Time for Kashmir solution, Kuldip Nayar

Time for Kashmir solution, Kuldip Nayar


The Statesman http://www.asianewsnet.net/home/news.php?sec=3&id=28873
Publication Date : 22-03-2012

Governments of both India and Pakistan should transfer all subjects except defence and foreign affairs to Kashmiris and soften the border so that the people of Jammu and Kashmir and Azad Kashmir can meet and jointly plan the development of their region.
There was a time when any statement on Kashmir, either by the Prime Minister of India or that of Pakistan, used to create a rumpus. Politicians and the media on both sides would dwell for days on a particular remark.
Pakistan Prime Minister Yusuf Reza Gilani said the other day that his country would seek a solution to Kashmir through dialogue and not hostilities. I have not seen any comment inIndia nor have I found any Pakistani Opposition leader or the Press taking any notice of Gilani’s statement.
More significant has been the silence of pro-terrorist groups that talk in terms waging jihad on India all the time. The usual Pakistani iteration that Kashmir would not be allowed to remain on the backburner is there.
President Asif Ali Zardari said this week that Pakistan had not forgotten Kashmir. But this does not change ground realities or the Line of Control between India and Pakistan.
Gilani iterated what late Zulfikhar Ali Bhutto had enunciated in the Shimla Agreement four decades ago. The agreement reads: “In Jammu and Kashmir, the line of control resulting from the ceasefire of Dec. 17, 1971, shall be respected by both sides without prejudice to the recognised position of either side. Neither side shall seek to alter it unilaterally, irrespective of mutual differences and legal interpretations.
Both sides further undertake to refrain from the threat of the use of force in violation of this line.” The agreement has stood the test of time for decades and save the Kargil misadventure, things have remained largely peaceful.
Perhaps leaders of the Pakistani government, including the hawks, have come to realise that there is no alternative to amity. Perhaps the peace lobby on both sides has expanded so much that even the governments can’t help but notice that and probably that’s why they don’t issue ultimatums with as much regularity as they used to do not so long ago. Perhaps New Delhi’s warning by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru that any attack on Kashmir would be regarded as an attack on India has struck home.
Three wars, plus the Kargil misadventure, have proved that New Delhi will resist with all its force any push by Islamabad. Therefore, Prime Minister Gilani’s observation not only makes sense but also throws up another opportunity to make lasting peace. Both countries have to solve Kashmir or, for that matter, any other problem peacefully. It is a sort of no-war pact without the formality of signing one.
Yet Gilani’s statement should not lull India into complacency. Kashmir continues to be a problem. Every now and then, there is an incident in the Valley that lays bare people’s discontent. Even the elected government headed by chief minister Omar Abdullah has pointed out more than once that the Kashmir imbroglio cannot be sorted out withoutPakistan’s participation.
India’s armed forces too are not happy with the situation because successive Army commanders in Jammu and Kashmir have regarded Kashmir as a political problem and not a military one. Yet, a large number of troops continues to be stationed in Kashmir. And one unfortunate incident after another shows that they have not been trained to deal with domestic troubles.
The country’s defence position is understandable but the forces should be deployed along the border and not used for law and order purposes. The stationing of forces within the state only confirms that the government has no solution and it does not know how to settle the problem.
True, New Delhi has tackled international opinion effectively. There is hardly any adverse notice abroad. But this does not solve the problem. At best, it remains suppressed. Still, there is civil society in India that has certain obligations as has a democratic polity.
If Kashmiris remain unhappy and the government they elect too feels that the problem has to be sorted out with Pakistan, New Delhi has to face the fact. This does not necessarily mean that Islamabad’s demands have to be met. Pakistan also has to take certain realities into consideration and one of them is that India can never have another division on the basis of religion.
The Valley, with a predominantly Muslim population, has gone its own way and has kept at a distance from both the Hindu-majority Jammu and the Buddhist-majority Ladakh. Therefore, when President Asif Ali Zardari says that Pakistan would continue to support Kashmir, he is only underlining the two-nation theory that India buried deep long ago. I do not think that even the intelligentsia in Pakistan has any faith left in that theory. But that is not the point. It is Kashmir which I believe should get attention after Gilani’s olive branch.
I do not agree with those who argue that Pakistan has no claim to what it could not get by waging wars. What the two countries have to realise is that they need to give up their entrenched positions. Peace and friendship are more important than hostility. The extremists will continue to talk of hostilities because they have developed a vested interest in an unsettled situation.
I have a solution to offer. Both governments should transfer all subjects except defence and foreign affairs to Kashmiris and soften the border so that the people of Jammu and Kashmir and Azad Kashmir can meet and jointly plan the development of their region. They can have their own air service and trade and cultural missions abroad.
And, visitors not from the region will be required to seek visa to enter either Kashmir. Azad Kashmir will remain a part of Pakistan and Jammu Kashmir that of India. The case pending before the UN would be withdrawn.
A part of my proposal is that the Lok Sabha’s elected members from Jammu and Kashmir should sit in Pakistan’s National Assembly and those of Azad Kashmir in India’s Lok Sabha. This is aimed at setting a pattern for the two countries to come closer in the future.
The writer is a veteran journalist and commentator.