Of poster boys in Army fatigues

Burhan Muzaffar Wani is dead. At 21 years, he did not have to. He could have chosen to live longer. He did not. After these four short sentences comprising 23 words, at this precise point, the narrative forks. The one in the Valley goes like this:

How could he have chosen otherwise? He was a bright son of a well-to-do school headmaster. He grew up amidst the ubiquitous presence of the khaki and the camouflaged olive; the police, the CRPF and the Army. It overwhelmed him.

The humiliation of having to prove his identity every now and then, to someone who did not even belong there, was too much to take for him. Frequent curfews, search and seize ops, cordon and combing for the militants hiding, aggravated the sense of being under occupation.

Also read - Why I think Burhan Wani's encounter was extra-judicial killing

Add to that, widespread excesses that resulted in several thousands of Kashmiris dead in 26 years, hundreds of half-widows and orphans, frequent molestations and rapes, preventive detentions, missing people, AFSPA... the list is long.

How could he have disregarded all this to go ahead to built a career for himself, married his sweetheart, settled down to raising a family and aged gracefully, like they all do? Burhan was not the first. He will not be the last either.

But, that is not how those who follow Kashmir, in the rest of India, see it. To most of them, this is how the narrative goes. Burhan was an armed-to-teeth terrorist. He was brainwashed to become a tool in the hands of those handlers who, from across the border in Pakistan, look for such recruits to engage India in a low-cost war.

He, unwittingly perhaps, chose to become canon-fodder in their war against India, to grab Kashmir. Pakistan wages this war by fanning religious disaffection in the Muslim majority Kashmir and also among the Muslims elsewhere in India, to recruit insurgents for strikes all over India.

Burhan was incidental. There have been several such Burhans in the past. There are several more waiting to be tapped. Till such time that India does not crush such mischief by Pakistan, resolutely, and deliver Pakistan a hard enough blow, to make it back off from such a misadventure, we all will have to endure this pain and wait for our moment.

Perhaps, the laziest thing to do about these two narratives is to say that the truth lies somewhere in their middle. Besides, who am I to conclude for you what the truth is and where it does, after all, lie. All I can attempt is to put down the facts, as I see them.

Let me place the facts vis-à-vis the Valley-narrative first.

First of all, Burhan Wani could, indeed, have chosen otherwise. Just as over 99 per cent of his peers did. Some of whom, who were academically inclined, cracked the competitive exams.

A large number joined the Army, the BSF and the police. Many are building a career in journalism, right here in Delhi. Not all of them are without a grievance. Some of them, in fact, sound as aggrieved as Burhan might have been, if not more. But, they shun the gun. They use an argument, instead.

Second, he was a school drop-out. He may, yet, have been promising but, it is not about being bright. Nor it is about coming from a well-to-do family. Most of the recent infamous five of Dhaka were also considered well.

Also read - If Muslims followed the 5 tenets of Islam, the world will be a better place

They went to more coveted schools than Burhan did and lived in even tonier neighbourhoods. Privileged upbringing can no more be considered an inoculation against bestiality.

Terror, as a career, has turned out to be a big leveller. A London School of Economics alumnus can slit the throat of an innocent stranger as unwaveringly as a "Talib" from the Madrasa Haqqania in FATA Waziristan.

Third, though it can be safely conceded that Kashmir has had, for some years, more than a "normal" presence of the security forces, this too is a lame alibi. The Burhans of the '80s did not grow up amidst a swarm of khaki.

Nor was there any AFSPA those days. Battle fatigues and AFSPA came only after an entire community of Hindus was cleansed through a series of murders, rapes, abductions, massacres and brandishing public threats of larger-scale violence.

The Army and AFSPA came only after a complete mayhem was let loose, to challenge the very existence of the Indian State. What did the Burhans (and the Bittas and the Yasins and the Zargars) of the '80s expect?

Also read - Kashmir on life support: Aftermath of Burhan’s killing was avoidable

That the Indian State would not show up; and, instead, offer Kashmir, on a platter, to this thug-collective, for onward delivery to Pakistan? After all the blood and gore of killing a vice-chancellor, a DG Doordarshan, a retired judge, a senior advocate, several popular leaders, authors, poets, scholars, bureaucrats, engineers, doctors, teachers and traders; abducting and raping nurses and students, in hundreds - all unarmed non-combatants, what did you expect?

