Kashmir on edge

IT is not yet possible to determine who is to blame for the situation in Jammu and Kashmir. The jury is still out. There is no doubting the inept handling by the Indian government and its advisors.Religious ferment is the consequence of what has happened in the two regions, not the cause. The cause is the lack of political will and the inadequacy of successive governments at the centre to take decisions when they should have.Influenced by the hawkish bureaucracy and ill-informed intelligence agencies, New Delhi has failed to appreciate the depth of the people’s alienation in the Valley on the one hand and the widening gulf between Kashmir and Jammu on the other. Muslim-majority Kashmir and Hindu-majority Jammu had been drifting apart for some years. Yet the government did very little to reverse the trend by balancing the share of both in governance or economy.The Valley’s estrangement from the rest of the country has been visibly increasing since 1990. Statements like ‘the sky is the limit’, were never concretised, either during talks with Kashmiri leaders or by transferring all subjects except defence, foreign affairs and communications to the state unilaterally.Some well-meaning persons are suggesting that India should quit Kashmir. They do not realise that the Yasin Maliks and Umar Farooqs will be pushed out in no time and the Valley will be taken over by the Taliban or terrorists. The unfortunate part is that Kashmiryat, akin to Sufism, has got burnt. Kashmir has become avowedly Islamic and Jammu avowedly Hindu. Very little grey area is available. New Delhi, still clueless, knows only one way: the use of force.Whatever can be retrieved from the ashes of decimated Kashmiriyat is valuable and will be important for tomorrow’s democratic, pluralistic India which needs to prove its secular credentials. Democracy is a constant dialogue. But it is yet to be appreciated by the 61-year-old nation which is still in the making. It lacks patience and perseverance.India’s ethos of pluralism has been hit the most. What effect the stand taken by the Valley, more Islamic than Indian, would have on the polity is difficult to say. But secular forces in the country have been weakened.There is still no effort to talk to the Kashmiri leaders though interlocutors of the government say that they had done most of the job. What have they done so far is what people want to know. New Delhi would be well advised to issue a white paper on Kashmir, containing talks with Kashmiri leaders and the Pakistan government.I still believe that talks with the Hurriyat leaders may reveal that they are not for secession but for the separate identity which was guaranteed when the state joined the Union of India. But religious elements and the intelligence agencies have exploited the situation to such an extent that people can’t see the wood for the trees. The problem is political and needs deft handling.The pressure of events may force the Pakistan government to take a stand, not only because of the smouldering situation in the Valley but also because Azad Kashmir may eventually lend support to the concept of azadi.The tragedy is that the governments in both countries are in no position to discuss azadi. The Gilani government in Islamabad has yet to attain stability. The Manmohan Singh government has no verdict from the Indian electorate to change the country’s borders and is left with only six to eight months of its five-year tenure. Even if it were to hold talks with the Hurriyat, it would not be able to offer anything concrete because it cannot prejudge who will hold office after the Lok Sabha elections.Temperatures in Kashmir have already reached boiling point. Even if Hurriyat leaders were to think of waiting until after the polls, they would find it hard to convince the people to defer the agitation. The threat that the terrorists would take over from the Hurriyat leaders is a superficial reading of the situation. Were the movement to take that direction, the security forces would use maximum force to crush the insurgency.My fear is that the demand of secession may give a handle to the Bharatiya Janata Party which has been looking for an emotive issue after the Babri Masjid-Ram Janambhoomi dispute or the Sethu Bridge in the sea down south. The nation is not prepared for another partition and that too on the basis of religion. It is difficult to imagine the fallout in the country. The northeast too is watching developments in Kashmir. Manipur is in ferment and communities like the Nagas are demanding the right of self-determination.Fundamentalists in Pakistan may be happy over the developments in the Valley. The ISI may want to fish in its troubled waters. But they should realise that azadi holds as good for Kashmir under Pakistan as for the Kashmir on the Indian side. Islamabad has opposed an independent status for Kashmir in the past. There is no indication that it has changed its policy.However, there is no time to waste. New Delhi should hold talks with the Kashmiri leaders to assure them of an independent status, minus foreign affairs, defence and communications. Kashmir can have a UN seat as did Ukraine in the Soviet Union.In the meanwhile, New Delhi must address the fears of the Muslim community in India. It feels insecure and helpless. In recent days I have travelled to some parts of the country and talked to many people, including well-placed Muslims. I have found them complaining against the authorities, particularly the police. The community knows that the happenings in Jammu and Kashmir have polluted the atmosphere. But it believes that the arrests of the young among them are not because of Kashmir. Their concern is that on the pretext of curbing the activities of the Students Islamic Movement of India (Simi), scores of Muslims are picked up. Even if they are released after a few days, the tag of terrorism sticks with them.What is most disturbing is that the Muslim community finds the pluralistic ethos in India to be weakening and the sense of tolerance lessening. This means that even after 61 years of independence, the nation has failed to establish a secular polity. It is, indeed, disturbing.
Courtesy: Daily Dawn Lahore / By Kuldip Nayar