An open letter to the people of India on the Kashmir issue, Mir Waiz Umar
Farooq
To the
People of India,
Along
with your votes, give your elected leadership the task of resolving the Kashmir
Issue once and for all.
India’s
elections have begun and you are exercising your votes to choose your new
political representatives. Whoever you end up electing will be momentously
placed to exercise real leadership and take the difficult decisions that are
needed to shape a better course for the future of India and for peace in South
Asia.
In this
regard, there are two clear paths ahead, each with very different outcomes.
Your newly elected representatives (those in power and those in opposition)
could collectively resolve to take a bold and visionary break from the past and
could work together to pursue a serious political and diplomatic effort to
resolve the Kashmir issue. Alternatively, they could relinquish their
collective leadership responsibilities and choose to follow the same old
default policy approach that has allowed the Kashmir issue to fester for more
than six decades now, placing the region on the dangerous trajectory that it is
currently heading towards. Ultimately, the direction that the next elected
leadership of India will take vis-à-vis the Kashmir issue largely depends on
all of you — the people of India — and on how effectively you can influence and
support your political leaders to do what is both possible and necessary for
peace.
Not an
isolated issue
We urge
you to recognise that the Kashmir issue is not a peripheral or isolated one.
You must understand and become seized of this important matter. In the past we
made many attempts to reach out to you personally and apprise you of the
Kashmir issue and the grim situation on the ground, but all these efforts were
thwarted by the use of brute force and hooliganism, and on many occasions we
were manhandled. The Kashmir issue continues to destroy life and obliterate the
rights and aspirations of our people in Kashmir who desire only to live free,
peaceful and dignified lives. The continuation of this tragic conflict is also
a direct threat to your interests and well-being as a people. In one way or
another, this tragic conflict directly affects all the other issues that are
currently being discussed and debated in the election season in India. You have
a direct stake in seeing that a just and lasting resolution of the Kashmir
issue is reached. The conflict is not only a threat to millions of Kashmiris,
it is a serious hazard for the one billion-plus population of India and for the
population of the entire region. There is no better time than now to press your
representatives to exercise their leadership to resolve the Kashmir issue.
A
peaceful solution to the Kashmir issue would unleash immense prosperity and
economic benefits for India and for the entire South Asia Region.
Unfortunately, rather than pursuing a political solution in Kashmir, successive
governments in New Delhi have continued to waste your taxes and precious
economic resources to pursue a militaristic policy on Kashmir. At huge economic
and human cost, this approach represents a failed policy. It has only ended up
deepening the conflict. Today, it should be a matter of great concern to all of
you that India ranks 136 in the UN Human Development Index (HDI), but has
distinguished itself as the world’s largest importer of arms by a huge margin.
While India’s economic growth has slowed in the last few years, arms imports
have increased by a phenomenal 111 per cent in the past five years. This is
draining your economy, while filling the coffers of other countries that are
benefiting as arms exporters.
Indeed,
the Kashmir conflict is a direct threat to your prosperity. With more than 800
million people in India still living on less than $2 (Rs. 120) a day, surely
the estimated $37-47 billion a year that goes as military expenditure (which is
2 to 2.5 per cent of GDP) could be put to much better use towards initiatives
to lift more and more people out of poverty. If the Kashmir issue is resolved,
not only would this costly arms race come to an end, it would open up the
multipliers of economic cooperation and trade. Certainly, ensuring lasting
peace and stability is the greatest foundation for your future prosperity,
economic growth and development.
You must
ask your leaders why after so many decades, military approaches have failed to
resolve the Kashmir issue. Today, this conflict is a direct threat to the
security and stability of the entire region. It is the main driver of
militarisation and regional instability, and there is every possibility that
the situation could escalate and worsen in the coming years. If the Government
of India continues to avoid a political solution to the conflict, if it insists
on the continuation of the same unjust and hegemonic approaches, it will spell
disaster for the region. This beaten path has already proved to be a policy
failure long back. Delaying a political solution has made the situation more
insecure and unstable, and the conflict has only become more dangerous with
time.
Today, Kashmir stands as
a potential nuclear flashpoint which could consume the lives of millions of
people in an instant. 
Engaging
in a costly nuclear and conventional arms race with Pakistan and continuing to
pursue militaristic approaches in Kashmir will only add to these dangers. You
must ask your leaders whether these approaches are truly serving your
interests. Allowing a dangerous political conflict like Kashmir to fester is no
way to ensure the security of the Indian people, nor can it be a path to a
stable future for the region. The Kashmir issue continues to keep all the
parties bogged down in a state of perpetual hostility and distrust. In this
way, conflict has become the biggest security threat to the region.
Not only
is the continuation of the Kashmir issue a direct threat to your economic
prosperity and security, we believe that you have a real moral stake in not
letting your government continue to pursue what is a failed and unjust policy
towards Kashmir. Kashmiris have legitimate rights and aspirations. Attempting
to suppress the emotions and aspirations of millions of people by force is no
way to address a political conflict. Widespread human rights abuses have taken
place and grave injustices have been carried out against our people. Crushing
the democratic right to protest and express political dissent, restricting free
speech, persecuting entire sections of the population, foisting black laws and
continuing to keep hundreds of thousands of military forces deployed for
decades on end in Kashmir – surely this represents both a moral and political
failure. There has to be an end to all of this.