That the terrorists you harboured in your houses, would be taken out in a surgical-operation of such laser-precision that it wouldn't leave even a stain on your immaculate namdaas? Insurgency does not come cheap. And remember, the consequences of committing genocide are yet to catch up. And catch up, they will.

Fourth, it is, sadly, true that Burhan is not the last. Many more Burhans will come, and go, the same way. And, each time they go, a few dozen nameless and faceless, poor wannabe Burhans, will go along.

Only, because they are much too far from realising that they are no more than cannon-fodder. That their role is no more than offering half an opportunity to the likes of Hafiz Sayeed to publicly crow, and exhort the Pakistani State, - "Mauka hai, fayda uthaao!"

Now, about the gaps in the Burhan-narrative in the rest of India.

Also read - SC judgment on AFSPA is significant

First of all, it isn't that Burhan was brainwashed on the sly, by some "cloak 'n dagger" child-lifter gang who look out for the poorly supervised and unattended dimwits in their sub-teens.

Jamaat-e-Islami, from the '50s, has been working hard at penetrating the larger Kashmiri Muslim milieu through its network of madrasas. As they, relentlessly, chipped away at the largely "Aitekadi" Kashmiri Muslim society, undisturbed and unchallenged, they managed to raise a large radicalised following of their own.

These Islamists, themselves, imbue their own children with a world view that is hatefully doctrinaire. This spread of Jamaat has a familial/social sanction and has taken an epidemic proportion.

So, it isn't like the hapless Hindu/Christian parents in Kerala, discovering, to their shock one fine morning, that their children are in Syria fighting for ISIS.

Two, Jamaat is an unabashed advocate of Kashmir-for-Pakistan. When the JKLF advocated a different line during the '90s, of an independent Kashmir, the Jamaat, through its own terror-outfit - Hizbul Mujahideen - got many of them disarmed and killed. So, becoming a Pakistani tool is not inadvertent but by choice.

Three, Jamaat's preference for Pakistan is not owing to their love for Pakistan's nationhood. In fact, they do not believe in any kind of nationalism, socialism, secularism or democracy. They are, self-admittedly, Islam supremacists and therefore pan-Islamists.

Four, Jamaat is the reason why Kashmiri separatists connect with global jihad and will not be happy with dismembering Kashmir alone. The present insistence on Kashmir alone is only tactical as it is, in their view, a low-hung fruit.

They also know that any success in Kashmir will have a domino effect and weaken the Union considerably, to their advantage everywhere else in India.

Five, electing a super-patriot as the prime minister, even with a clear mandate, may not be enough to ensure that he does all the heavy lifting necessary for Pakistan to back off from its Kashmir obsession.

Also read - The Kashmir India doesn't want to know

Once in power, the "system", inevitably, takes over. The "system" that is worked by the ace "statecraft-men". The "system" that teaches the virtues of "status quo" over change and the path-of-least-resistance. The "system" that packages perfidy as a "masterstroke". Agenda-for-Alliance, between the PDP and the BJP typifies a classic perfidy in the present case.

Six, the sudden spurt in the violence in Kashmir and the growing belligerence of the separatists is in huge contrast to the shock 'n awe produced by May 16, 2014.

Several missteps in dealing with Pakistan, Hurriyat and the PDP, have helped all three of them in a psychological recovery.

Not just that, their confidence suggests that they have got a measure of the man they weren't too sure of, till recently. Therefore, a mere wait may not yield much.

A vigorous mobilisation of public opinion that sends out incessant reminders about the squandered mandate seems the only way left to coax some course-correction.

Beyond the tale of these two conflicting narratives is one aspect which is unique to this story and where there is little argument. It is the glamour quotient in the making of Burhan Wani an icon among a section of Kashmiri youth.

Barkha Dutt feels it is his use of the social media. Some say it was his daring in exposing his face when clicking pictures or making videos for public posting. He is also not your regular ugly dishevelled maniac.

But, in my opinion, what may have made his visual persona into a poster boy are, ironically, the stolen Indian Army battle-fatigues. They look absolutely smart.

I remember, my fascination for the Indian Army's olive green, too, began in my early teens, just as Burhan's. Some happy-ending types may wonder, can this compelling lure of an Indian Army soldier's uniform become an antidote to jihad and a timely draw for the Burhans of tomorrow to fight for India?

Nah, unlikely. Sorry to disappoint you.