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| Meaning of political problem | | Context Kashmir | |
Rustam
JAMMU, Dec 2: Still Kashmiri leaders of all hues describe Kashmir as a "political problem" and urge New Delhi to resolve it "politically." Chief Minister Omar Abdullah says so. People's Democratic Party leaders like Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and Mehbooba Mufti say so. CPI-M leaders like Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami say so. In fact, all the Kashmiri leaders -- "mainstream" or otherwise -- hold an identical view on Kashmir and advocate a "political solution" to the Kashmir issue.
However, none of them explains what he/she means by political problem. Do they want a system other than the one the Indian Constitution hands down to the people? Do they want a totalitarian government or a government, Chinese-style or Hitler-style, or the type of the government the Communists established in the erstwhile Soviet Union or Hitler established in Germany? Do they want a system under which social classes cease to exist or do they want a system that makes available to them means of achieving empowerment and "happiness consistent with the general good"? Do they want authoritarianism or a system of government in which "power is exercised by some particular element with minimum popular input" or do they want an absolute monarchy controlled by a king and assisted by the nobility accountable to none? Do they want a local oligarchy in which the ruling elite exercises absolute legislative, executive and judicial powers or a system that would have committed judiciary and committed constitutional head and that bars the people from enjoying even normal civil and political rights, including the right to speech and assemble? Do they want a system similar to the one prevailing in Pakistan where none is safe and where dissent is viewed as sedition and which promotes not only fanaticism but also terrorism and which believes in the Punjabi Sunni exclusiveness? Do they want a theocratic rule of the type the Taliban, the Al-Qaeda, the Lashkar-e-Toiba/Jamaat-ud-Dawa and the Jaish-e-Mohammad have been striving to introduce in the region? Or, do they consider Kashmir as unfinished agenda of partition and want another communal division of India?
Ask any Kashmiri leader as to what exactly he/she means by political problem and political solution his/her response would be vague. Instead of explaining the meaning, he/she would simply reiterate that "Kashmir is a political problem that needs a political solution." However, each one of them would do speak against Indian Constitution, Indian Army, paramilitary forces, in fact, against all the symbols of Indian State. Besides, each and every Kashmiri leader would endorse the view in his own way that the presence of India in Kashmir is illegal and assert that one of the causes responsible for the alienation of Kashmiri Muslims is the application of Indian laws and institutions to the state and that New Delhi has not fulfilled the promises it made from time to time. They would, in addition, remind that India has promised a plebiscite in Kashmir but it has not kept that solemn promise.
It is not really difficult to know what Kashmiri leaders stand for when one takes into consideration what they contemptuously say about India and Indian Constitution. They want secession because they believe they are Muslims are a race apart and, hence, a distinct nation. To be more precise, they are the ardent believers in the concept of two-nation and they consider themselves a race apart. This should clinch the whole issue and establish that the Kashmiri leaders consider any kind of truck between Kashmir and the rest of the country as utterly unacceptable.
It is important to note that it is Kashmir which has been ruling the state since October 1947, when it acceded to India. It is also important to note that all the chief ministers of the state have been from Kashmir. Even the Doda-based Ghulam Nabi Azad of the Congress, who ruled the state from November 3, 2005 to July 1, 2008, is ethnically Kashmiri. The fact of the matter is that Kashmir is the most prosperous region in the country, where not a single Kashmiri has died till date of hunger or cold. Another important fact that needs to be taken cognizance is that it is the members of a particular religious sect who have been exercising extraordinary powers since 1947 and it is the members of the same sect who are involved in subversive activities and demanding "political solution to political problem."
Mercifully, there are also elements in the Indian political establishment as, for example, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram, whose ministry has committed faux-pas after faux-pas during the past few months, including inclusion of wrong names in the most wanted list, and made India a laughing stock in the eyes of the international community, who do subscribe to what the Kashmiri leaders have been saying about the relations between Kashmir and New Delhi. It is this that has complicated the otherwise very simple matter. It's time for New Delhi to call the Kashmiri leaders' bluff and integrate the state fully with India by doing away with Article 370 - the root cause of all the problems in the state. There is no Kashmir problem. There is problem in Kashmir and the problem is patently communal that needs to be tackled as such. The Kashmiri leaders consider Kashmir part of unfinished agenda of partition and this just cannot be accepted. Hence, the need of the time is to hasten the process of constitutional integration between Jammu & Kashmir and New Delhi and not weaken it by making such ridiculous statements like "autonomy within the Indian Constitution is possible." (Concluded) |
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