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| Mufti's mission self-rule to UN | | editorial | |
The former J&K Chief Minister and PDP patron, Mufti Mohammad sayeed's
visit to the United Nations, as head of the non official Indian
delegation to attend the general assembly session of the UN, where he
is going to sell the proposal of self-rule for J&K, has an element of
mystery. The public opinion in J&K as well as in India as a whole is
intrigued over the exercise. Rather than Mufti Sayeed adventurism in
carrying an agenda to the world body, over which there is no clarity
and consensus within the state, the more confusing is the attitude of
the Indian government towards this adventurous mission of Mufti
Sayeed, whose PDP is a coalition partner in the Congress led J&K
government. The way in which Mufti Sayeed is conducting himself and
called on the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh the UPA Chairperson
and Congress President, Sonia Gandhi, besides former Prime Ministers
of the country, before leaving for New York, with the agenda of
self-rule, an impression is created that the Union government is not
only reconciled with Mufti's mission, but has its blessing to the
same. Carrying of the proposal of self-rule to the United Nations at
this stage, to say the least, is premature and like putting cort
before the horse. The proposal, which Mufti calls as the most viable
solution of the Kashmir problem, does not have consensus within the
state itself. Barring the PDP all other political parties have either
opposed the formula for one reason or the other or have expressed
their reservations about the details of the same. So much so that the
ruling coalition partners, the Congress and the Panthers party have
opposed it vehemently, terming it a hollow slogan and an exercise at
befooling the people of Jammu and Kashmir. Apart from opposition to
the formula, presented by a party, which Jammuites perceive as Kashmir
centric and anti Jammu, by the Jammu based political parties and
public opinion, the Kashmiri separatists have termed it another
attempt by the Indian establishment to hoodwink the Kashmiris, "who
have been fighting for last 18 years, with several valuable lives
lost, for complete independence from Indian domination". The
separatists have even express doubts of Mufti acting on behest of the
government of India, to take wind out of the sails of Pak President,
Parvez Musharraf's proposal of self-rule, only as a counter diplomatic
move to score a point over Pakistan. Above all it is the PDP itself,
which is yet not clear about the broad contours of their self-rule
proposal, with different leaders conveying different impressions about
their agenda. The senior PDP leader and former Deputy Chief Minister,
Muzafar Hussain Baig, who is credited with having drafted the
self-rule proposal and who has been appointed as the chairman of the
drafting committee for preparing a draft paper on the proposal, has
himself recently told gatherings in Jammu that the details of the
proposal are still to be chalked out and he is on a mission to bring
about consensus on the broad contours of the same. Some of the points
in the self-rule proposal, as regional federalism and political and
economic empowerment of the three regions of the state look quite
catchy. Whereas some of the points like excluding J&K from the
provision of Article 356 of Indian constitution and the state governor
to be elected by the state legislative etc are controversial and need
thorough debate. Similarly the proposal for demilitarization and
replacing the central paramilitary forces and the army by state police
too need a thorough debate at home before presenting the same and the
international fora. If the self-rule demand of PDP is within the
framework of Indian constitution, as per Mufti Sayeed himself then
what is the need to discuss it at the international level.
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