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| CM’s idea on spurt in violence flawed | | |
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, JAN 29: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah told the reporters the other day on the sidelines of the 9th State-level Departmental Vigilance Officers’ conference in Jammu that “when the talks between India and Pakistan were on, there was no incidents of firing along the borders”. In effect, he said that the “border violations can’t hijack peace process” or “India-Pakistan dialogue process”.
Interestingly, Pakistan Prime Minister Yosuf Raza Gilani said on the same day in Islamabad that the “two counties can’t be held ‘hostage to one incident’ of 26/11” and asked India to resume the stalled composite dialogue process. Was it a coincidence or something different? But whatever it was, it does make one sit up and ponder over the causes behind the identical statements made on the same day – one by the Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and the other by the Pakistan Prime Minister.
It is clear that Omar Abdullah, like Yousf Raza Gilani, sought to tell the authorities in New Delhi that if peace is to return to Kashmir and if India-Pakistan relations are to be harmonized, they have to ignore the ongoing terrorist onslaught on India and the Indian- administered Jammu and Kashmir and resolve the “Kashmir problem” as per the wishes of Islamabad and its separatist agents in the Kashmir Valley.
This is a flawed formulation and, it appears, that this formulation has been devised in order to put pressure on New Delhi so that the politics of separatism and communalism is accorded credibility, the Indian authority in the state weakened and the extremists are allowed to continue their subversive activities uninterrupted in the state and elsewhere in the country.
Even if you handover Kashmir to Pakistan, the terrorist-related incidents would continue unabated because then Islamabad and Kashmiri separatists would try to spread their tentacles beyond the Pir Panjal. Pakistan is not so much interested in Kashmir and Kashmiri Muslims. It is interested in establishing its hold over River Chenab waters.
The assertion of the Chief Minister that the spurt in violent activities in the state is the fall-out of the decision of the Indian authorities to break the dialogue process with Islamabad because of the 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attacks is as unconvincing as it is untenable. It is difficult to conclude that any concession to the separatists in Kashmir, whose support-base is limited to a few pockets in the Valley, would help restore peace in the state and harmonize India-Pakistan relations. In fact, any concession to Kashmir under the guise of the spurt in the terrorist-related activities in Kashmir or under the garb of the “Kashmiris’ alienation” would simply embolden the radical elements in Pakistan and Kashmir to heighten their destroy and break-India activities.
The causes behind the spurt in terrorist–related activities in Kashmir are deeper. While the vested interests and negative and separatist forces in Kashmir have been upping their ante to obtain substantial concessions from India so that they could achieve their ultimate goal, Islamabad is using terror as a weapon to achieve the same objective.
The methodology employed both by Islamabad and Kashmiri separatists and their over ground supporters in and outside the government is the same and their objective is also the same. Both want to browbeat and blackmail India. Both want India to quit Kashmir and both want to dismember India. India just cannot afford to walk into the trap of the Chief Minister or the Pakistan Prime Minister because to yield at this moment would mean the negation of what Union Home Minister P Chidambaram has been repeatedly asserting.
The Union Home Minister has said more than once that India shall retaliate in case 26/11-like attack on India is repeated. Significantly, the American Defence Secretary Robert Gates, who visited India and Pakistan only recently, had shared the Indian view and said in New Delhi that “India’s patience will be limited” if another 26/11 happen in the country. Even more significant was the comment he made in Islamabad that the outfits like Al Qaeda (AQ) and Lashkar Toiba (LT) have nothing to with Kashmir. “They are not concerned about Kashmir”.
That means that Robert Gates refused to endorse the view of those in Pakistan, Kashmir and elsewhere who have been saying since long that the fundamental factor behind the ongoing terrorist-related attacks in Kashmir and other parts of India is the “unresolved Kashmir problem”.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah should revise his formulation. It would be better if he focus his attention more on the development-related issues than on India-Pakistan relations. People are there in New Delhi who can take care of the bilateral issues confronting both the countries. He is Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir. He should not worry so much for Pakistan, which has been harming the people of Kashmir since 1947 and seeking to enslave them. |
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