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| Beware of former bureaucrats like Raman | | Interlocutors' Report | | RUSTAM
JAMMU, June 11: A number of former bureaucrats have started ganging up and asking the Congress-led UPA Government to immediately implement the recommendations as made by the New Delhi-appointed three interlocutors -- Dilip Padgaonkar, Radha Kumar and M M Ansari - in their 177-page report, which was made public by the Union Home Ministry on May 24. One of them is former additional secretary, Research & Analysis Wing (RAW), Cabinet Secretariat, B Raman. "There is an insurgency fatigue in the state, but it would be unwise to misinterpret the growing normalcy in the ground situation as indicating a political fatigue as well. The grievances have not withered away. To turn J&K around, the government should implement the interlocutors' recommendations," he has said in his political essay, titled "Now, For Political Normalisation". This outrageous essay was published in a leading journal only the other day.
"The de-alienation of the people of the state (in this case the people of Kashmir) would depend on the sincerity of the follow-up drill. The prime minister should take over the leadership role for monitoring the follow-up process. He should nominate a small group of Ministers to examine jointly the recommendations of the interlocutors…in consultation with the state government. And the political parties in the state and at the centre should draw up a plan for the implementation of the acceptable recommendations without delay. The BJP and other rightwing forces should resist the temptation to politicise the follow-up. Nothing could be more shortsighted and counterproductive," he has also said.
Raman has even gone to the extent of frightening India, saying any failure on the part of New Delhi to implement the interlocutors' report would only help Pakistan play its nefarious games in the Indian Jammu & Kashmir. In fact, what he has said in this regard reads like this: "We have a very short window of political opportunity in the state. The thinning down of Nato forces in Afghanistan is likely to make available to the (Pakistani spy agency) ISI surplus trained cadre and leaked arms and ammunition from the dumps left by departing Nato forces. These could be diverted to Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir in an attempt to rekindle the dying insurgency. The implicit Chinese recognition of Gilgit-Baltistan as Pakistani territory and the increasing Chinese interest in the Kashmiri territory under Pakistan's illegal occupation are likely to create new geo-strategic dimensions to the problem. National and state interests demand that this window is intelligently and constructively utilised. If we do not do so, we may find ourselves back in 1989…"
So much so, Raman has urged New Delhi to ignore the critics of the interlocutors' recommendations. "Fears of likely controversy should not be allowed to inhabit the implementation process. Political compromises in the overall state and national interests will be necessary. What is important is to create a positive momentum in favour of implementation," he has said while urging New Delhi to overlook the critics' objections and added that "the central government, in consultation with the state, should identify those recommendations that can be implemented quickly through executive orders and without time-consuming political consultations". "Time-bound actions should be taken to implement them," he has, in fact, suggested and added that "among such recommendations one could mention those relating to the redeployment of security forces, re-evaluation of the need for special powers for the army and improving human rights situation".
Significantly, Raman has opined that the recommendations made by the interlocutors about Jammu and Ladakh and displaced Kashmiri Hindus are likely to encounter difficulties in implementation. "There could be other issues relating to Jammu and Ladakh and the return of the Kashmiri Pandits to their original homeland, which might encounter difficulties in implementation," he has, to be more precise, opined. Remember, the interlocutors have suggested in their report the creation of three regional councils for Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh, councils to be invested with certain legislative, financial and administrative powers.
This is the view of B Raman who held a very crucial position in the cabinet secretariat. This not only indicates his unflinching support for those in Kashmir who have been working day and night for the state's segregation from the political and constitutional organisation of India but also creates doubts in the minds of the Indians about the kind of role they played while in service. Besides, his views should leave none in any doubt that he belongs to that category of Indian trouble-shooters or conflict-managers who can even go to the extent of compromising the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India to pander to extremists, communalists of extreme type and separatists.
It would not be out of place to mention here that the interlocutors' recommendations, if accepted and implemented in their original form, Kashmir would virtually become independent. Remember, they have, among several other unsettling things, suggested that Article 370 be given a special position, that the Parliament and the Union President be barred from bringing the state under the ambit of central laws and central Articles and that steps be taken to ensure that none in future could dilute the "dual status of Jammu and Kashmir".
It is ironical that while Raman and others of his ilk are advising the prime minister to implement the interlocutors' report as early as possible to meet the separatist and communal urges of the Valley leadership, they have been simultaneously expressing reservations as far as the views of the interlocutors on Jammu and Ladakh and the displaced Kashmiri Hindus. It is indeed unfortunate that we have in our country such think-tanks as B Raman. One can only hope and pray that the prime minister would reject out-of-hand what Raman and others of his ilk have been suggesting since May 24 and take steps that needed to be taken to neutralise the baneful influence of anti-India forces in Kashmir and their supporters in different parts of the country.
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