Be Realistic

Be Realistic In April 1986, a group of Sikhs got together in Amritsar and declared what they called the independent state of Khalistan. At this time I wrote an article in the Hindustan Times, captioned ‘Acceptance of Reality’. This article was about the situation in Punjab and Kashmir. Addressing the people of Punjab and Kashmir, I warned them that the movements for an independent Punjab and an independent Kashmir would never succeed. I said that such movements were tantamount to breaking one’s head against the boulder of reality. Nothing could be gained from such movements, except, of course, some broken heads and worse. I advised the people of both states to be realistic, to accept the status quo and build their lives along positive lines. The Sikhs realized this shortly thereafter and the militant movement for Khalistan soon came to an end. I am sure that, finally, the Kashmiris, too, will adopt this stance, but this might happen only after much suffering and destruction, indeed communal suicide. The reason perhaps for this difference is that the Sikhs had no beautiful ideology to justify their death and destruction, whereas the Muslims can offer a beautiful justification even for such heinous acts as suicide bombing. Here I would like to cite an experience worth mentioning. It was on January 27, 1992, that two educated Kashmiri Muslims came to meet me in Delhi. They were not members of any militant group. But they fully supported the Kashmiri militant movement. They were