Have you ever been asked if you consider yourself part of the country? A rhetorical question, the answers written in the way you’ve hung me. Out to dry if the answer is no, and a yes is just an affirmation. The aim is not the answer, it’s just to give us sermons of our dead and buried, aforementioned, our past is the only thing that isn’t sullied. Constantly reminded of how bad we were. Our present is a gift they say, be happy you’re allowed to breathe.
Would you deny your citizens the rights enshrined in the constitution? Would you leave them, lead a path of reduction? In identity and dignity. And we’ve lost our way? Have you not learned from history and do not see ways. You’ve tortured and killed, custodial, your responsibility you’ve neglected. Blinded kids with pellets, and left parents wondering, who’s next? The neighbours or is it our turn. Do we deserve the sundry of abuse? Because of our views, we’re zealots?
I’m just a tiny part of it. My privileged perception can never capture the host of emotions that follow it. I’ve never been taken to jail for expressing my views, beaten up, abused, shot at or lost someone close to me because of the state’s aggression and curfews.
The worst I’ve faced is not being able to use the internet. Not being able to call someone because 370, it was inherent. We’ve got unmarked graves that go decades back. Women who’ve been abused, overlooked, a setback. At what point does it become clear we were abandoned before we even held a prayer?
Do you consider us a part, a whole that integrated after abolishing our rights? We fight for justice; it’s your idea that’s malign. Maybe the stones represent the noise and impact we aren’t able to express. Maybe if you looked behind them, you’d find a set. Questions that relate to our being. The luxury of existence isn’t afforded to us; we’re rarely seen.
We aren’t represented by the Mufti’s, Abdullah’s or Bukhari’s. They’ll blame us for our plight if that’s what you like. In power, they work against their grain, but the AFSA and PSA are draconian, we’d like to be looked at as humans, being marked in pain, the blood has left a permanent stain.
The recent custodial killing and fake encounters are a testament. The elephant in the room is dead, but it’s Kashmir, there must be a reason for it. The question should be, do you consider us a part of the country? The answer is simple, and you know. From the world’s largest democracy, a scratch on the surface of a scarred hypocrisy.