighbours. Lets ask Afghanistan what it is like to be a mountainous land locked country in the region with precious little natural wealth, or Nepal for that matter. It”’’s all very well to dream and base those dreams on theoretical models of self sufficiency looking at Switzerland and places like that but Kosovo would be a better long term model to look at. We had a cold war, we had two blocks and two choices - India or Pakistan.

Sheikh Abdullah signed an accord in 1975 and disbanded the Plebiscite front. Some will argue that this was a betrayal and they would not be completely wrong in as much as he settled without getting what he set out to get but look at the circumstances that prevailed at the time. We can””t take the luxury of looking at events in isolation and pass judgement. Yes, he signed an accord but look at what was happening around him - Pakistan had not only lost a war it had been dismembered, the Simla Agreement had been signed that promised to resolve the Kashmir issue and Indira Gandhi was being compared to Goddess Durga. Under these circumstances Sheikh Abdullah felt that he had to get the best that he could for the people and the people agreed with him. Any Kashmir expert worth his or her salt will agree that the 1977 election was the freest and fairest election the state has ever seen and the people stood behind Sheikh Abdullah and continued to stand behind him till he was laid to rest. Has any leader in Kashmir had a funeral on the scale that Sheikh Abdullah had in 1982? I think not, that having been said those that are ideologically opposed to him will remain so - such is life.

Much is said about my father and by the grace of God he”’’s still alive and kicking and doesn””t need me to set the record straight for him he does it for himself. Junaid mentioned that he danced when a Pakistani wicket fell. I wonder why the Pakistani wicket mattered so much because he dances whenever he watches a match and India takes a wicket. He makes no bones about where his loyalties lie and is not hypocritical about it. Time will tell how what he did, what he does and what he””ll do will be judged. Lets not be too quick to rush in and pass judgement ourselves as yet.

Politicians have let Kashmiris down - sure we have. But what of the engineers and officials who were hand in glove with us? What of those trusted individuals who on a meagre salary have built palaces and sent their children to the choicest colleges paying hundreds of thousands of rupees? Those that built roads that only existed on paper, ordered pipes that continue to rust decades later, drew salaries as doctors from the state while continuing to practice in the Gulf or UK - do they bear no responsibility for the suffering of the people? Two wrongs don””t make a right (another thing my mum always says) but then people living in glass houses should be very careful where they throw stones (yet another of mum”’’s gems). As a politician I have let the people of my state down but I had a lot of willing and able supporters along the way.

I am a hypocrite because I draw my salary from the Parliament of India and I still criticise India for the excesses in my state - so be it. I””ll live with being a hypocrite because it”’’s better than living as a mute spectator. I live with it because I am equally critical of the excesses of the militants. If I am critical of India”’’s actions in Kashmir, I am critical of Pakistan”’’s as well. I do a job as a member of Parliament but I haven””t sold my soul. I don””t visit the Indian Home Ministry or the Pakistani High Commission (or in some cases both together) to collect my monthly dole. But what of those who travel the world talking about the illegal nature of India”’’s occupation of Kashmir and do so on an INDIAN passport? These are people who feel so strongly about the disputed nature of Kashmir but will happily fill a landing card and mention citizenship of India. I have an uncle who more often than not I disagree with but I admire the conviction he has - he disagrees with what happened in 1947 and subsequent events and so refuses to carry a passport. He has never applied for one. For the longest time he never left the state and only travelled by road between Jammu and Srinagar because he refused to travel on ””Indian”” Airlines.

Coming to events of the last seventeen years I will only touch on a few things that come to mind because a lot of this blog is going to be taken up by this period so no point writing it all in one post. That the Indian security forces are guilty of some of the most horrible excesses is a given and I don””t dispute that. I don”t condone what was done and am a firm believer that the truth must emerge and the guilty must be punished. This must be done in a transparent manner. I have talked about the need for a truth and reconciliation commission and will write in greater detail about this in a subsequent post.

