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| Chidambaram complicating situation in Kashmir | | | Rustam
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Apr 5: This is the history and geography of Jammu & Kashmir; this is the history of relations between the people of Jammu and the Kashmiri leadership; this is the history of the role Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi played to isolate Kashmiri separatists and check the fissiparous tendencies in Kashmir; this is the history of the role Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri and Indira Gandhi played to integrate the state into India. They introduced hundreds and hundreds of Central laws in the state; they brought the state under the ambit of several Central institutions, including the office of the Election Commission of India, Supreme Court of India and the Comptroller and Auditor-General; they abolished the offices of Wazir-e-Azam (Prime Minister) and Sadar-e-Riyasat in 1965 and brought the state at par with other states of the Union by replacing these nomenclatures with Chief Minister and Governor, respectively; they abolished the obnoxious permit system in order to enable the people of the state and all other Indians to visit any part unhindered as Indian nationals.
To say all this is not to suggest that the Congress did not commit blunders. It made several blunders. It incorporated Article 306-A (370) in the Indian Constitution to fulfill the communal and separatist urges of Sheikh Abdullah, and it signed an unsettling accord with Sheikh Abdullah in 1975, enabling the latter to seek withdrawal of any Central law he considered harmful for the identity of Kashmir and Kashmiri Muslims.
Home Minister Chidambaram must not go by those in Kashmir who distort and murder history to promote their vested interests. He should not allow himself to be guided by those who feed wrong information and misinterpret things to mislead and hoodwink New Delhi. He should not use terms such as "quiet dialogue", "quiet diplomacy" and "back channels". These are all disturbing formulations. He should do things in a transparent manner and take the nation into confidence. His approach needs to be holistic, secular and nation-centric.
His approach should be to isolate, marginalize and reduce to nullity all those in Kashmir who preach communalism, use terror as a weapon to force down the nation's throat their pernicious ideology, and who do not believe in the concept of the other, or whose ideology rigorously excludes others professing different faiths. He should dismiss out-of-hand such formulations as "Kashmir", "Kashmiris" and Kashmiriyat" and, instead, recognize that a small section of Kashmiri Sunnis is involved in subversive and communal activities and that an overwhelming majority of the people in Jammu & Kashmir is for peace, tranquility, development and socio-economic and political regeneration.
Chidambaram must remember that any concession to the state would mean a major concession to terrorism and extremism; a step short of independence. He must stop saying that "solutions to other problems in India cannot be replicated here" (Kashmir) for the simple reason that the state is part and parcel of Indian civilization, and is an integral part of liberal India.
But more than that, the Home Minister should study the state's demographic landscape before speaking on the state and on the nature of the Kashmir crisis. He should read the autobiography of former President R Venkataraman and go by his suggestion on Jammu & Kashmir, which he gave the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, that Jammu should be given statehood, Ladakh should be given what it wants, and deal with Kashmir separately.
In fact, this is the only option available. Not to exercise this option and to continue to cling to the line the Home Minister and the Prime minister are pursuing would only create more problems rather than resolving existing ones. Follow Venkataraman and resolve the issues facing the state, subject to the condition that nothing is done that dilutes Indian sovereignty in Kashmir; weakens the northern frontiers; and gives any kind of respectability to the cult of the gun; that recognizes and rewards communalism. (Concluded) |
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