Because while hundreds of people lost their lives in Srinagar in a certain year, the then chief minister who did nothing to prevent those deaths, threw tantrums in Gupkar because he couldn’t get his daily quota of Rainbow-brand milk imported from Dubai.
Because years after years mothers in Kashmir can’t help feeding their toddlers adulterated milk and using spices not fit for human consumption to cook a decent meal for their families. And the businessmen owning milk and spice factories are too politically connected to fear the law enforcement agencies headed by the spineless, spiritless IAS and the IPS.
Because female students can’t help using tardy, overcrowded buses and matadors run by ill-behaved, abusive drivers; and they can’t help facing harassment, humiliation and monetary loot during their daily commute. And the vehicles are owned by businessmen who pay hefty bribes to cabbages masquerading as politicians. I was once the traffic chief in J and K; I should know.
Because dozens of politicians have siphoned thousands of crores of rupees of taxpayers’ money to finance their business ventures in Bengaluru and Burz Khalifa. They are the reason why J and K has topped the national chart in corruption. They have encroached upon meadows in Gulmarg and Ganderbal. They’ve grabbed public land in Bagat Parraypora, Bathindi and Nagrota and built palatial houses for their clan. These outlaws have fleeced wakf boards and made huge investments via their in-laws in private medical and engineering colleges and in J and K and beyond.
Because these theatre artists of Gupkar play politics of identity capitalism to fool the innocent public, steal their votes and loot their hard-earned money. While in power, they preside over the health department that has blood on its hands, the blood of hundreds of toddlers who die in the children hospital in Srinagar in winters. While out of power, these politicians share requests for oxygen cylinders and blood donation on Twitter.
Because some tall leaders play condolence politics in Jammu and Kashmir before polling and thank Pakistan after the elections. In public speeches in Sopore and Shopian, they’ll exhort the masses to stay away from polling booths, and to kill and to get killed in the name of Kashmiri exceptionalism; and away from public glare, they’ll use Pakistani money to build palatial houses in Hyderpora and Maisuma. While instigating people to set public properties and police vehicles on fire, these leaders get government jobs for their children via backdoor entry. And, when they fall ill, they fly to New Delhi for super-specialized surgeries, while their followers in Keran and Kulgam can’t find an ambulance for themselves. So much sincerity from the leaders advocating human rights for the consumption of the western media.
Because cabbages are bad for the health of the political space in J and K. Because a clean divorce is healthier than a dirty marriage in one’s life.
I don’t know of a life beyond Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh; I don’t have one because I haven’t seen one. This place gave me my Prophet Abraham. Prophets don’t dupe; they hold hands; mine held mine by the lake in Srinagar.
In January 2019, in the India Today conclave, I said, “Those who’re pelting stones at the police in Kashmir are my kindred. A funeral in their family is a funeral in my family; a wedding in their family is a wedding in my family. I can’t disown them.” Later, Srinagar police registered an FIR against me and the allegation is that I’m anti-national. The investigating officer hasn’t been able to contact me though more than two years have passed during COVID 19.
The pandemic ransacked our homes, hospitals, schools, sports grounds, public transport and etc. Towns, villages and hamlets were ravaged by deaths, diseases and destitution. Watching all this happen and do nothing would have been the colossal act of cowardice. At a personal level, it upended my priorities, decluttered my headspace and re-arranged my life goals. When I entered the police academy in 2000, I had huge expectations from myself. I met two great human beings – Renuka Sastry and Aditya Mishra, both in the IPS, UP cadre – who taught me the principles of leadership in a flesh-and-blood way that no Harvard University degree can replicate. As a cop, I tried to do my bit to decimate the corrupt architecture built by the political cabbages and their cronies in bureaucracy. No regrets.
India’s IAS-IPS biradari has been singing a dirge of rampant political interference and it refuses to accept that it is afflicted with four deficits - the deficits of knowledge, trust, integrity and accountability. They’re scared of letting go of their colonial-era entitlements. While undergoing training in the NPA (National Police Academy), I realized that India’s top bureaucrats are the real NPA (Non-Performing Assets) of our political economy of governance architecture, notwithstanding the contributions of K. Sujatha Rao, Julio Francis Ribeiro, James Michael Lyngdoh and other outliers towards nation-building.
I decided to quit the IPS and join BJP because I’m convinced that we can make politics of dignity a reality in our lifetime only if we can co-produce dignity of politics as consumers and producers of politics and as citizens.
From Abraham Lincoln to Baba Saheb Ambedkar to Golda Meir to Jacinda Ardern, politics was supposed to be a noble calling. TV studio anchors like Arnab Goswami and Sudhir Chaudhary are as much responsible for sullying our public discourse as the Lenin-Stalin-admiring and agenda-pushing gate-keeping left-liberal media legions that think their saviour-prince, Rahul Gandhi, is intelligent and sincere enough to lead India’s youth and win elections on his own. They should watch the video of what he said about Soni Sori in his press conference and be careful what they wish for. Rahul Gandhi had the audacity and wisdom to tear the bills that were placed before the parliament by his own prime minister.
India’s Skoda-driving, scotch-sipping, Left-leaning intellectuals can’t run away from these inescapable questions.
How many people in J and K shed tears when the former chief ministers and home ministers were booked under Public Safety Act in 2019? What is the percentage of the PSA warrants issued during the tenures of these politicians that were rejected (or quashed) in the courts? How did Article 370 benefit three generations of the underprivileged population of J and K till it was scrapped in 2019? How many people got killed during P Chidambaram’s tenure as the home minister? What prevented him from stopping the killings? Why does he indulge in virtue signalling in 2023 knowing fully well that India’s voters will never allow his party to bring back anything that remotely looks like Article 370?
I decided to quit the IPS and join BJP because I intend to challenge the political monopoly of the conflict entrepreneurs of Gupkar, Maisuma and Rajouri Kadal and help open up democratic space for our youth.
Because I wish to focus my energy and integrity to do in Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh what Abdul Sattar Edhi did to health and education sectors in Pakistan. I didn’t leave J and K and go on deputation to Delhi even once in my twenty-three years in the IPS; this sacred place is my Karmabhoomi.
Because I met my Prophet Abraham by the lake in Srinagar one November evening.
(The author is an IPS officer of 2000 batch. He works in Jammu and Kashmir. Views are personal.)