While agreeing that nothing can justify the extra-judicial killings, the rapes, the torture, I have to ask the question - was there any of this happening before militancy started in the late 80”’’s? Before some of you rush in and go for my jugular claiming that I am using militancy to justify these things let me make clear that I am NOT. NOTHING can justify what the people have had to go through but to suggest that the people of Kashmir have been subjugated and brutalized for six decades is to stretch things way too far. I don””t recall crack downs and searches before 1990, as I don””t recall arrogant convoy commanders on our roads before that either. I recall wives of Indian Army officers teaching me in school. I recall going to the homes of school friends whose fathers were in the army and playing with other ””C”” type kids all day. Incidentally while it is always unfair to use broad strokes to paint everyone and catagorise then simplistically like one of us has done with his ””A”” ””B”” and ””C”” groupings it was fun to see the reaction that ensued. The glass houses sprung to mind again.

Its so easy to say that we””ll lay down our lives to bring Kashmiri pandits back to the valley and I appreciate the sentiment as I””m sure the Kashmiri Pandits reading it will. Pity that sentiment was missing when our mosques were being used to drive these people out. None of us was willing to stand up and be counted when it mattered. None of us grabbed the mikes in the mosques and said this is wrong and the Kashmiri Pandits had every right to continue living in the valley. Our educated, well to do relatives and neighbours were spewing venom twenty four hours a day and we were mute spectators either mute in agreement or mute in abject fear but mute none the less.

And talking about mosques - what a great symbol of “mass” uprising they proved to be. While I can”t claim to have lived through it I have enough friends who did and they tell me about the early 90′’s where attendance was taken in mosques to force people to pray. If one missed a prayer in the mosque the neighbourhood enforcement committee knocked on the door and sought an explanation, usually with a few gun men present to ensure the message was received loud and clear. People were forced out of their homes to participate in “mass uprisings” against Indian “occupation” and the same enforcement committees went from door to door forcing people to march. While I don””t deny that people rose in anger in the early 90”’’s there are two sides to every story and we need to look at both or we risk losing our objectivity. Shop signs were painted green and white in Islamic colours and people were forced to set their watches to Pakistan standard time. As if these two things would make the dream of independence any easier to achieve - amazing how quickly peeople rediscovered the old colours when they could make a choice again.

This post has been a little more long winded than I had expected but then Omar Khayyam once said -

The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it

I””ve written as I felt and to be honest with you I””ve enjoyed writing every word of it.

I must apologise for my disappearance. I have been traveling and didn”t have access to the net other than on my Blackberry so while I was able to follow the discussion through the messages posted I wasn”t able to add to my blog.

I”m back and will get cracking on blogging again. I hope to have something posted tomorrow or day after tomorrow at the latest.

Traveling through rural Kashmir after dark you’d be forgiven for thinking that you’ve travelled back in time. It had been a long time since I’d ventured through rural Kashmir after dark. The security situation was such that perforce we had to schedule our engagements to end so that we could be home before dusk. Off late I have been venturing out further and later than I have done in the past and am seeing things that I have never read about in the newspaper.

Passing through South Kashmir one evening, after dark, I saw a couple of men emerge out of the darkness carrying lanterns. These were not your modern solar lamps but the age old kerosene oil burning lanterns one has seen used for centuries. I thought nothing of it but the same scene was repeated a few yards down the road and then in the next village and so on. I couldn’t understand why people would opt for a lantern when Edison had given us the incandescent bulb decades ago and cheap Chinese torches had flooded the local market. Was this some novel form of protest I wondered.

I turned to my personal security officer, Shabir, to throw some light on the subject (pun intended ). It seems it’s a security force directive that people after dark going to the mosques to pray or walking between homes must carry a lantern and not a torch. In some office somewhere a bit of warped logic has convinced someone that militants can’t or won’t carry a lantern or perhaps will choose to carry a torch to see where they are going if they decide to attack an army camp. So lanterns are safe and torches are not.

