The senior PDP leader and
state finance minister Tariq Hameed Karra claimed sometime back that the state
of Jammu and Kashmir will have a ‘separate currency’ after the imposition of
‘Self Rule’. Both Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and his daughter Mehbooba Mufti have
been time and again talking about the usage of 'Double Currency’ of Pakistan and
India in the near future in Jammu and Kashmir. Peoples’ Democratic Party chose
to release its, first official version of ‘Self Rule’ in Pakistan.
PDP Chief Miss Mehbooba Mufti
waxed eloquent about ‘Self Rule’ in Pakistan where she had gone to attend
PUGWASH Conference. She addressed a very high profile press conference with
Asif Zardari the patron chief of Pakistan People’s Party. Content of her
expositions in Pakistan have serious implications. “In order to achieve a
stable, sustainable and just solution to the J&K issue we should combine
intrastate measures with inter state and supra state measures…Self Rule proposal
is the only way that would eliminate the sources of etheno-territorial conflicts
entrenched in the traditional notions of sovereignty, self-determination,
national and ethnic borders”. She also enunciated the concept of shared
sovereignty by advocating a joint ‘Council of Greater Jammu and Kashmir’. This
as per her will require "devising an improved constitutional political and
economic relationship between the two parts of state and their respective
mainlands with a sign off from the international community”.
The
NC Chief openly claimed that the Mehbooba, Zardari meeting was facilitated by
Indian embassy in Pakistan. GoI chose to
remain silent and issued no clarifications. Many now apprehend that ‘Self Rule’
concept of PDP has a tacit approval from Govt. of India.
In the recent past none
other than the National Security Advisor Mr. MK Narayanan said in an interview
about the engagement with Pakistan, “ I think there are things in the pipeline,
things which are cooking, which are half cooked or three quarters cooked, which
we would like to take forward.” This statement has been one of the most
forthright admissions that some sort of final settlement with Pakistan on Jammu
and Kashmir state has been arrived at. And since PDP has been allowed to bring
to the public realm various facets of the ‘peace process’ right from its
inception during the NDA regime what it is saying now has more to it than
political rhetoric in the prelude to elections in the state.
What is ‘cooking’ between
India and Pakistan is more a question on the Indian side. Pakistani leadership
both within the government and outside, do not appear to be ignorant about the
contours of the final settlement on Jammu and Kashmir being debated between
governments of India and Pakistan. The new Prime Minister of Pakistan tried to
reject Musharraf line but it will be premature as yet to take it as official
Pakistani position.
Pakistan President Gen Parvez Musharraf s four point proposal on Jammu and
Kashmir has few ambiguities. The four point proposal. “ Self-Governance, Joint
Management, Demilitarization and Open Borders.” continue to be debated in
Pakistan. Even the separatist leadership in Jammu and Kashmir seems to be very
well informed about the contours of the understanding between India and Pakistan
on Jammu and Kashmir. The support or opposition to the ‘peace process’ from
within the separatist groups seems to be based not on hearsay but very authentic
understanding about its contours. The separatist leadership of Jammu and Kashmir
is being kept well informed and briefed by none other than the very officials
of Govt. of India itself. An example here will suffice to elucidate the point.
To a question on the peace process between India and Pakistan by Sultan Shaheen,
the Head of foreign relations Committee of JKLF, Raja Muzaffar responds thus,
“......... a senior former Indian civil servant Wajahat Habibullah. known to be
close to the Gandhi family told me in a telephonic conversation that while Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh is very compassionate person and wants to expedite the
peace process and give various sorts of relief to Kashmiri people, some
hardliners in his own administration oppose some of his efforts. I told Mr.
Habibullah that the slow down of the process can prove very costly for in case
of Musharraf falling from power, the flexibility in the Pakistani approach may
also become a thing of the past...............I had proposed three years ago in
a Washington conference on Kashmir that the peace process be institutionalized
through a mechanism that includes opposition leaders in India and Pakistan as
well as Kashmiri leaders who participate as basic permanent members. Along with
this whatever progress be registered with United Nations so that changes in
government in either country do not effect the ground that has been
covered.............."
There is a group of Track-II
diplomats and journals who seem to be knowing more about Indo-Pak peace process
than the political leadership down the line across the political spectrum.
Not to speak of general people in India, who are almost ignorant and still
believe that unsettled part of Kashmir problem is only liberation of PoK for
which Indian parliament has unanimously committed itself through a formal
resolution.
