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| New surrender policy may embolden separatists | | |
RUSTAM
JAMMU, Feb 13: Home Minister P Chidambaram has accepted the suggestion of the J&K Chief Minister and announced that he is for general amnesty to the militants and for the return of Kashmiri youth, who went to Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) for undergoing arms training. It was expected that the NC and other Kashmir-based parties would hail the decision and it has happen.
It was also expected that the parties like the BJP, the J&K National Panthers Party and the internally-displaced Kashmiri Pandits would oppose it for reasons not difficult to fathom. The BJP, the Panthers Party, the displaced Kashmiri Pandits are opposed to the surrender policy, as also to the return to the Valley of the alienated Pakistan-occupied-J&K-based Kashmiri youth, who went to PoK years ago to get arms training. They say that both the general amnesty to the militants languishing in the various jails and return to Kashmir of the Pakistani-trained Valley youth would further deteriorate the already rather alarming internal security scenario and harm what they call the national interests. They appear to be correct.
Most of the Jammu-based Congressmen also hold similar views but they share their views on the condition of anonymity. A number of Congress ministers in the Omar-Abdullah-led coalition government and most of the Congress legislators have also expressed serious reservations about the state taken by the Union Home Minister, but, again, on the condition of anonymity.
They are of the opinion that the new surrender policy and the decision to permit the Kashmiri militants to return to Kashmir, if implemented, would, apart from helping Pakistan push into the Indian Kashmir more infiltrators, cause irreparable damage to the interests of the Congress party in Jammu province. Some of them have also told this writer that they did not allow Mufti Mohammad Sayeed to implement his Healing Touch policy of which surrender policy was a part for security reasons. In fact, if what they are saying secretly is to be believed, then one can easily conclude that a vast majority of the Congressmen is seething with anger.
Leave aside what the BJP, the Panthers Party, the displaced Kashmiri Pandits, most of the Congressmen and similar other elements are thinking about the announcement made by the Union Home Minister. Think about what the likes of Syed Ali Shah Geelani are thinking about what the Union Home Minister said while endorsing the suggestions of the Chief Minister relating to the surrender policy or return of Kashmiri militants from Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir to the Indian Kashmir.
What the chief of Tehrik-e-Hurriyat, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, said while reacting to the Home Minister’s statement cannot be ignored or overlooked. For, what he said was what the likes of Geelani religiously believe in. They stand for the state-s merger with Pakistan because they believe in the Jinnah’s two-nation theory – the Hindus and the Muslims are two distinct nations and they cannot co-exist because their heroes and enemies are different; because they derive their inspiration from different sources; because their victories and defeats overlap; because they belong to two different civilizations and cultures; and so on.
What did Syed Ali Shah Gelani say? He said what the Union Home Minister has declared is a ploy aimed at perpetuating the Indian hegemony on J&K and that what is needed is a declaration that gives J&K the right to self-determination so that it could become part of the theocratic Pakistan.
There is not one Syed Ali Shah Geelani who stands for what he says. There are several Geelanis in Kashmir who vouch for what Syed Ali Shah Geelani said about what the Union Home Minister said while making common cause with the J&K Chief Minister. This makes it necessary for the Union Home Minister, who belongs to the Congress party that fought relentlessly and made supreme sacrifices in order to attain independence from England, to reconsider his stand on the issue of general amnesty. He must do it, and without losing a single moment. To mark time would be to help the likes of Geelani and Pakistan and damage the Indian cause in J&K. Such an action on his part is imerative because his announcement has been taken by the likes of Geelani as a sign of weakness.
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