In The Name Of School Olympics

Chain Singh, a 27 years old young man, from Chanser, a small village in Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir participated in Rio Olympics 2016. It took J&K more than 6 decades to see someone play in the Olympics. Don’t start presuming about the contribution of any sports association from J&K or J&K Sports Council or any government department to Chain Singh’s this achievement. He is serving in the Indian Army and credit for this achievement goes to the Indian Army only. This fact may refresh memories of many as by now they must have forgotten him. Many in our state were in a jovial mood when the Rio Olympics were going on but now as games are over so is our enthusiasm. ‘Sports’ in J&K for many is an alien word. There must be hardly any instance where you could have noticed parents promoting their children to play sports in our state. For every parent in J&K priority is, education of their children and all of them want their children to be an engineer, doctor or some other professional degree holder. None of them ever desire their children to be a gold, silver or bronze medalist. But yes, they don’t mind these shiny metals at home but not at cost of studies. They cannot be blamed purely for it as there is no skilled sports atmosphere in the state. Parents at all times see children of their relatives as well as neighbors being pushed in studies but not in sports. Over the past many years this approach of our state has made us stand far behind states like Punjab and Haryana.

Few days back sports fever was reignited by District Administration Jammu as we saw an inter-school sports event held under the name of ‘School Olympics’. It was a 9 daylong event  in which events of Kabaddi, Wrestling, Football, Hockey, Volleyball Basketball, Badminton, Table Tennis, Athletics and Marathon were held. It is said that more than 100 schools and 3500 students from government as well as private schools took part in it. The beauty of this event was that it was the first of its kind event which was organized in our state. Basically, it was an inter school sports event but was held in a very professional manner and appeared as a step towards inculcating sports culture in children of Jammu. I too got a chance to witness this extraordinary event. The intensity of the event can be judged with the fact that around one hundred medals were distributed at the closing ceremony of ‘School Olympics’. This event had some unhappy moments also as some officials and participants complained about the refreshments served. I was informed by technical staff on duty there that as far refreshments were concerned, they were initially promised something better. However, I feel this alteration can be understood as the Jammu administration has taken help of many sponsors to conduct this event. In addition to it, some matters pertaining to non availability of toilet facilities at venues was also discussed in the sports circle of Jammu. However, such things can be overlooked but should not be ignored and be worked over for the future.

There must be many people who by now must be trying to add this event in historical pages of J&K. No doubt it deserves a place in history but it has left some unanswered questions too. Though such an initiative held in the name of ‘School Olympics’ was aimed at providing an opportunity to children in the field of sports. But I feel that no impact can be made unless there is infrastructure for the players in state to practice after such events. The winner will become a winner just from such a single event and he or she cannot be a winner in life. The first requirement is to work over the infrastructure. All those children who excelled at this event cannot be nurtured further in such a deficient atmosphere. If we look into the present state of affairs then we can see that we don't have many stadiums in Jammu and not even have a large number of multipurpose indoor sports halls. Till today we have got many packages for the development of sports infrastructure in  J&K  but efforts were made to save this money in banks then spending it on the required infrastructure. We don't have any kind of sports calendar for organizing different sports events in the state.  Events like ‘School Olympics’ definitely give some mental happiness and various ‘personal-liasion’ building sessions also. On the other hand, we need honesty as the final destination for sportsmen in J&K is definitely not such events as they need many bigger landmarks which lie far off in their thoughts.

Faulty Signals From Kashmir

The summer of 2016 again has seen a crisis which kept Kashmir under curfew for more than 2 months and caused loss of several precious lives. There are many people, by now, in J&K who since their childhood or youth days have been hearing about the Kashmir crisis. But something contrary is continuously happening between the 'people of J&K' and the 'issue of Kashmir'. On one hand the 'people of J&K' are getting older with every passing day while on the other hand the 'issue of Kashmir' is getting younger day by day. This suggestion that the Kashmir issue is getting young is that the crisis keeps coming again and again especially in the Kashmir region of J&K after every few years. All those who have grown old while witnessing this Kashmir crisis will agree that the situation seems to stand there only where it started from. This context may not be wrong as the Kashmir issue is still young because Kashmiri people are giving their energy, in one form or another, to keep it in continuity. When we go through the pages of history over the Kashmir crisis then we see many political personalities who tried their best to settle the Kashmir issue but failed to do so. Let’s not just peep into history as we have a future ahead which needs to be saved.

The era of Nehru-Sheikh, Indira-Bhutto and Vajpayee - Nawaz is over. Surprisingly these names define a very large portion of J&K history, especially relating to the Kashmir crisis. Saddest part of this whole history is that nothing came out which could have ended the darkness to add a new bright morning to this issue of Kashmir crisis. But this time the Modi led central government at present has the best opportunity to educate the militants and their think-tanks that the Indian portion of Kashmir is a closed chapter. Moreover the Modi led govt came to power with the promises of keeping the country safe and united during their campaign in 2014 general elections. Interestingly, the PoK matter has been raised by the present centre govt. in order to put Pakistan on back foot. It is significant to mention here that at present PoK is a burning political issue in India after the surgical strikes by the Indian Army in PoK. Presently, this political move has been liked by many, but only time will tell whether this move helps in moving Kashmir out of crisis or it too ends as a political 'pulse raising method'. Now when such an approach has been raised then the Indian government should also start efforts to vacate the PoK as the whole of PoK is a grabbed land. Moreover, till today India had been slow in its approach towards PoK and now onwards it should gain momentum. Many chapters were witness to Kashmir dispute and one such was Shimla Accord but even after this accord Pakistan has never ever changed its approach towards India and always instigated unrest in J&K.

Importantly, the present government at centre has tremendous numbers in Parliament and can take a decisive stance over the Kashmir issue. This fact has been supported by CM Mehbooba Mufti who has recently declared that if the Modi govt won’t solve the issue of J&K then it won’t ever get solved in future. The word of the present CM holds a lot of significance as she has witnessed a similar situation in 2010 too. In a way she must be going through a small déjà-vu. However now her political role has reversed and all she has to do is work positively and not just blame opponents as she earlier had done. Interestingly, the BJP is an alliance partner in the J & K govt and should now undo this whole controversy around the state of J&K. It feels as if the time has come for the BJP to complete the work started by Shama Prasad Mukherjee. This will be their tribute to him but they have to tread through the difficult political structure of the country to reach this milestone. If they take certain more steps either with the help of 'word power' or with the 'power of strong government' then definitely the ever longing demand of bringing peace to J&K could be achieved.

This unrest of 2016 has reminded us of 2010 as similar situations erupted then also. We need to see that, irrespective of any political party the emotions of Kashmiri people are intact and firm. What we saw in the past more than two months has not built overnight and reflects much more which was witnessed. They seem to carry all this in their minds for the last many decades. This time people in Kashmir were so upset that they wanted this unrest to end only when a permanent solution came to the Kashmir problem. For many this vicious cycle of unrest coming after every few years is more harming then a continuous bandh of several months. This hatred with India and the passion for Kashmir issue is seen to be passed socially to all people irrespective of their age and generation. All that is required is to settle their minds which are ignited with passion which make them do so much. It has been witnessed that unrest of 2016 had its impact in Muslim dominated districts of Jammu region also. We cannot deny that their sympathizers have penetrated in such areas too which made government agencies implement curfews also in some areas and we saw some youth detained under PSA. The signals of unrest are not new but repetition of such signals from Kashmir has started fragmenting the whole state of J&K on social as well religious basis and we need to check that it doesn’t tear the fabric of oneness in years to come.