On August 8 when Syed Ahmed Shah Geelani was shouting pro-Pakistan and religious slogans in Srinagar, about 100 km to the north, Colonel J. J. Thomas with his quick reaction team was trying to prevent Pakistani terrorists from entering J&K. Thomas and his two colleagues were killed in that encounter. The encounter was reported by a few media channels. There was no reaction by any political leader or a civil rights activist. Three days later, the defiant anti-national veteran and other ‘Azadi’ leaders (one known for murdering air force personnel) were arrested before they could lead another anti-national rally. Everyone screamed ‘crackdown’!

This week, a young fiction-writer-turned-activist writes that ‘denial of Azadi is delusion’. She accuses India of administering ‘military occupation for 18 years’ and causing ‘years of repression in which tens of thousands have been killed, thousands have been disappeared, hundreds of thousand tortured, injured, raped and humiliated’. Political leaders — Abdullah, Muftis, Azad and their colleagues — who were elected and ruled the state during this period and should be answering, let that accusation pass! When our political leaders and administrators convert a 40 hectares land dispute into a ‘secession’ issue in 60 days and award-winning romantic authors rabidly endorse that, I feel it is time to introspect India’s nationhood and governance.