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| Issues for the interlocutors’ consideration | | Empowerment, Political Solution -- II | | RUSTAM
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, July 8: 5. Ever since October 1947, when the state acceded to India, Kashmir has been ruling the state. As for the Kashmiri leadership, it has been exercising extraordinary legislative and executive powers under Article 370 of the Indian Constitution. Jammu and Kashmir is the only state in the country that has a separate constitution and separate flag and that enjoys residuary powers. No central law can be introduced in the state without the consent or concurrence of the state government (read Kashmiri leadership). It’s true that hundreds of central laws have been introduced in the state after August 9, 1953, when the then National Conference president and Wazir-e-Azam Sheikh Abdullah was dismissed from his position and arrested. But it’s also true that New Delhi has not imposed any central law on the state against the state’s will. All the central laws have been introduced in the state with the concurrence of the state government and in accordance with the procedure laid down by Article 370. It is also important to note that Jammu and Kashmir is a special category state. Besides, Kashmir is the most developed region in the country, where not a single Kashmiri has died till date of hunger and cold. The fact of the matter is that it is Kashmir that controls all or nearly all the political and economic institutions in the state.
6. Kashmiri leaders, without any exception, say that Kashmir is a political problem that needs a political solution. Kashmir is not a political problem. The unrest or violence in Kashmir is the immediate fall-out of the communal ideology the Kashmiri leaders profess and advocate. They do not consider Jammu and Kashmir an integral part of India. On the contrary, they consider it a disputed territory whose political status is yet to be determined taking into consideration the Pakistani concerns as well as the “will” of the people of Kashmir (read Sunni Muslims). Some of them want merger with Pakistan. Some want Jammu and Kashmir to become independent. Some want greater autonomy from India. And, some want self-rule for the state. These are the four major demands being made consistently by the Kashmiri leaders. There is no fundamental different between autonomy and self-rule and both the formulations mean a step short of independence. It is important to note that those who have been putting forth these destroy-and break-India demands do not represent the general will. At best, they represent not more than 22 per cent of the state’s population – a segment that is well entrenched, highly prosperous and highly articulate and that has been ruling the roost since 1947. The worst aspect of the whole situation has been that even those ruling the state in the name of the Indian Constitution and State Constitution have been saying that elections to the assembly, elections to the parliament and elections to the local bodies and the “Kashmir issue” are two different things and advocating the need for a “political resolution” of the so-called “political problem.” In other words, those who are constitutionally bound to protect the unity and integrity of India and promote secularism and democracy are themselves negating the very essence of the Indian constitution. Mercifully, the authorities in New Delhi have failed to discharge their obligations towards the nation. So much so that they appear hand-in-glove with those in Kashmir working for the disintegration of the country and seeking separation on purely religious ground. They want another communal partition of the country.
7. Kashmiri leaders want New Delhi to treat the people of Kashmir differently. They say a preferential treatment is needed because the Muslims of Kashmir are feeling alienated. They, at the same time, say that employment packages or financial packages would not end alienation in Kashmir. They make it loud and clear that if New Delhi wishes to end alienation in Kashmir, it will have to respect the sentiments of the people of Kashmir. Everyone knows what exactly they mean by respect for the Kashmiri sentiments: allow them, along with Kashmir, to secede from India. They talk of alienation of Kashmiri Muslims but demand a solution that is applicable to the entire state overlooking the fact that 78 per cent of the state’s population and Jammu and Ladakh have nothing to do with what the Kashmiri leaders have been demanding or working for.
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