Almost all points of formula
of Parvez Musharraf in one way or other concern with the sovereignty and
integrity of the nation in Jammu and Kashmir. It is
true that government of India has not still crossed the thresh-hold of
unambiguity on the nature of understanding with Pakistan and is still preserving
some manouverability of retreat and plausible deniabiliy. However the confidence
in the commitment of government of India to uphold the integrity and sovereignty
in Jammu and Kashmir as well as deny any further concessions to Muslim identity
politics in Jammu and Kashmir, is gradually eroding. There are three main
reasons for it. One, Govt, of India has allowed the internal dialogue in the
form of Round Table Conferences and Working Group Meetings to be used to push
through recommendations and measures which ultimately give a decisive direction
to the future course in Jammu and Kashmir. This course seems to be complimentary
to four point formula of Musharraf The stage appears to be getting set for
demilitarization, joint management and creating porous borders in Jammu and
Kashmir. Many WG recommendations have been designed for this very purpose. The
measures which are being taken have an executional value and at present do not
require legislative sanction of the Parliament of India. Security forces number
is being brought down in the state and the state forces are being enormously
increased to take their place. The travel across LoC will be conducted on the
basis of state subject document; borders are being made porous for trade as well
as travel; the joint management particularly of water resources, trade and
tourism is being accorded a new legitimacy in public discourse in the state for
a operational phase in the near future. Creation of a Free Trade Zone with
double currency in Jammu and Kashmir is the new buzz slogan for almost any
seminar or debate on the economic development with government agencies playing
facilitators.
Second,
Govt, of India is
gradually seeking to delegitimize its own actions against terrorist violence in
the state. It has allowed the government actions in the state to be equated with
militancy. The WG on Confidence Building Measures chaired by the now Vice
President of India recommends on the agenda issue, ‘ Measures to improve the
condition of people affected by militancy’ as “ The necessity of curbing human
rights violations was stressed by most members of the WG. Emphasis was placed on
PM’s assurance of zero tolerance for HR violation as for India's international
commitment and intrenational image. It was considered imperative to develop
responsibility for specific HR violations can be fixed and derelict officials
identified and proceeded against.” There is not a single recommendation under
this agenda about how to tackle terrorism. Infact the word 'terrorism' is almost
absent in the entire report of the WG.. The last recommendation on the same
issue seeks review and revoking of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act,
Disturbed Area Act. The government itself chooses to side track the issue of
terrorism and equates its actions primarily as militancy in the state.
In his package to displaced
Kashmiri Hindus PM treats the displacement as if it was a natural disaster like
flood or earthquake. The package seeks to delegitimise religious cleansing which
must have only pleased Pakistan and the separatists.
And lastly, the gradual
induction into the state of such officials. administrators and academicians who
have a proclaimed commitment for a sovereign or a semi-sovereign Jammu and
Kashmir state along the lines proposed long back by Dixon, puts GoI approach in
proper perspective. Mr. Wajahat Habibullah, who is presently the information
Commissioner is actually acting as a defecto interlocutor on behalf of
Government of India in the state. He is openly on record of expressing views on
J&K which are closer to US position when Dixon enunciated his formula for
solution. None other than PM of India invited him to address the crucial Working
Group on Centre-State Relations. Sometime before his presentation, he had
publicly stated, “.....the absence of element separatists has definitely
affected the success of Round Table Conference. It is like the British having a
RTC without the nationalists...New Delhi fears the aspirations in Kashmir as it
has a Muslim majority population. However, the Kashmiri aspirations are the same
as that of a Tamil for Tamil Nadu, a Kannada for Karnataka and a Telangi for
Telangana."
Wajahat openly equates
separatist leaders with the freedom fighters of India. He openly equates the
separatism in
Kashmir as a national struggle of Kashmiris. It is pertinent to understand his
brazen pro-US and Pro-Pakistan advocacy. In one of his papers he states,
incentives to encourage India and Pakistan to settle their differences
peacefully can likewise take various forms, from helping Pakistan modernize its
armed forces to securing foreign investment for economic revitalization of Jammu
and Kashmir.” Mr. Wajahat advocates five regional Assemblies/Councils for Indian
part of Jammu and Kashmir, one for Kashmir valley, two for Jammu region and two
for Ladakh. He puts forth a developmental arguments to divide Hindu majority
Jammu to separate its Muslim majority areas into a separate administrative and
legislative unit. His proposal coincides with the Dixon model seeking settlement
of J&K along the Chenab river. The model also coincides with the seven region
formula of Parvez Musharraf.
Wajahat is not an isolated
case. Mr Haseeb A Drabu declared support to “Independent’ Jammu and Kashmir
openly on a TV channel. And after few days, he was appointed Chairman of Jammu
and Kashmir Bank and Economic Advisor to J&K Govt. An expert on Strategic
Affairs Mr. C Rajamohan sometime back wrote an article in a leading English
daily commenting on the developments in Pakistan and lamenting the inability of
Govt, of India to carry ahead the Indo-US Nuclear deal. Towards the end of this
write up he poses a question that if India cannot carry forward the
Nuclear deal, how could it have the “gumption’ to go ahead with the peace
process with Pakistan and China which necessarily involves ‘territorial
concessions.’ What is cooking on Jammu and Kashmir?
