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| Let separatists stop selling Kashmir in their shops | | | NIRBHAY JAMMUAL
Fixation is not a disease.It is a sign of frustrated desires.When one does not get his desire or wish fulfilled one gets obsessed.And this obsession leads to obduracy.This is what has happened to Kashmiri separatists.They are obsessed with the Kashmir issue.Even if they get vision of heaven they see it through the prism of Kashmir.At one stage they had started blaming former Pakistan President,Gen.Parvez Musharraf for giving weightge to trade and travel in the ongoing dialogue process but when people in Kashmir began demanding reopening of Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road for trade the separatists were quick in supporting this demand. In the situation where the separatists find themselves as prisoners of the Kashmir tangle they continue to oscillate between unity and disunity.The agitation over the diversion of land to the Amarnath Shrine Board had brought all the major separatist groups on one platform.But within two months the differences have surfaced between the hardliners and the moderates.This time the reason again is the way the moderates have been in favour of bilateral and tripartite talks for the settlement of the Kashmir issue.Against this the hardliners,led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani,continue to be obsessed with the implementation of the UN resolution on Kashmir providing for a plebiscite in the state.He has gone to the extent of opposing both bilateral and trilateral dialogue because he believes that once people were granted the right of self-determination Kashmir would become part of Pakistan.
These separatists seem to have lost patience.They want the Kashmir issue to be settled if not within hours or weeks but within some months.Again their fixation with the Kashmir issue has not allowed them to realise the progress India and Pakistan have achieved in the ongoing peace process and confidence building measures.The opening of Srinagar-Muzaffarabad and Poonch-Rawalakot routes for traffic has already promoted people to people contact and whatever deficiency one could find in the CBMs could be removed when the two routes were thrown open for trade.At least for a change the separatists should read meaning in the warm welcome members of the trade delegation from Muzaffarabad received in Srinagar and Jammu for the last couple of days.There was excitement writ large on the faces of leaders of trade and commerce from both the sides.When the Governor,N.N.Vohra,welcomed the suggestion from Muzaffarabad traders on floating an umbrella organisation of the Chambers of Commerce and Indistries of Pakistan occupied Kashmir and Jammu and Kashmir it was seen as a first step towards joint management.No doubt this umbrella organiation will be responsible for joint operation of trade between the two sides but if the experiment proved fruitful it could pave the way for joint management,an idea which had been floated by Gen. Musharraf over a year ago.
At times obduracy leads to stupidity.This is what one finds in the separatist camps.These separatists need to understand that an issue which has defied settlement for the last 60 years cannot be resolved within a month or so.An exercise is on for making the border between India and Pakistan irrelevant and once that materialised the level of dispute over Kashmir may vanish.These separatists need to understand that Prime Minister,Manmohan Singh,had already announced that borders cannot be redrawn.While reiterating this very idea he said in Srinagar two days ago that he has not the mandate for redrawing the borders.This is firm indication of what Delhi thinks about Kashmir.Let us hope the sepratists change their attitude and not keep their shops open for selling Kashmir. |
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