By A.G. Noorani
A WEEKLONG trip to Kashmir early this month confirmed the impression that the Kashmir dispute has indeed entered its penultimate phase. There has been a sea change in the political situation in recent years within and outside the state.
Five significant changes stand out. India has been negotiating with Pakistan a solution to the Kashmir dispute, thus recognising implicitly the existence of a dispute, Pakistan's locus standi as a party to it. On May 2, 2009 Prime Minister Manmohan Singh revealed "Gen Musharraf and I had nearly reached an agreement". A skeletal framework exists awaiting the application of diplomatic flesh and infusion of political blood. The cries of old have ceased to be relevant.
Secondly, Pakistan no longer shuns unionists. Both Omar Abdullah, now chief minister and leader of the National Conference (NC), and Mehbooba Mufti, president of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) were warmly received in Islamabad.
Thirdly, a consensus between these parties on self-rule has become achievable; more, it is one which the separatists can also share.
Fourthly, New Delhi is prepared to talk to all, unionists and separatists alike.
Lastly, while Pakistan all but dropped its opposition to polls in Kashmir, all the contestants agreed that the polls are no substitute for a solution to the dispute and that there can be no lasting solution without an accord with Pakistan.
These gains are belittled only by those who feel threatened by change, and change, as this writer found, is what Kashmiris desperately desire and assiduously seek. Their despair stems from two factors. One is the terrible plight to which fate has reduced them. The other is the bitter awareness that its improvement depends entirely on accord between India and Pakistan, neither of whom has been, to put it mildly, too respectful of their rights or solicitous of their welfare.
One remarkable case provided a vivid illustration of both the yearning and the potentialities for improvement in the altered situation. I was struck by the articles which Sheikh Abdul Rasheed had contributed to the weekly Chattan edited by Tahir Mohiuddin. They reflected courage, independence and originality. I was determined to meet him.
The quest took me to the vicinity of the Line of Control (LoC) and, I was told, within the range of the shells that were fired from across it before the ceasefire. He spurned promotion as deputy general manager in J&K Projects Construction Corporation and resigned to stand for election to the state assembly. As an independent MLA from Langate in Kupwara district, he is the scourge of the local administration.
Since 1993 he has been exposing excesses by the security forces as well as the militants. A notable victory was won on July 9, 2009 after he had led a night-long demonstration of hundreds, before a police station in protest against excesses by an army official.
The deputy commission gave written promises of redress - which included reopening of a road, that was shut to the people for 20 years - and disciplinary action against the offender. Torture neither deterred nor embittered him. As well as active social work, he pleads in the assembly for resolution of the Kashmir dispute, maintaining that mere economic packages offer no solution.
What would have been the character of the state assembly if the Hurriyat had contested the elections? The call for a boycott failed miserably, to their discomfiture. But it influenced very many, in Srinigar district particularly. That enabled the well-organised NC to send its men to vote and thus win seats enough to form a government. The Huriyat's two factions present a pitiable spectacle.Syed Ali Shah Geelani commands respect. He has just published an erudite work on Iqbal. But his extremism has few takers. Mirwaiz Umar Farooq repeatedly promises to unveil a road map but produces nothing. He said on March 20, 2007 "The Hurriyat Conference will soon strengthen its public contact programme to make people aware of the four-point formula of President Musharraf and take them into confidence on the ongoing peace process." If he has taken any steps to fulfil this promise, it remains his best-kept secret.
Precisely what is it that he wants? In an interview published in The Statesman on Oct 10, 2002, this is what he said: "An autonomous region with the other side being a party to it could address the issue in such a way that India can sort of live with that, Pakistan can also live with that too, and Kashmiris can also get something they have been aspiring for. So we should be ready to discuss all the options and, as I have said earlier, autonomous identity for Kashmir could be the solution."
How is this different from the PDP's demand for self-rule or the NC's for greater autonomy? If he still stands by it, he should have no problem in joining hands with them.
New Delhi would not be able to resist a demand for restoration of the state's stolen autonomy made by a united front of Kashmiri parties. His colleague Prof Abdul Ghani Bhat was more sensible in the plea for such an alliance which he made on Nov 7 at a seminar in New Delhi. "Pakistan wants all Kashmiris to put their heads together. This includes the PDP, NC, JKLF and even Geelani." On the same day and at the same forum, Mehbooba Mufti said that the differences with the separatists had blurred and a fair amount of consensus had emerged.
The separatists do not wield the gun and cannot establish peace. As Geelani Sahib honestly noted on June 16, 1998, "We are not in a position to stop the use or misuse of the gun. There is no rapport between the APHC and the gunmen." The APHC was then a united body. Only an Indo-Pak settlement can establish peace.
Kashmiris can help a lot with proposals; for example to render the LoC irrelevant; "just lines on a map" as Dr Manmohan Singh said on March 24, 2006; to make the proposed joint mechanism real and effective and to provide for a consultative assembly of MLAs from both parts which meets twice every year, alternately in both capitals.
The need of the hour is consensus in the major political parties in India and Pakistan and among Kashmiris on both sides of the LoC. The foreign minister of Pakistan, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, spoke aptly on July 11, 2008: "We have to look out of the box. We have to look at innovative ways of resolution (of the Kashmir issue)." In this Kashmiris can ill afford to lag behind.
[Kashmir Times]
Posted on 16 Nov 2009 by
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