Come on people, get real here. There is no logical explanation that I can come up with to explain this instruction. I bet you won’t find any copy of it in any file anywhere. It’s obviously a word of mouth order similar to the one that declares a curfew in a large part of the valley in the night and so it’s impossible to challenge or question because it doesn’t exist.

Isn’t it time that the security establishment, which is crowing about the dramatic improvement in the situation, begin to transfer some of this ‘peace dividend’ to the people who have suffered enormously in the last 18 years squeezed between guns from two sides. Give us back our torches, it’s not like we’re asking for the moon.

The problem of unemployment in J&K is one I have been looking at closely for almost a decade now. I started in earnest when I became Minister of State for Commerce & Industry and have continued since then. There are no magic solutions to the problem and I don’t aim to propose any here either. A lot of what I feel is the way forward would be called common sense but common sense is the least common of all senses.

Jammu and Kashmir (or at least Kashmir) is not going to attract large industry because of the locational disadvantages that exist. It simply doesn’t make sense to transport raw material to the valley just to finish it and transport it back out again. The market in the valley is not big enough for such industry to set up to feed just the local market either. Kashmir has far too many infrastructure deficiencies as well - acute shortage of electricity, unreliable road and communication connectivity to name but three.

Kashmir has also suffered on account of the last 17 years of turmoil as well. Work culture has been destroyed, the spirit of enterprise, if it ever existed, has been crushed and the ‘hartal’ excuse have all contributed to a work force that is not seen as an asset. It hasn’t helped that successive governments have failed to provide meaningful vocational training and have concentrated on bookish knowledge.

But that’s enough about the problems. We all know what’s wrong, it’s the how do we set it right that is the question that needs the answers.

I believe the most important thing is the manpower. We can encourage any number of business houses to set up industry in the valley but it’s pointless if they have to import their skilled manpower from outside the state. The state needs to get in to an institutional arrangement with organisations like CII and FICCI to advise the state on building vocational training centers. At the same time the state needs to start working with youngsters to change the mindset that employment does NOT mean a government job. I have had cases of young men who have quit well paid jobs in places like Pune to come back to the state just to begin the search for a government job.

The next thing is to identify areas of strength in which we can be competitive. It’s no point trying to encourage industry for which we don’t have the core competence. Such industry usually comes to take advantage of a package of incentives and disappears as soon as the incentives are withdrawn. We can’t go looking for automobile manufacturers, steel plants and such. We can, however, go looking for investment in Information Technology and Business Process Outsourcing. We can look at bio technology and pharma. Areas where we have a natural advantage are horticulture and floriculture but the government needs to get it’s act together and set up the necessary infrastructure particularly storage and the cold chain. Herbs, essential oils and products of this nature are another area that can be focused on. High value, low volume products will negate the disadvantage of infrastructure. A simple example that springs to mind is lavender oil. Saffron is a natural area of focus that has been neglected. Saffron requires infrastructure for irrigation, quality improvement and marketing support.

Finance is an area that J&K can look at. There is no Islamic banking or Islamic Insurance set up in the state let alone the country. While this is not an area I have given much thought to as yet, I believe it is an area that can be explored. Cooperation with banks and governments in the Middle East or countries like Malaysia can play an important part.

Labour flexibility is an area that can give J&K a competitive advantage. The natural advantages offered by a Special Economic Zone coupled with the possibility of amending our labour laws in these SEZs (which is something that has not happened in the rest of India) to allow industry more flexibility and we will be able to channel some of the investment from states like Punjab and Haryana.

This are just a few stray thoughts. Obviously these are developing ideas and based on my own experiences and the feedback this blog generates I’ll post more on the subject as we go along.

In the man time a big thanks to all of you who make the time to read this blog and an even bigger thank you to those of you who leave a comment.

