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| This is BJP, Jethmalani says yes to Musharraf's Kashmir solution | | | RUSTAM
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, July 9: Cat is out of the bag. Ram Jethmalani has publicly acknowledged that "Kashmir issue could have been long resolved peacefully if General Musharraf, the then Pakistani President, would remain in power for a little longer." He made this revelation far away from India three days ago, July 6. He disclosed this in Houston in the United States while talking to Jang/Geo News after taking part in a convention organized by the Sindhi Association of North America. The news about this disclosure was first carried by the Pakistani daily, The News, in its addition of July 7.
According to The News, Ram Jethmalani said: "It is no longer a secret now that President Musharraf sent us a document carrying acceptable recommendations and proposals for solution of Kashmir issue for two sides. Subsequently, I myself, worked on those proposals being chairman of Kashmir Committee, made slight changes and produced them before mass representatives, but time did not permit Musharraf…" The same Pakistani paper has quoted Jethmalani saying "Kashmir row would be resolved soon."
There are potent reasons to believe what The News has reported. Similarly, there are reasons to accept each and every word Ram Jethmalai spoke in Houston. He is not an ordinary man. He is a founder member of the BJP and member of Rajya Sabha. He also served under Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee as Law Minister for a few years. Besides, the BJP stalwarts like Nitin Gadkari and LK Advani consider Jethmalani as a great asset for the party, notwithstanding the fact that he denounced Vajpayee a number of times and contested election against him in 2004 from the Lucknow parliamentary constituency. That the BJP central leadership considers Jethmalani as an asset for the party could be seen from the manner in which the Rajasthan-based BJP MLAs, on the insistence of the BJP high command, ensured his entry into the House of Elders only a few days ago - Jethmalani who had on occasions more than one disapproved of the idea of Afzal Guru, convicted in the 2001 Parliament terrorist attack case, being given death sentence.
Even otherwise, Ram Jethmalani is not an ordinary man. He is a leading lawyer and also a "Kashmir expert." He has written extensively on Kashmir. He is an ardent champion of Kashmir's autonomy. He is someone who, like many others, considers Kashmir as a very special case. Significantly, he is also someone who once recommended trifurcation of the state into Kashmir, Jammu and Ladakh states as a lasting solution to the Kashmir problem. Not just this, he is also one person who, as chairman of the highly controversial and questionable Kashmir Committee, has umpteen times flirted with the Kashmiri separatists, including Hurriyat Conference leaders, and put forth solutions which, if accepted and implemented, would mean a spectacular victory of separatists and communalists in Kashmir as well as Islamabad. Not really complete independence, not really the state's merger with Pakistan, but something in between - something Musharraf asked India to accept - an out-of-box solution.
What Jethmalani has told the Pakistani media persons in the United States needs to be taken a serious cognizance. For, what he has said once again establishes that the so-called ultra nationalist BJP had made up its minds years ago to barter the country's paramount interests to keep Pakistan and the Kashmiri separatists in good humour and that had there been no Kargil in 1999 and had the people of India voted the BJP back to power at the Centre in 2004, the BJP-led NDA government would have surely compromised the age-old Indian position on Jammu and Kashmir and negated the supreme sacrifices our dedicated and brave soldiers had made for the national cause in Kashmir.
What transpired at Colombo in March 1999 between the then Indian foreign Minister Jaswant Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Sartaj Aziz, what Advani told a Pakistani delegation in 2004 and what Advani and Vajpayee jointly told another Pakistani delegation in 2007 had all indicated the willingness of the BJP to sacrifice the national interests and accommodate Pakistan in the Indian Jammu and Kashmir and pander to extreme form of communalism and separatism in Kashmir. Hence, whatever Ram Jethmalani has disclosed is consistent with the BJP line on Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan.
What is this Musharraf formula all about? What does it provide for? What are its implications? The Musharraf formula, which has been rejected outright by the Government of Pakistan, means (I) identification of regions in Jammu and Kashmir, (2) demilitarization of identified regions, (3) introduction of self-governance in those regions, and (4) joint mechanism. In other words, it means a mechanism that entitles Islamabad to share sovereignty with India in Jammu and Kashmir, withdrawal of all the Central laws from the state, withdrawal of the Army from the State and division of the state on communal lines. It also means porous or irrelevant borders, porous and irrelevant Line of Control and a situation that enables of Pakistan to export to India as many terrorists as possible without any difficulty whatsoever.
The people of India did a commendable job in 2004 by not giving another mandate to the BJP to rule the country. Had they given it the mandate second time, the situation today would have been altogether different and Pakistan would have been sharing with India sovereign power in the state and the people of Jammu and Ladakh and the displaced Kashmiri Pandits become slaves. The authorities in New Delhi would be well advised not to pursue the BJP line on Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan. For, it is designed to undo all that the nation has done so far in the state. It needs to be repudiated outright
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