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| The Need Of The Hour Is Statesmanship | | There is no reason why we should not create a borderless Jammu and Kashmir on both sides of the Line of Control | | ABHISHEK SINGHVI
THE CURRENT turmoil in Jammu and Kashmir is a historic opportunity for the Indian political class to rise above politics and convince the people of India that, when push comes to shove, India can rise above partisan politics and act solely in the national interest. Divisive political boundaries have to be transcended; petty electoral considerations have to be jettisoned; short- and medium-term thinking has to be replaced by long-term perspectives; a sense of history has to imbue decision-making; the responsibility we owe to future generations of Indians has to be realised; provocative statements have to be eschewed; and an inclusive approach to try to carry as many as possible has to be adopted. There are persons, groups, societies and political parties that realise the complexities of this multi-faceted and difficult task. Sadly, they are at times outnumbered by those that do not.
First, the Pakistan angle in any Jammu and Kashmir discussion can never be forgotten and should never be underemphasised. The immediate cause of the present imbroglio is, admittedly, not Pakistan; but its propensity to fish in troubled waters is ever imminent. The Congressled UPA Government’s consistent approach to keep engaged with our neighbour must be sustained. We tend to underestimate the importance of democracies in dialogue. In that sense, Pakistan’s new experiments with democracy should be regarded as highly desirable in India. Howsoever imperfect or seemingly unstable, democracies rarely go to war, and, if they do, it does not last long. The power of a democracy to wage a covert war is also far less than that in a non-democratic set-up.
Alongwith keeping ourselves engaged, we have to make the meeting points between our two countries multilateral and multisectoral by engaging every segment of civil society including NGOs, citizens, business entities, government bodies and so on. Emotional gestures continue to be of high symbolic value and must be expanded: witness the goodwill of the Burney mission to free Indians in Pakistani jails and the treatment of Pakistani infants at Indian hospitals.
Most importantly, there is no reason why we should not create a borderless Jammu and Kashmir on both sides of the LoC but, crucially, within the existing sovereignties of India and Pakistan. The unleashing of a blitzkrieg of trade, people’s movements, cultural events and, indeed, of a virtual free trade zone in this area will make the LoC irrelevant. Interestingly, this is one of the major current demands of the separatists in the Valley but they simply ignore the fact that similar suggestions have been made in writing by the Indian Government several times in the past but have not met with Pakistan’s approval. To take but one example to silence one of the separatists’ pleas: we granted the Most Favoured Nation status to Pakistan years ago but Pakistan continues to deny us the same.
Secondly, while no one can claim infallibility, especially in the surcharged atmosphere of Jammu and Kashmir, if you were to ask yourself honestly, you will find that the only political entity that has taken the most reasonable middle path in the national interest is the Congress. Amidst the deliberately incendiary and provocative approach of the BJP and the hypocritical and double-faced approach of the PDP, alongwith the completely untenable stand of the separatists in the Valley as also the (at best) ambivalent role of the National Conference, it has been the Congress, and the Congress alone, which has repeatedly reached out to bring all warring groups to the negotiating table. From organising the all-party visit, to the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister’s personal calls to all stakeholders, it is the Congress which has maintained balance and moderation.
Thirdly, those seeking to fish in troubled waters and use this controversy for extraneous purposes like ‘azadi’ or impending political gain in the Valley have to face basic facts which they are fudging and misrepresenting. At no stage was permanent land or ownership transfer of any kind envisaged or even proposed, much less implemented. The Congress-led UPA will never allow a century-old yatra, which is also a symbol of India’s composite culture and of Jammu and Kashmir’s syncretic legacy, to be disrupted. It will not deny temporary two-month facilities to the yatris to ensure their full comfort and security. Equally, it will strain every sinew, and commit all blood, sweat and tears to ensure that essential supplies are not denied to the inhabitants of the Valley. Additionally, it will not hesitate to engage in any kind of negotiation on various models of devolution, autonomy, reallocation of powers and so on to Jammu and Kashmir with every possible stakeholder, whether from the Valley or from Jammu. But no one should mistake or confuse the extreme flexibility of the government on all forms of constructive engagement with any willingness to even discuss, much less agree to, the secession of an inch of Indian territory. To those who labour under any such delusion, one can only repeat the over decade-old subsisting Indian Parliamentary resolution which claims PoK as an integral part of Indian territory.
Fourthly, azadi seekers in the Valley or mainstream regional political parties of Jammu and Kashmir (the latter frequently saying one thing within Jammu and Kashmir and another outside it) have to realise that they cannot use a limited issue like the yatra to open a can of worms comprising a whole universe of extraneous and unconnected issues. What is worse, even though some of these issues (like alternative forms of devolution and autonomy) can be discussed, their very nature will necessarily involve engagement over a longer period of time. Factions in the Valley, cannot, with any logic or justification, claim that they will not allow the Amarnath issue to be settled and not allow the Valley to function normally unless this more time-consuming and protracted issue is settled. That would be opportunistic and clearly sustaining a manufactured controversy beyond any reasonable limit.
FIFTHLY, A word about the sequence of events leading to the walkout of the PDP from the erstwhile Azad Government. One cannot conceive of a more hypocritical and double-faced stand than that of the PDP on this issue. From 2004 to mid-2008, there is a plethora of paperwork and file movement that discusses the issue of proposed temporary availability of land for use by the yatris. A major controversy raised in the files during this four-year period was regarding the validity of making available what was said to be forest land for this purpose. Ultimately it was opined (rightly) that the Forest Conservation Act and the Godavarman line of directions of the Supreme Court based on that Act did not apply to Jammu and Kashmir and hence no permission was required from the Empowered Committee. During this long period, the three principal actors and decision-makers were the Forest Minister, the Law Minister and the Advocate General and they ultimately concurred in making this land available. All three were PDP nominees. Even Mehbooba Mufti does not deny that the final Cabinet decision to make land available was passed in the presence of and with the full consent of PDP ministers. Her defence is a strange one. She says they were “coerced” by the Azad Cabinet. One has heard of coercion of infants or of the very poor and illiterate but this is indeed a strange plea regarding collective responsibility!
Sixthly, the government of India has no problem in talking intensively to those who seek ‘azadi’ if that word signifies a much higher degree of autonomy. It has no problem interacting with all others who disagree totally with its perceptions and panaceas. But it cannot possible negotiate either with terrorists or with those who see “secession” of Jammu and Kashmir as the only solution. This is not mere semantics; they constitute unbridgeable chasms of non-negotiable territory. The Prime Minister has allocated, over two years ago, an unparalleled package of infrastructure investment for this state. The government continues to spend more per head in this state than in any other part of India. It is committed to the development of all regions of the state. But it can never allow national highways or routes of defence significance to be compromised. It cannot allow self-determined crossing of the LoC or the international boundary without following established procedures. It must and will deal with violence sternly. Yet, it showed exemplary restraint when lakhs marched in the Valley. BJP, VHP and Bajrang Dal personnel who make provocative diatribes (which have been filmed and seen by many visitors to Jammu) will be dealt with equally sternly. Democratic forms of protest are open but when political parties like the BJP try to muddy the waters for short-term electoral gains, they have to ask themselves if they are being true Indians.
Future generations alone will decide whether and who exhibited statesmanship and courage under adversity during these trying times.
Author is National Spokesperson, Congress. Views expressed here are exclusively his own |
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