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| HM unlikely to appoint Atta Hasnain as J&K Governor | | | Early Times Report
jammu, Oct 13: There are unconfirmed reports that the BJP-led NDA Government at the Centre has almost decided to recall Governor Narinder Nath Vohra and appoint Lt Gen (Retd) Atta Hasnain as Governor of Jammu and Kashmir. Governor Vohra, a Congress-appointee, is on his way out. There is no doubt, but it is extremely doubtful if the BJP-led NDA Government would appoint in his place "controversial" Atta Hasnain.
Atta Hasnain is controversial because he, like Kashmiri separatists and the so-called mainstream leadership in the Valley, has as serving commander in Kashmir had described Kashmir as a "political problem" and batted for a political solution to the so-called Kashmir issue. He had put forth this controversial view a few days after the Army Chief General V K Singh did some plain-speaking on the nature of the problem in Kashmir on January 29, 2011.
General VK Singh, among other things, said: "Jammu and Kashmir is a complicated set of things. There has to be a holistic view on what we do there. We have to take a very different view from the long-term perspective. Don't take decisions for the sake of expediency for a certain purpose. You have to have focus and resolve and the Government should put some people on the job…Troops withdrawal is not an option at this time. The day 42 camps on the other side are wound up and Pakistan stops its proxy war, that would be the time to withdraw troops. Until that time, it is not possible. Jammu and Kashmir is not about mathematics. We have to be pragmatic about troops reduction. The prevalent undercurrents in the border State are ideologically focussed. Ignoring the ideology being preached in the Kashmir valley would be at one's own peril. We must look very closely at the ideology being preached. What are we doing to counter this ideology". Are the mainstream political parties (in this case the Congress and the NC) doing anything about it?
What General V K Singh said was not based on heresy. It was based on the ground realities as they existed in Kashmir. The Government of India, the Defence Ministry and the Home Ministry should have appreciated the views of General Singh in the larger national interest, but it was not to be for obvious reasons. As if all this was not enough to embolden the Kashmiri separatists, the then Srinagar-based 15 Corps Commander, Lt Gen Hasnain, on February 1, 2011 countered the views of his chief. While addressing reporters on the sidelines of a function organized by the Army at 2 Sector Headquarters, Khanabal, Kashmir, Lt Gen Hasnain had said: "Kashmir is a political issue and Army has no role to play in the decision with regard to the revocation of the AFSPA. Kashmir is a political issue and needs to be resolved politically".
There was no fundamental difference between what Atta Hasnain said and what the Kashmiri separatists and others in Kashmir had been saying since 1947 to weaken the Indian case in the Valley with a view to making New Delhi allow them to take Jammu and Kashmir State out of India. What Atta Hasnain had said created a sort of furore in certain quarters and the memories of what he said to counter his Chief's well-considered views on the nature of the problem in Kashmir still lingered in the minds of some very influential persons in New Delhi, especially in the Defence Ministry. So, if one goes by those who had taken an exception to what Atta Hasnain had said when there was no need to say so, then it can be said that the possibility of him being appointed as Governor of the sensitive Jammu and Kashmir State appears quite remote. Another factor that could go against him was that he, unlike General V K singh, enjoyed favourable press in Kashmir. |
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