I am sitting and writing this blog from one of India’s most sought after clubs. Membership is not exactly limited but is not easy. The selection process is often cumbersome, very often expensive though there is no fixed membership fee - some pay in crores to gain entry and yet some get in by getting others to sponsor the fees. Membership is for life,once in never out and though membership is not automatically transferable to a member of one’s family this too has been known to happen with great regularity. The food is not much to write home about but service is quick and the food is so cheap that concepts like inflation exist in theory only and do not practically bother those using the facilities.

Where am I sitting I hear you ask. It’s simple really - I’m in the Central Hall of India’s Parliament. Almost half way between the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha chambers I sit surrounded by portraits of some of India’s great and not so great. This is where India’s constituent assembly met to discuss how India would take shape as an independent country, where once a year successive Presidents have addressed the sitting of both houses of Parliament, where I saw Bill Clinton being given a reception a rock star would have been more comfortable with.

Its also where I get the cheapest coffee and toast in the country. For ten rupees I get a cup of steaming hot South-Indian coffee and a plate of toast and still have a bit left over to tip the chap who served me. Coffee is my poison of choice though not the only one on offer - I can have the choicest Darjeeling tea (courtsey of the Tea Board), mixed vegetable soup, milk, lassi, fresh juice or “Rail Neer” (the Railways version of bottled water).

I’m spoilt for choice for food as well - plain buttered toast, tomato sandwich, boiled egg sandwich (my favourite here), cutlets, grilled chicken with boiled vegetables, upma with coconut chutney and sambar (one of my dad’s all time favourites usually with a glass of juice or a cup of soup).

It took me a while to get the hang of getting served. The secret is in leaving the change behind for the waiter. This is the only place where I”ll tip more than 100% and not think twice about it. I have no problem paying 20 bucks for my coffee and toast rather than the 10 it would normally cost me if it means I”ll get served when I want to be rather than when they want to serve me.

Entry to central hall is limited to current members with spouses, former members (life long membership as I mentioned) and a select group of media people. The food is not really the attraction though it helps, its the people who one gets to rub shoulders with while here. It’s the place to catch up on gossip, lobby for a Governorship or just to stay alive politically. Its interesting to see those who a few years ago would have journalists flocking like bees to honey for a comment sitting nursing their tea wishing someone would ask them for a quote.

I remember one Parliamentary Affairs Minister telling me that he prefers not to have the air conditioning on in Summer because if it’s too comfortable then it’ll be tough to convince members to participate in the functioning of Parliament. That doesn’t seem to stop them, however, from having a few television sets which are conveniently tuned to a cricket match should there be one worth watching. I do wish Central Hall would have wi-fi connectivity because then I’d be able to do all my blogging from there and not having to wait till I get home to post this.

In the mean time I’d better stop watching this group of former Parliamentarians plot their return and get back to the Lok Sabha to see what’s happening there.

I am looking for practical suggestions for easing the problem of unemployment in Jammu & Kashmir. There is no such thing as a stupid idea so please feel free to speak your mind. The government is super sized and we can”t keep using Govt. jobs as the solution so please help me find solutions that can be used in the state.

For the last few weeks we have been treated to regular doses of inputs from the ruling Congress-PDP alliance about what Dr Manmohan Singh was going to “gift” to the state. The claims ranged from a package for the unemployed youth to the handing over of one or two large hydro-projects to compensate for the losses the state has suffered on account of the Indus Water Treaty. There was talk about major political announcements and the PDP is on record saying that they will take up their dual currency proposal with the Prime Minister.

At the end of the visit none of this materialised. Dr Manmohan Singh dedicated the Dul Hasti project to the nation and announced a package for refugees but that was about it. Of course the alliance are falling over each other to take the credit for the Prime Minister’’s announcements but I wonder what exactly there is to crow about. Dul Hasti took 25 years and is grossly over budget, the cost per unit of power generated from here will be in double digits. Packages for refugees are a dime a dozen and I”m yet to see one deliver the results it was intended to. Having been in the Govt. of India I know just how these packages are put together and what sorts of results they deliver.

If there is a sense of disappointment after Dr Manmohan Singh’’s visit he only has his allies and fellow Congressmen to blame. They raised expectations, talked about more than was on the table and made sure that whatever was announced would fail to live up to expectations.

