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Irony Of Sorts: BJP, Cong on the same page | Dialogue With Geelani | | Rustam JAMMU, Oct 21: Congress-led UPA Government is toying with the idea of entering into dialogue with Syed Ali Shah Geelani. Geelani is pro-Pakistan. He is an extremist and communalist of an extreme variety and is known for instigating gullible Kashmiri Muslims against India. The reported move of the Union Government to engage with Geelani to find a solution to the Kashmir issue indicates its nervousness, as also its ambivalent stand on Jammu and Kashmir. Geelani, as everyone knows, would enter into a dialogue with New Delhi only if his four conditions are accepted. The conditions include release of what he calls "political prisoners" (read those involved in anti-state crimes); withdrawal of the Army and anti-terror laws like the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), Disturbed Areas Act (DAA) and Public Safety Act (PSA); and action against those who killed what he calls "innocent Kashmiri youth" (read stone-pelters and disturber of peace) last summer. Besides, he wants New Delhi to categorically state that Jammu and Kashmir is a disputed territory. The idea of engaging with Geelani to break the so-called impasse in Kashmir is fraught with dangerous ramifications. The Union Government, which appears desperate to engage with Geelani, gives the nation to understand that there is nothing wrong in engaging with Geelani, or for that matter other Kashmiri extremists and separatists, and that the talks, if at all held with them, would be within the framework of Indian Constitution. What exactly New Delhi means by talks within the framework of India is not yet known? There is confusion. Is it thinking in terms of restricting its jurisdiction over the state to just three subjects - defence, foreign affairs and communication - and leaving the rest to the care of Kashmiri leadership? (This is the demand of the NC and the PDP.) The state already exercises extraordinary legislative powers. It also enjoys residuary powers which no other state in the country enjoys. It has its own constitution and a separate flag. No central law can be extended to the state without the concurrence of the State Government. Jammu and Kashmir is in a way a republic within the Indian republic. So, what more can the Union Government give to Geelani and other Kashmiri leaders, separatist or otherwise? The return to the pre-1953 position would mean a step short of complete independence and once it happens, it would be not difficult for the Kashmiri separatists to launch a final assault, de-link the state from India and disintegrate the Indian State. One can easily understand the reasons behind the Congress' willingness for a dialogue between New Delhi and Kashmiri separatists. For, the Congress has at no point of time during all these 64 years of the state's accession considered J&K as an integral part of India in the real sense of the term. In fact, it is squarely responsible for the creation of the Kashmir problem. But what has gone wrong with the BJP, which consistently calls it a party with a difference and an ultra-nationalist outfit committed to integrating the state fully into India by abrogating Article 370 of the Indian Constitution? Does it know the meaning of what it has started saying. The statements the state BJP chief spokesperson made yesterday that the "separatist-government talks should not be seen as a deal" and that "any citizen of the country has the right to enter into a dialogue with the government of India, subject to the condition that talks will have to be within the framework of the constitution" have shocked the nationalist constituency in the state. Has the state BJP become the official spokesperson of the Congress-led UPA Government? It is indeed ironical, nay intriguing, that Congress has started speaking in the same language. This unanimity between the two national parties doesn't augur well for the people of the state and the nation as a whole. It appears that an insidious influence is at work to defeat the national cause in Jammu and Kashmir by an unholy undeclared alliance between the Congress and the BJP. The Congress and the BJP just cannot outrage the nationalist constituency in the state (read the nation) by promoting the idea of a dialogue between New Delhi and the likes of Geelani, who don't represent the general will; who only represent a microscopic minority which believes in and preaches a regressive and an exclusivist and intolerant ideology. The Congress and the BJP, which appear to be on the same page, need to review their stand on the proposed dialogue between New Delhi and Geelani and work for the abrogation of Article 370. Any failure on their part to do so would only provoke the people to reject them as pro-separatist outfits. The nationalist constituency in the state is already seething with anger over what the Congress and the BJP have been systematically doing to damage the national cause in Jammu and Kashmir. |
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