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| Musharraf's Kashmir formula has takers | | Hurriyat leaders fall prey to factionalism: Buch | |
B L KAK
NEW DELHI, NOV 20
Mohamed Yusuf Buch, a Pakistani specialist on national and international affairs, has come out with a convincing finding that no authentic Kashmiri leadership has been yet allowed to emerge. Buch, a Kashmiri himself,has, lamented that by falling prey to factionalism, Kashmir's Hurriyat men "have now dissipated part of the great credit they had earned".
"It is most un-edifying to see some of them basking in Indian or Pakistani patronage", Yusuf Buch has remarked. At the same time, he has cautioned: "Of course, it would be grossly unfair to forget that, over the years, the Huriyat had shown remarkable maturity, cohesion and freedom from party egotism and that the prominent men in it had borne great personal hardships in the service of the cause of liberation".
Buch has now started talking of some requirements of the plan, which, he insits, should ensure that each region of the State of Jammu and Kashmir elects its representatives under impartial supervision, besides taking full cognizance of the ethnic heterogeneity of the State and enable the representatives of derent regions to decide a settlement without pressure from either India or Pakistan and even from one dominant region or another.
Bilateral dialogue betwen India and Pakistan over outstanding issues is on. And the game of floating proposals or advancing suggestions vis-a-vis the Kashmir dispute between the two nuclear states seems to have got quite interesting, with characters from India and Pakistan playing differently at different times.
Even as Pakistan President, Gen. Parvez Musharraf, has come across a growth in the number of his critics following his association with the "enemy of Islam" (US President, George W Bush), his recent Kashmir formula has quite a few takers in Jammu and Kashmir, including Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, esprit de corps of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) and his over-ambitious daughter, Mehbooba Mufti. Father-daughter duo as well as others are required to realize that a solution to the Kashmir problem will, as usual, elude both New Delhi and Islamabad.
At a time when, in spite of the reservations of New Delhi and Islamabad on the present Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir getting converted into the international boundary, the talk in India and Pakistan continues on the merits and demerits of the status quo. Yusuf Buch has also recommended: Rather than hustle a solution and arouse passions, it should usher in a gradual process over several states leading to a just, sutainable and definitve settlement of the dispute.
Buch has stressed that the situation with regard to the Kashmir imbroglio "cannot improve in reality if either (a) the flexibility being shown by President Musharraf remains unreciprocated or (b) both his flexibility and Indian rigidity pay insufficient or little regard to the rights and wishes of Kashmirs". New Delhi may not accept the Buch formula, but the fact remains that his formula has takers on the soil of Kashmir Valley. The principle involved, according to Buch, is twofold: First, the settlement of the Kashmir problem must accord with the wishes of the Kashmiris and, second, equally important, these wishes must be impartially ascertained.
Buch has warned: "Gimmickry and manoeuvres, no matter by whom encouraged and approved, cannot be a response to a demand for which thousands have shed their blood". The Buch formula has surfaced at a time when sections of Kashmiri people uphold the 'Farooq plan'. Author and architect of this plan is none other than Farooq Abdullah, patron of National Conference and former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir.
The 'Farooq plan' envisages settlement of the Kashmir issue by allowing the present LoC to be coverted into the international boundary. During the Kargil war in 1999, India's back-channel negotiator, RK Mishra, was reported to have discussed the idea of partition with his counterpart in Pakistan, Niaz Naik.
The idea has been named as 'Chenab formula'. Doda sits on the faultline that partition-enthusiasts seek to covert into a border, the Chenab river. |
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