|
Integrate
Kashmir with the Indian Union
What
others say......
Just
when you thought that the terrorist violence in Kashmir was
tapering off, the ISI has reminded us that it is alive and well -
and very much in the business of fomenting mayhem in this country.
While faraway the US is engaged in a pre-emptive war to neutralise
the threat from Saddam Hussein, who may or may not have posed a
direct threat to the American interests, we in India are condemned
to put up with continued provocations almost on a daily basis from
Islamabad because we cannot as a nation bring ourselves to devise a
coherent policy to deal with the deep-rooted animus of a demented
neighbour. Unless we are able to grasp the nettle of Pakistan, there
can be no lasting peace in Kashmir or further afield in the entire
country. This plain truth ought to be clear as daylight to the
dimmest of politicians, ruling or opposition. The trouble is that
while they all know that the source of mischief in Kashmir is in
Pakistan, there is precious little that any one of them in the
entire political class is willing to consider, let alone do
something about it. Every time there is a horrendous atrocity
committed by the merchants of death in the Valley, stray voices are
heard to right the historic wrongs in order to end once for all the
cycle of violence and terror in Kashmir. And each time, after a few
days, all is forgotten, and the political class moves on to its
routine business of non-governance and politicking.
You can, therefore,
be certain that the familiar pattern will follow the perpetration of
the latest gruesome tragedy inflicted on the innocent people of
Kashmir by the sponsors of terror from across the international
border. Sunday night’s cold-blooded massacre of 24 Kashmiri
Pandits in village Narimarg of Pulwama district was waiting to
happen. For, the newly-installed administration of Mufti Mohammad
Sayeed had undertaken a PR drive to lure back to the State Kashmiri
Pandits before putting in place a credible security apparatus to
ensure that they did not become victims of terrorist violence.
Kashmiri Pandits, who had become refugees in their own homeland
thanks to the collective failure of successive administrations in
Srinagar and New Delhi to craft a credible policy to blunt the
ISI’s avowed designs on Kashmir, had begun to trickle back to
their homes in the Valley. This was not acceptable to the militants
whose sole claim to Kashmir lay on the fact that it was a Muslim
majority enclave in what they called Hindu India and, therefore,
`rightfully’ belonged to Pakistan. The massacre of two dozen men,
women and children on the night of Sunday would undermine confidence
in the ability of the Congress-PDP Government to offer a modicum of
protection against the threat from the ISI mercenaries.
Indeed, the
massacre came within a day of the cold-blooded murder of the former
Hizbul Mujahideen leader Abdul Majeed Dar. Dar was eliminated
because he fell out with his Pakistani masters and was now
canvassing for a negotiated settlement of the Kashmir problem with
the rulers in Srinagar and New Delhi. As a new convert to the peace
process, Dar spurned the Pakistani line and thus became a target of
their bullets. His elimination would dissuade other Hizbul leaders
to talk peace in Kashmir. Given that the Centre’s new interlocutor
for J and K, N. N. Vohra was in the process of establishing contacts
with elements who could be relevant to the return of permanent peace
in the Valley, Dar’s murder was a big setback. As J and K Chief
Minister Mufti Mohammad Syed has said the killing of Dar and the
Kashmiri Pandits underline the fact that Pakistan does not want any
impression to gain ground that militancy was on the decline and that
Kashmir was slowly but steadily returning to normalcy.
So what can be done
to ensure that ISI’s jehadis do not have a free run of Kashmir?
Basically, two things, and in that order. One, bring about a
national consensus, nay, unity on Kashmir. Unless the entire nation,
including the so-called human rightswallahs and so-called
secularists learn to speak in one voice, there can be no chance
whatsoever of the Indian State forging a credible policy to thwart
the ISI campaign of terror in Kashmir. Make no mistake. The
so-called jehad, the so-called insurrection in Kashmir, is wholly
foreign-driven, foreign-funded. It might be fashionable to say that
without the aid and collaboration of the local people foreign
jehadis will not be able to operate freely in the Valley, but,
remember, that it is the combination of fear and funds which
motivates the locals to team up with the ISI. Break that nexus. You
cannot fight a ruthless enemy with kid gloves. Make the costs of
collaboration with the jehadis prohibitively high for the Kashmiris!
And, two, without
undertaking a larger project to integrate Kashmir demographically
with the rest of the Indian Union, there can be no lasting peace
there. Ours might be the lone voice in the wilderness, now that its
original votaries have forsaken it for the sake of power, but the
history of jehad and over 50 years of troubled relations with our
western neighbour teach us that religion is a major catalyst in
fomenting militancy in the Valley. Unless we alter the demographic
profile of Kashmir, it will always remain vulnerable to the mischief
of Pakistan. In sum, our prescription for righting the wrongs in
Kashmir is a fervent plea for wider national unity. Instead of
finger-pointing at one another, politicians should sink their
differences on Kashmir and integrate it fully with the rest of the
country.
-
The Free Press Journal -
Home |
