My Frozen Turbulence in Kashmir Quotes

“The night was silent, dreadfully silent. But it was a silence that roared in my ears. At a distance across the lake stood the Shankaracharya Hill, symbolizing our inner vitality — the volcanic vitality that has now cooled inside the rock that bears the name of the great recreator of Indian cultural unity and who, like a Colossus, strode in the tenth century from Kanyakumari, "the lotus feet of the Divine Mother," to Kashmir, "the crown of India," and ascended this hill to pray at the little Shiva temple that came into existence between 2629 B.C. and 2564 B.C. and then proceeded to consecrate the Holy Cave of Amarnath. Did this symbol of our innate strength have any meaning for our leadership of the day? Did it realize that India today required a new welding force — another cultural renaissance, another social and moral vision, which should stand like a Shankara's rock against the forces of decline and disintegration?”
― Jagmohan, My Frozen Turbulence in Kashmir

“Outside, the events were moving with the same feverish speed as in the previous night. The voices of horror, fearful harangue and exhortations, soaked in Islamic fundamentalists’ terminology, filled the air. Crowds were being goaded to gather in mosques. People were being mobilised from villages, from outlying areas and from the heart of the city. No civil authority seemed to exist. The passivity was unbelievable. The Director-General of Police later on told me that it had taken him more than six hours to get the Deputy Inspector-General out from his house for duty.”
― Jagmohan, My Frozen Turbulence in Kashmir

“What incensed me most was that, at more or less the same time, 'ethnic revolt' in Azerbaijan and the 'Rumanian Liberation' were being telecast as a special programme. Large crowds were shown shouting: "We want freedom; we do not mind spilling our blood; death to the oppressors who have kept us in chains." If any proof of Government unimaginativeness or its disoriented functioning was needed, there it was. There could be no comparison between the case of Kashmir and that of Azerbaijan or Rumania. But it should have been understood that in the circumstances prevailing at that time, the Kashmiri youth would misread the message. Virtual incitement was provided by our own television. The timing of the telecast confirmed my impression that the political and bureaucratic mandarins of New Delhi had very little knowledge of the currents and undercurrents of the situation in Kashmir and its ground-level realities.”
― Jagmohan, My Frozen Turbulence in Kashmir

“In between, there were telephone calls from the Ministry of Home Affairs. "Additional Home Secretary this side, Sir," was the worried voice. "We are getting frantic calls from Hindus in Srinagar. Hell seems to have broken loose. The Kashmiri Pandits are in utter panic. We cannot get any officer on the phone in Srinagar." There were a number of other panic telephone calls from New Delhi. I assured everybody that I was taking action.”
― Jagmohan, My Frozen Turbulence in Kashmir

“Hardly had I gone to bed when the two telephones at my bedside started ringing, almost continuously. At the other end, there were voices of alarm, of concern, of fright, sometimes muted voices of men too terror-stricken to speak. "Tonight is our last night," moaned one voice. "By morning, we -- all Kashmiri Pandits -- would be butchered," said another voice. "Send us aeroplanes; take us out of the Valley; evacuate us at night if you do not want to see our corpses in the morning," pleaded another. "Our womenfolk, our sisters, our mothers, would be abducted, and we menfolk slaughtered," shrieked yet another voice. Some callers told me that they would just hold on to their telephones so that I could hear the terrible slogans and exhortations that were emanating from hundreds of loudspeakers fitted on the mosques. The noises, they said, were deafening, and it appeared that a number of recorded tapes were being simultaneously played at a very loud pitch, causing horrible effects in resonance and permeating the atmosphere with terror and fear of imminent death.”
― Jagmohan, My Frozen Turbulence in Kashmir

“We relied upon fake coins and false 'gods'. We placed all our offerings in their bottomless baskets. We ignored the roots and the tendrils that were germinating beneath the surface. We did not look into cracks and crevices in our structure. We let the ants pierce into them and create still deeper cracks and crevices. Even when the structure was about to be reduced to rubble, New Delhi did not act. In my mind's eye I saw my letter of April 8, 1989, to Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in which I had said: "Today may be timely. Tomorrow may be too late." But tomorrow had been allowed to turn into the day after and the day after into yet another day after. Now that the structure had totally collapsed, here I was airborne, once again, to a troubled and tormented State, nestled in my little seat and bent with the heavy weight of dead albatrosses of the past around my neck, with a shaking cup and saucer before me and nothing but a grey, depressing haze outside. As if this was not enough, lethal political missiles began to be hurled at my little plane, as soon as it commenced its hazardous journey.”
― Jagmohan, My Frozen Turbulence in Kashmir

“Painful things, I thought, went on happening in our country with sickening frequency, because no one was really concerned about the fundamental issues of national reconstruction, of social and cultural rejuvenation, on the solid foundation of which alone a new moral and ethical order and a new pattern of politics and administration, suited to our requirements, could be built.”
― Jagmohan, My Frozen Turbulence in Kashmir

“Public interests in general and national interests in particular also demand publication of this book. A false picture has been painted either intentionally or out of ignorance. From the very first day of my second term, I had to wage not only the most grim and critical battle against terrorism but also an equally extensive and dangerous battle against disinformation. I could hold my own, and even win the first battle, but not the second, such were the dimensions, frequency, and fury of the avalanche of insinuations.”
― Jagmohan, My Frozen Turbulence in Kashmir