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| India-Pakistan dialogue: Role of J&K people | | | RUSTAM
Early Times Report
Jammu, Aug 9: The position on the ground also overrules the possibility of the people of Jammu and Kashmir playing any role whatsoever in the India-Pakistan talks. The Kashmiri leadership does quite often talk of Srinagar-New Delhi Axis, Srinagar-Islamabad axis and New Delhi-Islamabad axis. It does say again and again that Jammu and Kashmir is a trilateral issue and the people of Kashmir are a party to the dispute. These formulations have no legal sanctity behind them. Nor do the Valley leadership have the mandate to speak on behalf of all the people of the state. It is not a secret that the people of Jammu and Ladakh, who occupy the state's nearly 89 per cent geographical area and who constitute almost half of its population are vehemently opposed to the idea of the Kashmiri leadership playing any kind of role in the India-Pakistan talks. One may call them stereotype, but no one can deny them the right to link their political destiny with New Delhi. They consider themselves as an integral part of the Indian mainstream and no one can impose the will of Kashmiri separatists and communalists on them.
It would be no exaggeration to say that Jammu and Kashmir is very difficult and complex state - a state where even a trivial incident could snowball into a major, major controversy. It is hardly necessary to point out here the areas of conflict between the people of Jammu and Ladakh and the Kashmiri leadership. Suffice it to say that the people of Jammu and Ladakh religiously believe that Jammu and Kashmir was, is and shall ever remain an integral part of India and that they seek their empowerment and advancement within India and under the Indian Constitution. They have given veto power to the Kashmiri leadership, separatist or the so-called mainstream. They are a possible counterpoise to the Kashmiri separatists' aims. They are the most important factor in the political situation in the state.
The whole struggle of the people of Jammu and Ladakh is guided by this belief. So, they are a very important part of the problem that cannot be brushed aside or construed as a manifestation of their bias or ill-will against the Valley leadership. They have the right to hold a particular point of view.
It is a statement of fact and the Kashmiri leadership is intelligent enough to understand what I have hinted at. What I am hinting at is that whenever the Kashmiri leadership raise a pitch or demands, say, autonomy or self-rule or joint-control or shared sovereignty or dual currency or joint management, the people of these two provinces take no time in registering their most emphatic protest against these demands and put forth demands like statehood or separation from Kashmir. In fact, they want separation from Kashmir. They have repeatedly refused to accept the position of servitude and subordination. And, why should they?
These are some of the hard realities as they exist in different parts of the state and none of them could be wished away. One will have to do with these hard realities and find out other ways that are acceptable to as wide a spectrum of population as possible. The suggestion that the people of Jammu and Kashmir have an important part to play or that they are the chief determinant would lead us nowhere. Neither New Delhi nor even Islamabad would ever support this kind of demand. For, to allow the people of Jammu and Kashmir to play any role in the India-Pakistan talks would mean the negation of the very Independence Act under which Pakistan came into being and the princely states joined either the Indian Dominion or the Pakistani Dominion.
The right approach is to sit across the table and discuss ways and means that could forge a lasting peace in Kashmir and empower the people of the state in such a manner that eliminates the possibility of the people of one region or one religion accusing the people of other region or other religion of harming their interests. The solution has to be based on democratic and economic urges of the people and not on communal considerations. The Kashmiri leadership must recognize that it was Kashmir that was added to the Jammu Kingdom in March 1846 - step that led to the formation of Jammu and Kashmir State - and not vice versa. (Concluded) |
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