Indian Army Coached 26 Kashmiri Students For JEE (Mains) Exam, 15 Got Selected

The Army’s Dagger Division, on Behalf on Chinar Corps, at Baramulla facilitated the students of the Valley who attended Kashmir Super-30 engineering coaching programme in 2015-16.

See more here:

http://topyaps.com/15-kashmiri-students-jee-mains-2016

A lot of my civilian and some Army friends commented on this initiative, mostly in the negative.

Some of them:

" Why waste time on them"

"Why not train veterans children"

"They are separatists and traitors don't deserve to come into Indian Institutes of learning". Plus a whole variety of them. Very few if any commended the Army for this sadbhavana initiative. I think all of us tended to forget that we are talking of children in the age group of 18 to 20.

I was very sad to also see a comment that " Still they will always love Pakistan". Actually this was the comment that hurt me most and triggered me to share my thoughts more than anything else.

I do appreciate these comments from the view point of those who see Kashmiris as anti Nationals and traitors. A separatist bunch of terrorists. However the comment that "They will still love Pakistan",  said with reference to students being trained for JEE and IIT entrance, that I think only time will tell.  

Twenty years of working as a facilitator and trainer and conducting Soft Skills Development Training Programs in Manufacturing and Service Industry mostly multinational and large corporate, teaching in Universities and Colleges, I tend to rethink. We cannot impose our perceptions on Gen Next. After all they are evolving and we are dinosaurs now fading into the mists of time.

I hated Pakistan and even hate it today, my sworn enemies from 1971. I used to harbor equal hate for Nehru, his dynasty and the Nehru topiwalas, the reason behind all the mess. If you really see the origins of this Kashmiri problem, it lies squarely at the feet of Jawaharlal Nehru,  an incompetent, egoistic and the weakest PM India has had the misfortune to have, these facts are available in contemporary history not colored by the white topiwalas. Even as Pakistani raiders were within 7 km of the Srinagar airport on 26 October 1947, and Sardar Patel prevailing upon Nehru. Manekshaw, then a Lt Colonel in the Directorate of Military Operations, presented an assessment to the Defence Committee of the Cabinet that Kashmir would be lost for good if troops were not flown immediately.
"Nehru hesitated (even after the Maharaja of Kashmir acceded to India). He was concerned about the world opinion (aka Looking Good) and talked about consulting the UN, until an impatient Sardar Patel wrested the initiative from him. "Jawahar, do you want Kashmir or do you want to give it away?" "Of course, I want Kashmir," was Nehru's indignant response. The Sardar turned to Sam and said, "You have your marching orders". Then my father who was a part of the operations as a company commander of a Sikh battalion, tells me Nehru stopped our advance into now Pak occupied Kashmir. We begged for just 48 hours to finish this battle, but this idiot on the advice of Mrs Mountbatten called in the United Nations and ordered a cease fire and left this state permanently on fire.. So why blame these children for the sins of their fathers? However that is neither here and there.

Coming back to the comment by people, "Why waste time on Kashmiri students"," they will still love Pakistan" and others, I feel the implication is that these friends feel that by giving an opportunity to Kashmiri kids to come into the mainstream of Indian Society, by facilitating their studies to become competitive and join premier Institutions of learning, they should become Indoctrinated with thoughts that will make them Nationalistic within the definitions of Nationalism as my friends see it, and taking it a bit further as stated, start hating Pakistan. Then in their ideas, these students will become true Indians deserving everything.

I am now more than certain and convinced, that we cannot impose on this generation in their late teens or early twenties, to hate Pakistan or to that matter China or any other country, because our or my sense of Nationalism dictates so,  because of our experiences with Pakistan says so.

Perception is at best subjective there can be no right or wrong or good or bad. One thing I have found for certain, is, that my students who are mostly in their late teens and early twenties know what they want. Unfortunately it may not be congruent with our ideas. That is the beauty of life. You and me do not know if the same drama takes place on the other side of the border or not, which most probably it does.

Our times are done, it is these students of today who will dictate as to which path has to be trodden globally, so also which direction they will take this forever  evolving  nation. I think let the new generation have a free hand once a “Vision” is created. Let them be the designers of a new foundation along with the new buildings. Let them learn from old mistakes and their own. Let them close gaps to the front and not to their rear. Let us not keep making them look into rear view mirrors all the time in terms of our righteousness, vanity, cultural, social and religious bindings and our beliefs of what Nationalism truly consists of.

Our way of being and our actions are correlated with (responsive to) the way in which what we are dealing with occurs or shows up for us.  For example, if the way a situation we are dealing with occurs for us as threatening, our way of being and acting - that is, our mental, emotional, and bodily states, and our thoughts and thought processes, and our actions - is likely to be correlated with
(responsive to) the situation occurring for us in that way.   On the other hand, if the way a situation we are dealing with occurs for us as an opportunity to excel, our way of being and acting is likely to be correlated with the situation occurring for us in that way. Now what ever has happened in Srinagar and the Kashmir valley (possibly because of our ass **le  politicians) has shaped these kids way of being because so far the context of situations existing in the valley have  occurred to them as threatening, therefore their way of being and acting are correlated with the context or the situation. If the Sadbhavana movement by the Indian Army in the valley is seen by these students as an opportunity to excel, there way of being and acting is likely to be correlated with the situation occurring to them in that way. I really do not understand why my friends cannot appreciate these simple facts of life.

Delving into it a bit further: The students Functional Constraints (trigger able set-ways-of-being-and-acting) often seem justified and even rational at the time, and are therefore difficult for the students to recognize as a limitation on their being and action. While such limitations on the students behavior, the behavior which we term as anti National and traitorous are difficult for them to recognize in themselves and hence students are often stuck on rails. The results of the Sadbhavna rally by the Army in the valley  will give an opportunity for the students to change and may be master their Functional Constraints which have so far been dictated by our politicians mismanagement and inept handling of the situation in the Kashmir Valley.

 I think the first step to change our mind set, would be recognizing the fact, that “What was good for us in our times may not be good for them in theirs”.  After all how the world occurs to us, make our contexts and these contexts drive us. Similar is the case with the new generation. Let us not make their contexts. It would be the same as creating new buildings on old foundations, howsoever much we may feel that our foundations are the best.
Going a bit wider and looking at the state of our Nation, the above facts hit us like a sucker punch. Let the dinosaurs remain extinct in the mists of time.