Yes, we have a commitment from the P.M. that the recommendations of the Rangarajan working group (of which I was a member) will be implemented. Great, but could we have a time frame please sir?

Its been three years since Srinagar was linked with Muzaffarabad in what was to be the crowning glory of the confidence building measures. I remember as clearly as though it were yesterday the atmosphere in Srinagar those days. There was fear and naturally so since the militant organisations had all come together to threaten the bus that was being launched and the threat included those passengers and their families as well. This was a threat that almost had disastrous consequences when a suicide attack was launched at the Tourist Reception Center (where the prospective passengers were being kept in safety and hiding). The historic building was gutted and we lost a wealth of precious archival material but fortunately none of the passengers were harmed.

With fear there was also hope, hope that what had been a dream for decades was now a reality. Hope that two countries that a year or two prior had been staring at each other down the barrel of a gun could now come together to connect people in a way few would have dreamed possible. There was hope that finally a peace process was going to include the wishes of the people of the state and this was the proof.

Three years on it’s amazing to see how all this has simply evaporated - the fear and unfortunately the hope as well. It seems a distant dream - Dr Manmohan Singh and Mrs Sonia Gandhi flagging off the bus. Mehbooba Mufti grinning from the window of the bus, waving at all the cameras as the bus set off, secretly thrilled that I hadn’t got a chance to board the bus and she could truly milk the occasion for all it’s political worth. Mufti Sayeed had ordered his official residence and Srinagar’s (then Kashmir’s) lone fly-over lit up with fairy lights to mark the occasion. Homes close to Uri had the walls facing the highway painted green perhaps to make guests from across the line feel comfortable though since the PDP flag is green it could just as easily have been meant to be a political message.

Today the passage of the bus is a non-event. The militants couldn’t be bothered to threaten it. It still runs every fifteen days but often without it’s full quota a passengers. It remains a shining symbol of why Kashmiris a so reluctant to believe any politician -because we promise more then we deliver. A bus that was supposed to join people is symbolic of the divide that separates us. The paper work that was supposed to make it easier for people to travel without visas and passports is the single biggest reason for the failure of the bus.

Three years on the bus that promised much is a shining example of all that is wrong with politics in general and the India Pakistan peace process in particular. It requires both nations to go back to the drawing board and re-orient the entire exercise so that it is able to deliver on what was promised.

In the mean time those that tried to cash in on the euphoria of the bus are now trying to divert peoples attention from this failure by promising trade across the LOC. For goodness sake get one thing right before you venture to start another, the people can’t afford another disappointment.

I””m sitting and watching the inaugural T20 match of the Indian Premier League as I type and it”’’s difficult not to be dazzled by the spectacle, the lights, the music. Fortunately for the game the action on the field has been much better than the opening ceremony laid on by Vijay Mallaya which is no mean feat since the self confessed King of good times knows how to lay on a party.

For a while I was wondering if this was an opening ceremony for the Olympics or Asian Games with acrobats, flag bearers (who entered hanging from wires attached to the flood-lights) and an oath ceremony. The world of cricket has seen nothing like this and the purists are probably appalled by the cheer leaders not to mention Shahrukh Khan’’s team in their GOLD helmets and pads.

How much influence this will have on the game of cricket - only time will tell. One thing is for sure cricket in India will never be the same and I guess that can be said for the rest of the cricketing world as well. I”d be interested to see if this new TV friendly format is able to spread beyond the traditional cricket playing nations.

Spare a thought for Zee’’s Subhash Chandra. Every one has been very quick to credit BCCI and Lalit Modi for this revolution. Correct me if I”m wrong but wasn”t IPL a panic reaction to Chandra’’s break away ICL. It was only BCCI’’s financial and political muscle that squeezed ICL and reduced it to a pariah status surviving on cricketers either retired or never likely to play for their country. Chandra, after all the money spent, must be left wondering what might have been if only……………..