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| Kashmir Crisis: Congress says last chance, BJP talks Insaniyat | | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, July 16: J&K is in news these days. Why? Everyone knows. The recent disturbing developments in Kashmir have inspired/motivated certain elements in India and Pakistan to put pressure on both the countries so that the Kashmir issue is clinched as per the aspirations of Islamabad and Kashmiri separatists, Indo-Pak relations are harmonized and lasting peace forged not only in Kashmir, but in the whole of South Asia. These elements want New Delhi to clap with one hand. They do not want it to insist on action against those who masterminded and executed the terrorist attack on the country's commercial capital, Mumbai, on 26/11 and murdered in cold-blood hundreds of people, including a few Americans and Israelis. They want New Delhi to walk extra mile, show magnanimity and forget the past. They believe New Delhi's insistence on any credible action against those exporting terrorism to India would further vitiate the atmosphere in the region and aggravate situation in Kashmir.
On Wednesday, the Times Now, a leading private TV channel, organized a comprehensive discussion on Indo-Pak relations and Kashmir to find what could help harmonize relations between India and Pakistan and restore peace in Kashmir on a permanent basis. Six well-known persons participated in the heated discussion. There were former Pakistan Foreign Minister and Interior Secretary, Abhishek Manu Singhvi (Congress spokesperson), Ravi Shankar Prasad (BJP spokesperson), former Indian High Commissioner G Parthasarthy, Vinod Sharma (The Hindustan Times and Swapan Dasgupta (a leading commentator).
The participant from Pakistan were unreasonable, firm, crude, aggressive, provocative and in an insulting mode and they left none in any doubt that they meant real business - make India accept the Pakistani demands and make New Delhi accept the allegation that it is violating "human rights" in Kashmir. Parthasarthy as usual was candid and blunt. He did his best to lay bare the disparities between the politics of falsehood Pakistan takes recourse to and shamelessly preaches and the actual situation. He held the aggressive and expansionist Islamabad responsible for the terrorist attacks India has witnessed so far. Swapan Dasgupta, too, was candid. He talked sense and defended very logically the Indian position. Vinod Sharma's interventions, too, were positive and meaningful, notwithstanding some disagreement here and there with the Indian panelists. His questions and observations on the Pakistani participants were very pertinent. None of the Pakistani participants had any answer to what he asked.
However, it was Abhishek Manu Singhvi who did a plain speaking in the real sense of the term. He repeatedly said that the scheduled talks between Indian Foreign Minister S. M. Krishna and his Pakistan Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Thursday (July 15) could be the last initiative on the part of New Delhi to engage with Pakistan. He asserted and said that "India has walked several extra miles" and that "now it is for Islamabad to reciprocate and show results on the ground, failing which New Delhi would be left with no other option but to withdraw for an indefinite period." The most significant aspect of what he said during the debate was the acknowledgement that the "Government of India has taken the initiative to carry forward the peace process, despite the Indian public opinion is against it." It was a very significant revelation and it indicated the resolve of New Delhi to resolve the issues of bilateral nature through peaceful dialogue. It can be said that the Government of India has taken a calculated risk. But one thing is clear that there are elements in the Congress party who frankly and candidly say what is good for India and what is not. Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi does deserve kudos for his plain speaking.
It was the otherwise very articulate spokesperson of the BJP, Ravi Shankar Prasad, who is known for talking sense and calling the bluff, who disappointed the Indian nation, notwithstanding the fact that he did accuse Pakistan of stoking fire in the Kashmir Valley and elsewhere in the country and demand action against those exporting terror to India. His reassertion that the "BJP wants to discuss the issues between India and Pakistan and meet the demands of the Kashmiris within the framework of Insaniyat" was highly irritating and disgusting. What he said is what Pakistan and the Kashmir-based secessionists, terrorists and communalists of all varieties have been saying, particularly since 1990. They have been saying that the Kashmir problem is a human problem and it should be resolved as such.
Something is fundamentally wrong with the BJP. It doesn't differentiate between statecraft and the place of Insaniyat in diplomatic sphere, particularly when one is dealing with Pakistan and the Kashmiri separatists and communalists. Pakistan and its agents in Kashmir and elsewhere in the country are bleeding us everyday. They are working overtime to break India into smithereens and the BJP still follows in the footsteps of Atal Behari Vajpayee who decided to resolve the Kashmir issue within the framework of Insaniyat some six years ago.
The BJP leadership and think tanks would do well to first study the literature, including the seminal and invaluable Arthashastra of Chankaya, that deals with the formation of state and then speak. Insaniyat is fine, but it cannot be allowed to tinker with the institution of state. Ravi Shankar Prasad and others of his ilk in the BJP must remember that Pakistan and Kashmiri separatists and extremists dispute not only the legitimacy of Indian regime in J&K, but the legitimacy of India itself. They want to break and destroy the Indian State itself. They want to destroy the Indian sovereignty. And, sovereignty means the right of a given country to exist and protect its geo-political and economic interests. For Pakistan and the Kashmiri terrorists, no change whatever in dispensation will make them see reason or make them happy; they want a new country or they want their merger with Pakistan.
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