Atrue understanding of events is often to be had from reading between the lines. Just below the surface reactions to the near–war being waged at Kargil, the discourse has assumed alarming communal overtones. Both the Hindu and Muslim right on either side of the border have come into their own. The
mind–set of the Hindu right is reflected most cogently in the June 20 editorial of the RSS mouthpiece, Panchjanya. Titled "Ab Sabak Sikhao" (‘Now, Teach them a lesson’), the leader views the current "back–stabbing" by Pakistan as a continuation of the centuries’ old barbarism of the marauding Muslim invader. While severely castigating the infamous editorial for its exhortation to Vajpayee to deploy the nuclear arsenal to finally settle this ‘clash of cultures’ in Hinduism’s favour, the national dailies have chosen to ignore the RSS mouthpiece’s blatant churning of communal passion. For their part, rabble–rousing representatives of the Muslim communal mind–set in Pakistan continue to interpret the skirmish over Kashmir as their very own brand of "jihad".

Predictably, for these narrow mindsets, Kashmir remains a mere question of real estate; the Valley’s long tradition of tolerance, its people’s democratic aspirations, or the present plight of all the people of Jammu and Kashmir seems to be of little concern. When the mainstream media discourse blots out Kashmiri voices from the entire discourse around Kargil, questions need to be raised. (See CC, June 1999). But when this exercise in self-censorship extends to ignoring ground–level communal developments within and beyond the state of Jammu and Kashmir, motives or perspectives need to be even more closely examined.

The gunfire at Kargil has distracted public attention from the highly disturbing indication that the ruling National Conference government led by Farooq Abdullah in J & K seems close to finalising a surreptitious deal with the local and central units of the BJP – a communal division of the state into Muslim Kashmir, Hindu Jammu and Buddhist Ladakh. Were this game–plan to succeed, it will not only strike a fatal blow at the centuries’ old tradition of mutual goodwill and religious co–existence in a sensitive border state, but also effectively validate Pakistan’s communal agenda that is the flip side of the sangh parivar’s rationale for a Hindu rashtra.

Our cover story this month has a special report from Balraj Puri in Jammu, closely examining crucial issues concerning Kashmir that have got drowned out in the outpouring of nationalist sentiment in response to Pakistan’s brazen provocation. To elaborate on the danger to which Puri draws our attention in the concluding paragraph of his report, we have pulled out, for the benefit of our readers, some material from cyberspace and also translated some of the contents of the June 20 issue of Panchjanya. We hope that a perusal of these will enable our discerning readers to see Kargil and the larger issue of Kashmir in the right perspective.

Closer home, it is apparent from our update on the action taken, or not taken, on the recommendations contained in the Srikrishna Commission’s report on the Mumbai riots of 1992–93, that the Shiv Sena–BJP government in Maharashtra has no intention of penal measures against those responsible for mass murder and mayhem.

In any account of the struggle for human rights in India, the name of Justice V.M. Tarkunde must figure among its most prominent crusaders. On the occasion of his turning 90, we deem it our privilege to pay tributes to the courage and the conviction with which this eminent citizen of India has carried out his lifelong crusade.

This month is also the 600th birth anniversary of Kabir. An essay on the sant–poet debunks the popular projection of the man as an ‘apostle of Hindu–Muslim unity’ and highlights the fact that the focus of Kabir’s concern was neither this community nor that but the individual human being.