Jump The Gun

India must acknowledge the untenability of rule by military might

- Nissim Mannathukkaren

ON May 6, when Kashmiri militant Riyaz Naikoo was killed by security forces, the all-enveloping Covid pandemic ensured the expected eruption of vengeful jubilation across social media didn’t reach the levels seen after Burhan Wani’s killing in 2016. Yet, he was Kashmir’s longest-surviving militant. So a more modest version of the coda duly played out: the first protests in the Valley since August 2019, and on the mainland, “nationalist” channels proclaiming that the “poster boy of terrorism”—indeed, the “virus of terrorism”—had been eliminated. This was preceded by the “martyrdom” of eight security personnel, killed by militants on May 3-4. Kashmir’s reality—for the last three decades—has been characterised by this cycle of retribution. And every time a bullet hits home, it hits a human: with a history and an alternate possible-future.