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| Roundtable Conference on Kashmir in Jammu | | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, July 11: It was expected that the New Delhi-appointed interlocutors would organize in Jammu a conference on Kashmir and Kashmiri aspirations and it actually happened on the first day of the two-day roundtable Conference. Rabidly anti-India elements from Kashmir were there in full strength in the conference and some of them included the well-known India-baiters like Gul Mohammad Wani, a Kashmir University teacher, and the US-based Sheikh Abdullah's granddaughter Nyla Ali Khan. The interlocutors had taken all the precautions to ensure that the roundtable conference remained Kashmir-centric. A few Kashmiri journalists and former bureaucrats were also there in the conference, all advocating what the Kashmiri leaders have been advocating since long. There was none from Kashmir who was prepared to reveal the true story. On the contrary, they tried their level best to make mountains out of molehills, exaggerated things and painted things in lurid colours to paint India black.
The supporters of the likes of KU teacher Wani who is known for consistently pouring venom on India were also there. And, one of them was from Delhi. Take, for example, Mani Shankar Aiyer, former Congress minister in the Union Cabinet. He had the audacity of even sharing the views of Wani who openly criticized his Congress colleague and former Cabinet Minister Gulchain Singh Charak. Charak had simply tried to make his point but was "not allowed" by the chair. Such was the attitude of the chair. Charak didn't walkout, but, according to one of the delegates, Charak felt outraged and disgusted. Charak's only crime was that he highlighted the role of Dogra Sadar Sabha and the contribution of the Dogras in the political and cultural history of the state. The only person who took on Wani was interlocutor Radha Kumar. It was indeed surprising considering the pain the interlocutors had taken to identify persons who should and who should not participate in the conference.
There were at least three Jammu-based female delegates. Two of them didn't think it prudent to speak. The third delegate did speak but she was neither here nor there. According to her, Kashmir is fine and Jammu is also fine. Then, there were at least two Jammu-based journalists in the conference. One of them didn't speak and the one who spoke didn't make any impact because he was not that unambiguous.
There were also half a dozen Jammu-based writers and artists in the Conference. One of them did speak well but his was also not a political intervention. It related to the culture of Jammu province. Others only talked about art. They didn't highlight what ails Jammu and what Jammu stands for. There was also one Jammu-based general in the conference. He started talking about his role as a solider in Kashmir as well as the role of the army, but he was virtually made not to speak. The organizers said what he was speaking was outside the agenda. The interlocutors, according to an eyewitness, didn't adopt such a line when the delegates from Kashmir made out-and-out political interventions all calculated to denigrate India and everything Indian. According to another delegate, almost all the delegates from Jammu, barring two - Charak and former Advocate General D C Raina - were "chicken-hearted, non-political and totally ineffective." K D Maini from Poonch was another exception, though his intervention was also non-political. As for Raina, according to yet another delegate, he countered "very effectively" the "charge of Wani that India has not fulfilled the promise it made at the time of accession and immediately after accession. Raina "countered" Wani by saying the "Pakistan has not fulfilled the conditions."
There were delegates from Leh and Kargil, all political persons, "articulate, to the point and effective." The delegates from Leh said: "We have nothing to do with Kashmir, we have nothing to do with Jammu and we want Union Territory." The delegates from Kargil did not agree with the delegates from Leh but they, at the same time, didn't talk non-sense. They talked sense and highlighted the problems that confront their region.
It can be said that the roundtable conference in Jammu has, instead of enabling Jammu to articulate its suppressed voice, has further damaged Jammu. To be more precise, the interlocutors gave an additional opportunity to the Kashmir-based India-baiters to use Jammu platform to further their pernicious agenda. Jammu was at the receiving end in the past and it remained at the receiving end today as well. One the contrary, the Kashmir-based delegates made it loud and clear that they dominated Jammu and Ladakh in the past and they would see to it that that positions remains unchanged. |
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