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| Valley, not Jammu & Ladakh, the trouble-spot | | Bhat's 3 Roadmaps For K Resolution | | Neha
JAMMU, July 9: Former Hurriyat chairman Abdul Gani Bhat, who has been at the receiving end for some months now because of negative statement on the UN resolutions on Jammu & Kashmir, has said that his Muslim Conference (MC) has three different roadmaps for the resolution of Kashmir issue. At the same time, he has taken a U-turn and said he accepts the UN resolutions as the "legal base for Kashmir issue". "Despite passage of 6 decades, the resolutions have not been implemented. Apart from UN resolutions, the Hurriyat constitution envisages three options, including complete independence and tripartite talks as a means for finding a lasting solution to the vexed Kashmir issue," Bhat has said.
The UN resolutions suggest a plebiscite in Jammu & Kashmir as it existed on August 15, 1947 (read the Indian Jammu & Kashmir and Pakistan-occupied-Jammu & Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan). The UN resolution, in addition, asks Pakistan to vacate the aggression by withdrawing all of its troops from the illegally occupied areas and says that the Indian forces will maintain law and order in the areas to be vacated by Pakistan. In other words, the UN resolutions implicitly recognize the Indian sovereignty in POJK and Gilgit-Baltistan.
Bhat knows what the UN resolutions on Jammu & Kashmir really mean, but he had to take U-turn to silence his bitter critics like Shabir Ahmed Shah, Nayeem Khan and a few other members of the APHC (M) executive body. Shah and Khan have been demanding expulsion of Bhat from the amalgam saying he violated the Hurriyat constitution by saying the UN resolutions could not be implemented and that it would be desirable of the APHC (M) and all other formations, including the NC and the PDP, evolve some common minimum programme and fight for the Kashmiri cause together.
The MC chairman has only clarified his stand on the UN resolutions. He has not distanced himself from the suggestion that the APHC (M) and all the Kashmir-based outfits, separatist or otherwise, should work together on the basis of a common minimum programme so that they are able to achieve the objective. At the same time, however, Bhat has revealed that his MC has worked out three different roadmaps for the resolution of Kashmir issue and said he will present these roadmaps to the people in coming times. He has asserted that he and his associates have devised three different roadmaps because they believe that the same will be needed in the near future.
However, Bhat has not informed as to what his three roadmaps actually envisage. But it is clear that these roadmaps would be different from what the Hurriyat constitution talks about: Resolution of Kashmir issue on the basis of UN resolutions, complete independence from India and Pakistan and trilateral talks between New Delhi, Islamabad and "representatives of Kashmiri people (in this case self-styled freedom fighters). Remember, the UN resolutions do not give third option (independence) to the people of Jammu & Kashmir. The resolutions provide for only two options - choice between India and Pakistan. The UN resolutions also do not provide for trilateral talks; they provide for bilateral talks between India and Pakistan. In other words, the UN resolutions do not consider the people of Jammu & Kashmir a party to the so-called Kashmir dispute.
But one thing was very clear in what he said while saying that his outfit has three different roadmaps for Kashmir resolution: Conspicuous absence of any reference to Jammu and Ladakh, the State's two big provinces which house almost half of the State's population. In other words, he, like other Kashmiri leaders, separatist or otherwise, did not consider it prudent to refer to the needs, compulsions and aspirations of the people of Jammu and Ladakh or he, like other Kashmiri leaders, believes that meeting the aspirations of the people of Kashmir would be the same as meeting the aspirations of the entire population of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh State.
The fact of the matter is that the Bhat's whole approach was lop-sided and parochial. This will not do. For, Jammu and Ladakh will under no situation endorse any solution that drives them away from the national mainstream. If Bhat & Co really wishes to resolve the so-called Kashmir issue, they have no other option but to first ensure the Valley's separation from Jammu and Ladakh. Such a separation alone would end inter-regional bitterness and animosity and enable New Delhi to engage with Kashmiri leaders of all hues to reach some agreement. The sooner the Kashmiri leaders recognize this stark reality, the better. |
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