Please
put yourselves in the shoes of our people and try to see the conflict through
their eyes. Talk to any common Kashmiri and he or she can share with you the
direct pain, injustice and indignity that people continue to suffer as a result
of the conflict. Surely, you have a direct moral stake in ensuring that your
government takes the higher road on Kashmir towards peace. Kashmir is a human
issue and it requires a political solution.
Path of
statesmanship
For the
sake of our children, we urgently need to resolve this dispute. Instead of a
festering quagmire, we should hand over to our youth a chance to shape a
peaceful, hopeful and prosperous future — for all parties concerned — for the
people of Jammu and Kashmir, India, and Pakistan. We believe that every party
must put forward serious efforts to resolve the conflict. For peace, many
barriers and obstacles will have to be overcome. Furthermore, any lasting
solution must be a just one, and that necessarily means recognising and
upholding the Kashmiri people’s aspirations and right to self-determination. In
this regard, we are seeking only what is due to the people of Jammu and Kashmir
as a matter of legal, moral, and historical right. The solution will have to be
acceptable to all parties – India, Pakistan and the people of Jammu and
Kashmir.
For long,
we have hoped that India’s leaders would tread precisely this type of an
approach — the path of statesmanship. We expected that your Prime Ministers
would take bold decisions that would go against conventional thinking to break
the status quo and resolve the Kashmir issue.
At various moments, both
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh gave us
some reason to believe that an honourable and lasting solution could be
achieved.
It was
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee who went to Lahore and declared from the
base of Minar-e-Pakistan: “It is my dream and wish to resolve the Kashmir
issue.” It was also Mr. Vajpayee who spoke of holding unconditional talks under
the ambit of Insaniyat and vowed that India "shall not traverse solely on
the beaten track of the past.” He proclaimed that India’s leadership would act
as “bold and innovative designers of a future architecture of peace and
prosperity for the entire South Asian region." Similarly, on many
occasions, in 2004 and again in 2006 from Amritsar, Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh talked quite boldly about engaging in an irreversible process of dialogue
to reach a political solution on Kashmir.
Period of
uncertainty
Unfortunately,
these visions could not materialise and the attempts were not sustained. For
the people of Jammu and Kashmir, the first decade and a half of this century
has only been one of continued uncertainty, human misery, unfulfilled promises,
false hopes and failed efforts to resolve the Kashmir issue. Failure has bred
cynicism and destroyed hope in Kashmir. The good intentions of your Prime
Ministers aside, we regret that the peace initiatives proved to be too fragile
and the process too vulnerable. Ultimately, these attempts were reversible.
They failed to yield visible results and no progress was achieved towards
addressing the underlying realities of the Kashmir issue. As a result, many in
Kashmir have concluded that the Government of India is not sincere and has no
desire to resolve the Kashmir issue. Today, many people are questioning whether
the political path of dialogue and negotiation is the best way to seek their
rights and ensure justice.
The
Kashmir issue is where it has always been – unresolved and causing great harm,
suffering and cost to all. Today, all of us continue to be held hostage to the
past. In this regard, we must accept the fact that domestic politics in India
has played a disabling role. It has held back leadership and statesmanship in
India.
Whenever parties find
themselves out of power and in opposition they have tended to take hardline
approaches on Kashmir. When ruling governments face domestic opposition, they
become unable or unwilling to do what is necessary for peace.
Worse
still, sitting governments even take hardline actions themselves that worsen
the situation.
Observing
all this, Kashmiris have now realised that it is not at all possible to expect
any sitting Prime Minister in India (irrespective of the party they come from)
to pursue peace on their own. Individual political will and personal
determination have not been enough to move the process forward. Therefore, in
order to resolve the Kashmir issue, your elected Prime Ministers need the
consistent support of the opposition parties and they also need active support
from all of you – the people of India.
Therefore,
as citizens of India you have a vital role to play for peace in the region.
Ultimately, visionary leadership and statesmanship in India will be enabled by
your public wisdom and from your active support for peace. Whoever you vote for
and whoever ends up forming the next government or sitting in the opposition,
you must hold them accountable on the Kashmir issue. You must convince your
elected leaders that the time has come to develop a peace process on Kashmir
that is immune to domestic politics and power tussles.
The
entire region is waiting for India to come forward for peace. There is already
a broad political consensus in Jammu and Kashmir and in Pakistan that the
Kashmir issue must be amicably resolved. Similarly, you must ask your leaders
to develop a political consensus to resolve the issue. Let finding a solution
to the Kashmir issue become a goal of all the parties to it.
In this
direction, it is our sincere hope that you will raise your voices. You must
press the elected leadership to rise above domestic politics and work towards
India’s strategic and moral interests. Through your resounding support for
safeguarding India’s interests in peace, prosperity and security and through
your vocal support for justice, you can make a real impact.
We hope that after the
current election, those who are elected to power and those who are in
opposition will all act in greater unison to move forward towards resolving the
Kashmir issue.
There
must be a serious, result-oriented and time-bound process of dialogue between
the leadership of India and Pakistan, and of Jammu and Kashmir.
Let this
process start sooner rather than later. Over an intensive period of one year,
let all of the parties engage actively with one another. Let each party
seriously consider whether they can find partners to end this conflict once and
for all. We must all try our best and exhaust the possibilities to seek a
peaceful solution. Perhaps together we will be able to find some way to take a
historic step forward towards a real peace process.
We remain
ready and willing to contribute positively and constructively towards this
achievement.
Sincerely,
Mirwaiz
Umar Farooq
Chairman,
All Parties Hurriyat Conference
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