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| Kashmir -- a way forward | | Kathwari Formula And Its Implications | | Rustam
Jammu, Jan 12: Even a cursory glance at the latest proposal of Farooq Kathwari, marked confidential and issued from New York, would suggest that it doesn't consider Jammu and Kashmir as part of India as well as part of Pakistan. He virtually considers it as an independent entity and, at the same time, stands for a solution that is basically based on former Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf's four-point Kashmir solution, the People's Democratic Party's self-rule document and the National Conference's autonomy report. He doesn't say anything whether the central laws extended to the state should be or should not be withdrawn, but his self-governing formulation makes it abundantly clear that he is for a system that the people of Kashmir would prefer. He also suggests a similar approach towards the areas of the state which have been under the illegal occupation of Pakistan since 1947-1948. At the same time, Kathwari underlines the need of giving "maximum appropriate degree of self-governance, given its individual situation". He doesn't explain what he means by "individual situation" but one can surely say that he has made this suggestion keeping in mind the Kashmir Valley housing almost hundred per cent population belonging to one religion.
One of the most significant aspects of the Kathwari proposal is that it wants India to take the first initiative to set up self-governing institutions in Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh. It says, "The creation of these self-governing regions need not occur simultaneously; new arrangements on the Indian side need not await changes on the Pakistani side" (read POJK and Gilgit-Baltistan). This formulation should also suggest that Kathwari wants Pakistan to take its own time taking into consideration its long-term interests in the region. Why this dual approach? Why is he not insisting on Pakistan to do what he wants New Delhi to do to set of self-governing institutions in the Indian Jammu and Kashmir? It is not difficult to fathom the reasons. He cannot insist on Pakistan because he himself, like another US-based Kashmiri Ghulam Nabi Fai, is the Pakistani agent operating from the United States.
The proposal envisages "effective participation of significant local minorities" in the self-governing regions. Which region or regions he talks about? Does he talk about Kashmir which has already witnessed total cleansing of the religious minorities, including the Hindu minority? Or, does he talk about Jammu province and Ladakh? He certainly talks about the Muslim minority in the Jammu province and wants for them definite statutory safeguards. There is no problem if the minorities are protected against exclusion by the majority; they need to be protected and given a sense of belonging as part and parcel of the region's society. Even otherwise, such a mechanism has become imperative considering the fact that the Kashmiri ruling elite has harmed, and continues to harm, the legitimate socio-economic and political interests of the people of Jammu and Ladakh, who constitute overall minority in the state, approximately 40 per cent. But Kathwari is not suggesting this kind of arrangement. He is actually suggesting segregation of the Muslim-majority areas of Jammu province from its Hindu-majority areas so that Greater Kashmir is established consisting of the Muslim-majority areas of the state.
It would be only appropriate to point out here that Farooq Kathwari is an ardent believer in the concept of the Jammu province's division along the River Chenab on purely communal lines. But he completely overlooks the fact that the communities inhabiting the areas on both sides of the river are almost evenly balanced. It needs to be underlined that Poonch is the only district in Jammu province where the followers of a particular religion whom Kathwari calls minority are in a great majority and the Hindus and Sikhs a numerical minority. His suggestion that "three self-governing regions - Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh - operating under the overall umbrella of the present State of Jammu and Kashmir could be established in the portion of the pre-1947 territory now administered by India" is nothing but a cunning attempt at misleading those with whose help he wants his proposal to be implemented and those who are not aware of the democratic profile of Jammu province in general and the so-called Muslin-majority areas of the province in particular. The fact is that Kathwari wants to divide Jammu province into sub-regions and destroy the region's age-old identity. His whole objective is to enable Kashmir and Pakistan to establish complete control over the Chenab Waters.
Besides, Kathwari, like General Pervez Musharraf and the votaries of self-rule, wants the rise of a situation under which Pakistan would be in a position to share sovereignty with India in Jammu and Kashmir. His suggestion that "an all-Kashmir body would be set up to coordinate areas of common interest such as regional trade, tourism, environment and water resources" and that "this body would include representatives from each of the regions, as well as from the governments of India and Pakistan" should clinch the whole issue and establish that he wants New Delhi to involve Pakistan in tackling certain crucial issues New Delhi itself can tackle. His' is another indirect method of giving legitimacy to the illegitimate claims of Pakistan. India is a sovereign country and Jammu and Kashmir its integral part. They have the ability and capacity to take care of the areas Kathwari has enumerated in his "Kashmir - A Way Forward". (To be concluded) |
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