“Everything fair in love and war,” says senior BJP leader Ram Madhav on the use of human shield in Kashmir

Senior BJP leader Ram Madhav dropped a bombshell saying that the use of Kashmiri youth as a human shield against angry stone-pelters was a right thing to do

By: Majid Hyderi |
April 21, 2017 8:05 pm

Senior BJP leader and architect of his party’s alliance with PDP in Jammu and Kashmir – Ram Madhav – has dropped a bombshell saying that the idea of using a Kashmiri youth as a human shield against angry stone-pelters in Kashmir by a young army officer was the right thing as “everything is fair in love and war”.

“There would have been huge amount of loss of human life. He (Army Major) tried to avoid that… One can try and take a moral position on what he did was right or wrong. In a war and love, everything is fair,” Madhav told CNN-News18 in a recent interview.

Explaining his point further Madhav said: “War-like situation emerges when 900 to 1000 people with heavy stones stand in the way, you are left with only two options. Go and crush them, indulge in some kind of killing spree, which that young major avoided. I will compliment him for the decision he took. He saved the lives of the people in the police station, the officials and also his own boys, while not allowing any civilian casualties.”

While the remarks have caused a stir, there are some logical arguments to counter the BJP’s viewpoint. Is the mainland India at war with the agitated youth of Kashmir? And, how can a government be at war with its own people, that too over an issue of street protests, something which nowadays is like global phenomena.

In a healthy society, there are always voices of dissent against the government or its decisions, but every government doesn’t wage a war against its people. Had it been so earth should have been in a constant state of world-war since times immemorial, when humans came to being.

Well, for a moment, let’s presume that the larger state is at a war with people of Kashmir. But in such a case emergency needs to be declared, because otherwise also, many complain of their fundamental rights, especially that of right to freedom of expression being curbed, through gags like that on social media.

It’s high time for Ram Madhav, who is BJP’s point-man on Kashmir to ask the central government to get emergency declared in Jammu and Kashmir through dissolution of the state assembly.

Let the warriors be bombed but not be used as human shield for that amounts to war crime. Moreover when by-elections were held for the Srinagar Parliamentary seat on April 9, only 7.1% of registered voters turned up at the booths. The 26-year-old shawl maker Farooq Ahmad Dar, a resident of Chil village, was one of them. After voting he was forcibly tied to Army jeep as human shield.

So, if casting vote doesn’t bring any change and Kashmir is in a state of war, better call off the state Assembly and go for the President’s rule.

But then late Chief Minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed who in 2015 brought “north and south poles together” by tying knot with BJP seems to be visionary as he put some element of fairness even in the name of his official residence, presently being used by his daughter and successor Mehbooba Mufti. The villa is called Fair View!