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| Will separatists meet delegation leaders? | | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Sept 18: Since the Kashmiri separatists believe, that too rightly, they were riding a success wave they keep on dictating terms to the State and the Central Governments. Not only this: they do not feel the need for responding to the Prime Minister's offer for talks. They do not feel it is obligatory on their part to welcome leaders of the All Party delegation who were scheduled to reach Srinagar on Monday.
It was during the All Party meeting ,convened by Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, in Delhi on September 16, where even the UPA chairperson, Sonia Gandhi was present, that a decision was taken to send leaders of various political parties to Kashmir to carry out an on the spot assessment of the security situation and meet political leaders of different hues, including separatists, and people in the streets for finding out what were their problems and demands. It is to be seen whether the separatists respond to the formal invitation letters that were being sent to them by the centre requesting them to meet leaders of All Party delegation.
If the latest reports are any guide separatists, who matter, including Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Molvi Umar Farooq, have announced that they will not meet the leaders of the All party delegation. It is a clear indication of success having gone to their head. Success in what? Success in evoking total response to their calls for shutdown, protest rallies and the call for clasing with the security forces, though there is no public mention of this call. Over 19 months ago, to be precise between 2002 and 2008 these very separatists had failed to evoke good response to their calls for boycott of Assembly elections. During the two previous elections, held in 2002 and 2008 or even the one in 1996, separatists' call for poll boycott was almost spurned by the voters.
Gradually an impression had gone round that the separatists had lost their ground in Kashmir. The hardliners, led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani, even adopted tough and the pro-Pak postures but it failed to help him in regaining the ground that he and his associatites in the separatist camp had lost. The moderates, headed by Molvi Umar Farooq, thought it better to remain engaged in the process of dialogue initiated by the centre since 2003.
But the events that took shape in the Kashmir valley since June 11 allowed the separatists to regain the ground they had lost during the last 10 years. The way their writ runs in Kashmir seems to have encouraged them to keep on ridiculing the centre and the state Governments. Geelani and Molvi Umar have, while rejecting the Prime Minister's appeal for eschewing violence, demanded that first of all the centre should concede "our five demands." And for the Government of India it is not impracticable to withdraw the AFSPA or the troops from within the valley. It is not difficult for the centre or the state Government to release most of the detainees but it may not be possible for Delhi to even consider the separatists' demand for grant of right of self-determination to the people of the state as provided in the UN resolution on Kashmir.
Even the separatists know it that the centre may not agree on holding a plebiscite because Pakistan had not honoured the provisions of the UN resolution. But they keep on imposing these difficult conditions so that they continue to create added problems and aches for the state and the central Governments. They would get slightly humbled if three out of five demands were conceded so that the separatists could keep their chin up while basking in the glory of their political power.
Kashmir watchers are of the opinion that by inciting people to indulge in violence, without bothering about the survival of those youths who blindly follow the instructions of the separatists, the separatists want to achieve one distinction of becoming king makers. These separatists, according to these Kashmir watchers, believe that once the valley continues to simmer with violence and deaths the centre would have no other alternative but to either place the state under the Governor's rule or replace Omar Abdullah by any other political leader as Chief Minister of the troubled state. It is not their headache whether there is any suitable politician who could replace Omar Abdullah. Their problem is to ensure that Omar goes. They do not have any personal problem with the youngest chief minister of the state. They want to demonstrate that they have the strength to change kings.
Enjoying peoples' support these separatists plan of boycotting leaders of All Party delegation. If Geelani and Umar refuse to meet the delegation leaders the purpose of their visit stands defeated because there is no other senior separatist leader whose interaction with the political leaders from Delhi could set right the rot. Some other senior separatists, including Shabir Ahmed Shah, are in jails. This development makes it mandatory on the part of the state and the central Governments to initiate firm measures against those induling in violence and against those inciting them. |
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