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| Jethmalani of BJP supports Musharraf's divisive formula | | Kashmir Committee In Jammu | | Neha
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, July 23: Ram Jethmalani of the BJP asserts that "Kashmir issue could have been long resolved peacefully if General Musharraf, the then Pakistani President, would (have) remain(ed) in power a little longer." Ram Jethmalani is not an ordinary man. He is a founder member of the BJP. He is a former Union Law Minister. He was minister in the Atal Behari Vajpayee's Cabinet. Presently, he represents the BJP in Rajya Sabha. Rajasthan unit of the BJP ensured his victory. Remember, the BJP considers Ram Jethmalani as a great asset for the party. That was the reason the BJP stalwarts worked hard in Jaipur to ensure the entry of Ram Jethmalani into the Rajya Sabha, overlooking the fact that Ram Jethmalani had fought election against Vajpayee and denounced him a number of times not-so-long-ago.
Ram Jethmalani is not only guiding the BJP, but he is also heading what he calls Kashmir Committee. Some of its members are Madhu Kishwar (pro-PDP and pro-self-rule), Ashok Bhan (a controversial Kashmir Hindu), MJ Akbar (inconsistent and autonomist) and so on. Hence, whatever Jethmalani says needs to be taken very seriously. After all, he has been poking his nose in the Kashmir affairs since years. After all, he knows much about Pakistan because he was born in Pakistan. He has written extensively on Kashmir and from time to time suggested solutions to surmount the "Kashmir problem."
For example, years ago, he wanted New Delhi to grant maximum possible autonomy to Kashmir. He belongs to that school of thought that doesn't consider Jammu and Kashmir as an integral part of India to the same extent as other states of the Union and that considers Kashmir as a very special case. He had once recommended trifurcation of the state into Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh states as a lasting solution to the Kashmir problem. These days, he is busy in propagating the Musharraf's Kashmir formula. He has, as chairman of the Kashmir Committee, has flirted with Hurriyat leaders umpteen times and suggested solutions that are more or less on the lines suggested by the Kashmiri separatists.
I am not exaggerating things. I am simply saying what Jethmalani said on March 5, 2011 at New Delhi. Describing former Pakistani ruler Pervez Musharraf as "one of the greatest friends" of India, Jethmalani had asserted that the general had tried to settle Kashmir through track-II diplomacy. "Despite being a dictator, he was one of the greatest friends India." He had expressed also identical views while talking to Jung/Geo News in Houston in US after attending a convention hosted by Singhi Association of North America (SANA). He had, inter-alia, said: "It is no longer a secret now that President Musharraf sent us a document carrying acceptable recommendations and proposals for solution of Kashmir issue for two sides…Subsequently, I myself, worked on those proposals being chairman of Kashmir Committee, made slight changes and produced them before mass representatives, but time did not permit Musharraf."
What does Musharraf's formula envisage? It envisages division of the state as it existed on August 15, 1945 into seven regions (on purely communal lines), demilitarization, India-Pakistan joint-control over Jammu and Kashmir and self-governance. The Musharraf's formula, if accepted and implemented, would automatically mean a spectacular victory of Pakistan, communalism and terrorism. It would also mean negation of India as a sovereign republic and the rise of a situation under which the religious and ethnic minorities in the state, who constitute nearly 78 per cent of the state's total population, would be reduced to a nullity for all practical purposes; their fate would be no different from the fate of the Mohajirs, Hindus, Sikhs, Ahmedias and Shiite Muslims in Pakistan.
Ram Jethmalani is here in Jammu. He would do well to inform the people as to the changes he suggested as far as the Musharraf's Kashmir roadmap was concerned. He would also do well to remember that there is no Kashmir problem; it is problem in Kashmir and the problem is fundamentally communal. They are not seeking empowerment; they are seeking segregation from India on the basis of two-nation concept. It is Jammu that has been facing problem since 1947. It is Jammu that houses nearly 1.5 million refugees, with more than one lakh refugees from West Pakistan not even exercising citizenship rights. It is Jammu that has suffered enormous socio-economic and politico-administrative losses during all these years of accession at the hands of Kashmir and New Delhi. Their problem is political that needs to be tackled politically. The best thing for him to do would be to not only give up his insistence on Musharraf's formula, original or amended, and recommend trifurcation of the state. Another important point for his consideration: The non-Muslims in the state are not a microscopic minority; they constitute almost 40 per cent of the state's population and inhabit more than 70 per cent of the state's land area. |
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