Kashmir
The Indians Speak Out

From the BOARD of EDITORIAL ADVISORS, Ms NASIM ZEHRA focusses on the stray voices of protest raised on the issue within India.

There are voices, however marginal, inside India that do tell the truth about Kashmir. These brave voices, however, may not get the publicity they deserve. Hiding,killing or mutilating the truth is a costly affair. Especially for governments. Pakistan learnt that in 1971. Pakistan’s successive governments ignored its blunders in East Pakistan and New Dehli built upon it. Bangladesh was born. Pakistan received its most hurtful and disastrous blow. India too is busy making its own Bangla desh.... And more than just in Indian-Held Kashmir. However, it is Dehli’s Kashmir policy which finds often vocal critics at home including in the capital. These capital critics go unheard beyond the conference halls. As they did in Dehli on May 20 at a seminar on Kashmir: The Way Forward. The seminar was organized by a Kashmiri voluntary organization Concern for Kashmir.

The only english national daily that appears to have reported the event was The Asian Age. However the story In the May 22 internet edition of the paper a story entitled “Set up reconstruction fund for Kashmir” did appear which covered the event.

The title and the story both failed to capture the thrust of what journalists and politicians participating in the seminar stressed upon. The chief guest at the seminar was Arun Jaitley Minister for Information and Broadcasting.

The minister naturally defended his government’s policy. He introduced the government’s three-pronged strategy: one strengthening the security, two conducting a dialogue with the militants and three initiate development activities to meet the needs of the local population. Since 1947 successive governments in Paksitan have been surviving on the “myth of Kashmir” without realizing that Kashmiris do not want to be a part of Pakistan which is bogged down with corruption, law and order and a failing state structure and a crippled economy and a hub of international terrorism. Confident that the strategy will bear fruit. Already the APHC leaders have been released. We will talk to them within the Indian Constitution, they are our own people. During the last one year Pakistan attempted to internationalize Kashmir through Kargil, hijacking of Indian airlines flight IC814 and through the Chhatisinghpura massacre. Pakistan failed to internationalize but Pakistan’s character as an international terrorist has been internationalized.

Karan Thapar, a media personality and anchors famous talk show on BBC and Talk Back on Doordarshan. Also interviewd Parvez Musharraf for Doordarshan. We should recogbnize three realities; Kashmir is a core issue between India and Pakisrtan; two there is complete alienation in Kashmir because of our flawed policies and third we have to accept that without engaging Pakistan in a sincere and serious dialogue we cannot resolve the Kashmir issue. At this point the minister intervened and said that Pakistan has no locus standi in Kashmir and they have no role in the matter. Kashmir is an internal issue and when we talk , we talk of talking to our own people. We are looking for a settlement within the Indian Constitution. He argued that Dehli’s policy of engaging the “misguided youth” will also show positive results.

Shujat Bokhari, a prominent Kashmiri journalist who writes for the Indian Express. He refuted the minister’s position that the three pronged strategy is working. He argued that militant attacks against the security forces have been intensified and their frequency has increased. One of the main reasons for the alienation is the massive repression in Kashmir .He claimed that rapes and custodial deaths have become a norm. The security forces’ action of first killing five innocent labourers wrongly accusing them as militants responsible for the sikh killlings and then shooting eight peaceful demonstrators, after the Chhatisinghpura incidents have left the local people very angry. Such scars take years to heal.Shujaat also raised the issue of the unemployment. When you have a puppet government in Kashmir, when you have nepotism, corruption and lack of sensitivity to the genuine problems of the people then alienation is a natural outcome of this situation. When educated youth cannot get jobs they will join the ranks of the militants.

Mahbooba Mufti, the daughter of a former Union Home Minister Mufti Muhammad Saeed. She is also a member of her father’s Kashmiri political party — the People’s Democratic Party. In 1947 Kashmiris willingly joined India. Dehli must look into the causes of the present alienation. All elections since 1953 were rigged. The 1999 elections managed only a 5% turnout is solid proof that the alienation is 100% complete. Wrong politicies pursued by Dehli, installations of puppet governments since Shiekh Abdullah. Legitimate concerns of the Kashmiris never factored in by Dehli. The stage has now come that the pro-independence minority of the past has now in the nineties been turned into a majority. The militants, she maintained had increased their activities which had left many more security personnel dead. Morale of the security forces in Kashmir had greatly suffered. Most did not want to serve in Kashmir. Infact to avoid having to serve in Kashmir the Indian soldiers shoot themselves in the foot, so that injured they can go on leave.

She maintained that whichever village she has visited in Kashmir rape victims came up to her and recalled their horrifying experiences. Mahbooba asked the audience whether the relatives, the brothers of the rape victims will support the security forces or avenge the humiliation of their mothers and sisters. She reminded them that the whole country including politicians mourned the death of Chattipura victims but no one mourns the death of Kashmiris. It is this very fact that establishes a link, a tie between the Kashmiris and the Pakistanis. You alienate the Kashmiris through such acts of omission and commission. You own up the Kashmiris pundit and Kashmiri Sikh but every muslim is put “into Pakistan’s account”- is treaty as a Pakistani agent.. Mahmooda argued free as fair elections as the only answer.

At his point the minister rose to leave on the pretext of attending another meeting. Agitated men from the audience demanded that he remain seated since they had questions for him on Dehli’s three-pronged strategy. Specifically a retired Indian civil servant, a Kashmiri pundit thundered that Dehli has brought Kashmiri to a point where not only do the Kashmiri muslims “hate” you but “the Kashmiri pundits also hate you. “ The civil servant reminded the audience that being a civil servant he was a responsible man therefore his statements reflected the sober ground reality. A couple of others from the audience questioned the wisdom of the minister’;s statement that Pakistan was not a party to the Kashmir dispute. They reminded him of the UN Security Council resolutions.

Prem Shankar Jha , a senior columnist made two points. During the Kargil crisis he said he had opposed a negotiated settlement of the Kargil crisis and I had suggested that the government to militarily defeat Pakistan since openly a militarily defeated Pakistan will be forced to “accept the realities.” Jha maintained that his fears had been proven right. Pakistan is now continuing to support the militants from across the border to keep the pressure on India. His second contention was that India should talk to Pakistan which is a party to the dispute. India, he argued must “engage” Pakistan. He believed that there was no talking to pro-Pakistan Kashmiri leaders since Pakistan guides their policies.

The Dehli seminar reflected the many actors and the many dimensions of the Kashmir struggle. The ground situation as sketched by journalist Shujaat Bokhari and politician Mahbooba Mufti merely reinforced the reports filed by many other Indian journalists , by BBC and Rueters news agencies; the endless deaths, the suicide attacks, the total alienation of the Kashmiris, Dehli’s failed Kashmir policy, the accentuated cycle of repression and of resistance , the thousands of wailing and protesting women calling for justice as their young men die daily fighting against state terrorism, the rock-bottom morale of Indian soldiers who must question the wisdom of their counter-insurgency tasks. All this is untenable. Indian military might will never be able to deliver to the Indian state what it seeks; Kashmiri subservience. India and Pakistan must talk.