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| Geelani-Mirwaiz stuck to their stand, reject PM's suggestion | | | RUSTAM
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Mar 7: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's March 4 Jammu suggestion regarding the solution to the "problems of Jammu and Kashmir" has been rejected out-of-hand by the separatists like Syed Ali Shah Geelani and the APHC of Mirwaiz Umar Farooq. The Prime Minister had said "I do not think any body or any group can veto this (dialogue) process or the outcome of the ongoing dialogue process; the solution will have to take into consideration the political aspirations of Jammu and Ladakh as well; and the solution has to be within the framework of the Indian Constitution." The Kashmiri separatists have rejected the Prime Minister's suggestion, saying they cannot become of the dialogue process since New Delhi doesn't declare Jammu and Kashmir a dispute territory.
It is not for the first time that these separatists, or for that matter all the Valley-based separatists, have repudiated outright the idea of engaging with New Delhi and discussing ways and means that could break the impasse and help restore normalcy in the disturbed state. They have been doing so since years. They took a similar stand when the New Delhi-appointed interlocutors asked them to join the dialogue process. Convinced that the separatists won't adopt a rational approach, the interlocutors had to say publicly that they would go ahead with their task of ascertaining the views of all sections of society and preparing a report on the basis of the same. The interlocutors, like the Prime Minister, had also stated at least on two occasions that Jammu and Kashmir was a complex issues, that the aspirations of the people of Jammu and Ladakh were different from those of the Kashmiri leaders and that the solution had to be all-inclusive.
Why do the separatists refuse to join the dialogue process? They refuse to do so because they don't have the guts to face the truth and discuss things based on the ground realities. They know they cannot convince New Delhi of the need of holding a plebiscite in the state because Pakistan has ruthlessly violated the conditions laid down by the UN resolutions on the state. Pakistan has refused to vacate the aggression, merged Gilgit-Baltistan with Pakistan and ceded parts of Aksai Chin and Karakorum region to China. They know it full well that the moment they would ask New Delhi to hold a plebiscite, they would be confronted with these facts and the result would be their humiliating defeat. They would stand thoroughly exposed.
The separatists also mortally afraid of joining the dialogue process because of three other fundamental reasons. One is that they do not represent the general will of the people of Kashmir, what to talk of the people of the state. Their constituencies are rather limited; their area of influence is confined to a few pockets in the Valley; and their constituency fundamentally communal, or even sectarian. The other is that their entire struggle is based on falsehood and on issues no civilized and democratic country would ever yield. They want second partition of India. Who in India would allow the powers-that-be in New Delhi to endorse any such formulation that seeks another communal partition of the country? Another fundamental reason that prevents the separatists from coming forward and joining the dialogue process is their inability to explain what led to the exodus of the miniscule minority of Kashmiri Hindus from the Valley in 1990. Yet another reason is disunity among the separatists. They would never come on one common platform because they know once it happens they would become irrelevant. In other words, they believe in the dictum: Divided We Gain, United We Lose. In other words, this disunity is an integral part of the strategy the separatists have meticulously worked out to remain in limelight.
The fact of the matter is that the separatists are fully aware of their weaknesses and the weaknesses are many. One of their weaknesses is their lust for easy money and they know they can mint money only if they take recourse to the kind of tactics they have been taking recourse to, particularly since 1989. The authorities in New Delhi know all this and yet they go on sending invitations to them for a dialogue, thus according legitimacy to the otherwise rather unpopular separatist Kashmiri leadership. New Delhi must abandon this policy. Instead, it should focus its attention on the Jammu province, which houses almost two million refugees - all leading a miserable life, with some of them being not even given the normal civil and political rights. Besides, these refugees, the people of Ladakh deserve a special dispensation. They are demanding empowerment and not separation. And, remember, the people of Jammu and Ladakh and the refugees, plus other religious and ethnic minorities in the state, constitute almost 80 per cent of the state's population. Conciliate them and end the impasse in the state. This is what the statesmanship requires.
Why to prostrate before the non-representative Kashmiri separatists who have no case whatever? After all, they represent only a microscopic minority and stand for anarchy, destruction, bloodshed and hatred between the communities. They are not committed to what they say through the media and every Friday. |
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