By Philip Marwein
Kashmir Valley continues to bleed repeatedly and the bloody mess continues to smear not only the state of Jammu and Kashmir but the entire country. The Indian Governments in conjunction with the National Conference Tigers, the Abdullahs, as well as the PDP Snow Leopards could not contain the continued raining attacks of the militants both from inside J&K and from Pakistan. Massacres and deaths keep piling up day after day and weeks after weeks. There seems to be no respite to this mayhem. The majority peace loving common people of J&K are fed up, disgusted and dejected over the continued lawlessness but they are helpless. The J&K state regimes which are supposed to ensure law and order in the state have failed miserably. Successive Indian Governments which are supposed to guard the borders from enemy intrusion and terrorists’ infiltration into the state have equally failed miserably. Formula after formula has been tried by the J&K and Indian Governments but none seems to work. Even the present PDP-BJP government in the state is in a quandary on how to ensure lasting peace and take J&K forward.
The main reason for this continued massacre and bloody mess in J&K and particularly, in the Kashmir Valley, is because Pakistan is nurturing, mentoring and sponsoring militants and terrorists outfits within its soil and despatching them into the Indian Occupied Kashmir to keep the momentum of terrorism going. Another reason is because there are quite a number of anti- India sentiments and separatist elements within the Indian soil of J&K who are trained and influenced by Pakistan or who are pro-Pakistan. To contain terrorists and militant outfits coming from across Pakistan is not the main problem. The main problem is how to gain the confidence of the people of J&K to live peacefully and contentedly within the Indian Union. The fact is that till date there are many people in Indian J&K who are dreaming of being independent from both India and Pakistan and there are also people there who want to be with Islamic Pakistan mainly because they belong to the same religion, Islam.
Now, what is the way out? The Instrument of Accession was signed by the Raja of Kashmir, Hari Singh, with the Indian Union in 1947 giving Special Status to J&K that allows it to have its own constitution and control over most administrative functions barring communication, foreign affairs, defence and currency. Now the main power players in J&K are the National Conference (NC) which demand that India should revert to the pre-1953 status of Kashmir barring key areas such as defence, foreign affairs and communications, but the state should have sovereign rights over all other powers. The soft separatist PDP of Mehbooba wants self-rule similar to NC demands but that should include Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK). On the other hand the united political face of the separatist movement, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, which came into existence in 1990 as a result of the imposition of AFSPA in the Kashmir Valley, is divided between ceding to Pakistan and independent rule (Azadi). Delhi has been maintaining all along that none of these are acceptable to India.
The reality is that Indian government in the past has committed mistakes in relation to J&K and now it has to pay heavily for this historical blunder. India’s precious resources have been drained out heavily during last 69 years in J&K and it seems more time, money, energy and precious lives will be lost and will continue to be drained out in the foreseeable future in the state, if solutions are not found to solve the J&K problem. It is really a thorn in the flesh for India. To allow J&K to secede to Pakistan is out of the question but the issue needs to be resolved immediately by the Present PDP-BJP alliance in J&K and by the right wing BJP government in New Delhi. It was thought that with the Right Wing BJP ruling India Things would become very difficult for Pakistan and for the separatist elements in Kashmir and Jammu. But nothing much has changed and are no different from that of the previous central governments. Now is the golden opportunity for BJP to prove itself. For the people of India as a whole and for the political parties in India petty politics should be set aside. It is time to put our heads together to solve problems confronting the country. One of the things that can be explored is to entrust this job to a group of specialists who will go into the various recommendations of the past Committees or Groups on J&K and also to explore areas on better co-operative federalism between the J&K and the Indian Union. Involvement of all stakeholders at various levels, involving the people and especially the youths in development activities and other initiatives may be helpful. But, all exercises will come to nought if the NC, PDP, Hurriyat and other stakeholders are not united and do not see eye to eye on what is the best for their future and the future of the people of J& K. Pakistan cannot in any way help them, instead their problems will be compounded and confounded if they depend on that country.