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| Delhi depending on wrong persons to break the Kashmir impasse | | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
JMMU, July 25: New Delhi is not happy with what has been happening in Kashmir, particularly since June 20. It is feeling deeply concerned. It is natural. The situation as it exists today in Kashmir is indeed alarming by any standard. If anything, it's all anarchy, lawlessness and confusion, with the extremists, law-breakers and troublemakers playing the shots and the hapless, alarmed and confused political leadership and law-enforcing agencies not being able to bring the situation under control. There appears no government worth its name in place in the disturbed Kashmir Valley. New Delhi's anxiety and deep concern needs to be viewed in this context.
However, the fundamental question to be asked is: Is New Delhi taking appropriate steps to stem the rot in Kashmir and put things back on the rail? Unfortunately, the answer cannot be in the affirmative. In fact, the answer is a big NO.
Take, for example, New Delhi's dependence on Retired Admiral K.K. Nayyar, former Vice-Chancellor of Jammu University Amitabh Mattoo and A Jamia Milia Islamia Professor Ms Radha Kumar. New Delhi has charged these persons with the responsibility of cultivating the so-called moderate separatist leaders such as Mirwaiz Umar Farooq so that the trouble-shooters in the Union capital are able to negotiate a settlement with them. They have also been charged with the responsibility of submitting their report to the Union Government as early as possible.
It needs to be noted that New Delhi has sent the so-called track-II members Nayyar, Mattoo and Kumar to Kashmir for an on-the-spot-assessment of the situation in Kashmir and sense the mood of the Kashmiri separatists. Their primary task is to prepare the ground for a dialogue between New Delhi and the Kashmiri separatists. They, according to one report, reached Srinagar on July 23.
New Delhi's choice is highly flawed. Admiral Nayyar may be a good man, but he has been asked to work with Mattoo and Kumar whom the people of Jammu and Ladakh and Kashmiri Hindus hate. In fact, while Amitabh Mattoo is the most hated person not only in Jammu and Ladakh, but even in the Kashmiri Hindu community, nobody, except the Kashmiri separatists and the so-called Kashmir-based mainstream NC and PDP, knows Radha Kumar. And, those few in these two provinces and in the Kashmiri Hindu refugee camps know her they hate her from the core of their heart because they are fully aware of the credentials of Radha Kumar. They are highly discerning and they have been watching her activities and her flirting with Kashmiri separatists and communalists since long.
Even in Kashmir, not many people like Mattoo and Kumar because they have in the past on several occasions sided with those whom the likes of Syed Ali Shah Geelani dislike the most. Both Mattoo and Kumar have been consistently shifting their stand. Sometimes they vouch for autonomy, sometimes they vouch for self-rule and sometimes they go even beyond. They are inconsistent. In fact, it is the venue and the audience that determine their stand in a particular given situation. They want to remain on the right side of those who matter in New Delhi and in Kashmir whosoever they are.
Thus, the very choice of New Delhi is wrong. It is patently wrong because New Delhi has pinned faith in those whose views are separatist and communalist-friendly; who, like Islamabad, do not consider Jammu and Kashmir a settled issue; and who are out-and-out for major concessions on Kashmir.
It is significant to note that the Mirwaiz has reportedly refused to meet them, saying "unless political leaders, who have been arrested by government during the ongoing agitation, are not released; New Delhi announces comprehensive political package for Jammu and Kashmir; Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) revoked; and human rights violations end, no talks will be possible with the Centre." If reports emanating from Kashmir are any indication, then it can be said that no separatist of any standing has met these track-II operatives. In other words, New Delhi's mission has miserably failed.
All right-thinking people would want restoration of peace and normality in Kashmir at the earliest. Everyone would also want New Delhi to intervene in Kashmir. But, at the same time, the right-thinking and objective people would want New Delhi to adopt a holistic and all-inclusive approach. They would want New Delhi to depend on those channels that also take on board the people of Jammu and Ladakh and the Kashmiri Hindus, who have been suffering untold miseries outside their original habitat since January 1990. They are absolutely right because you cannot have a solution that is acceptable to the Kashmiri extremists and utterly unacceptable to the people of Jammu and Ladakh and internally displaced Kashmiri Hindus, who constitute more than half of the state's population.
New Delhi would do well to abandon its lop-sided approach. Not to do so would mean widespread protests outside Kashmir. New Delhi must note: If the people of Jammu province are unwilling to accept Mattoo as Vice-Chancellor of the Central University of Jammu, will they accept any solution that may be suggested by him and the likes of Radha Kumar? They will not. Hence, the need for a right, national and rational approach.
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