Unsubstantiated

Sir, - It is regrettable that Prof. Jean Dreze has chosen to give respectability to unsubstantiated hearsay about the alleged oppression exercised by the armed forces in Kashmir (``Kashmir: manufacturing ethnic conflict,'' TheHindu, March 29). In the guise of reporting on what he has supposedly heard from the people of Kashmir, he has narrated gruesome incidents of repression, without even a cursory examination of their truthfulness. Under the same guise he has managed to hurl at the jawans choice terms of ethnic abuse, like ``Bihari'', ``Madrasi'' and ``Chambal ka daku''. All this is certainly libellous.

Prof. Dreze seems to have convinced himself that the origins of violence in the Kashmir valley are in the oppression of the armed forces, not in the depredations of the indigenous and foreign terrorists operating from the soil of Kashmir. He seems to suggest that such depredations do not exist. He approvingly quotes what he claims to be street-corner gossip to the effect that the Kashmir pandits left the valley not because of systematic violence unleashed against them by the terrorist, but because they were exhorted to do so by the then Governor, Mr. Jagmohan. He even has a sophisticated explanation for the recent selective killing of 36 Sikhs at Chattis Singh Pura, which incidentally means ``the town of 36 Sikhs''. Sikhs are probably the only non-Muslim people left in the valley, and in the face of the fresh terror let loose against them, Prof. Dreze informs us that the Kashmir conflict has no ethnic dimension, and the Kashmiris do not even understand the meaning of communalism.

Finally, Prof. Dreze audaciously tells us that we are not right in treating the Kahsmir problem as an internal matter, and that the people of Kashmir are not interested in being part of the Indian national fold.

Prof. Dreze is a foreign national. It is indeed a measure of the famed tolerance of India that he is allowed to roam around the streets of Srinagar, enter the remote villages of the troubled State, freely mix with the armed forces, and finally report that Kashmir is being held as a ``colony'' by the armed forces.

J. K. Bajaj, M. D. Srinivas

and Banwari,

Centre for Policy Studies, Chennai

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