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OPINION

Hurriyat runs away from talks
M. RAMA RAO

[Public postures notwithstanding, Kashmir separatist leaders, particularly the Hurriyat, will do well to realise that flexibility, sincerity and conviction are needed on their part too. By rejecting the invitation to the Prime Minister’s Round Table, they have displayed a myopic vision. Any dialogue is bound to be protracted and only with immense patience a forward movement is possible. Sticking to rigid stands that have not changed for over five-decades will not help matters, more so since the commitment of separatists to ushering in peace is not unconditional, says the author]

Hurriyat politics as also the plans and planks of other one-man separatist parties and groups have ceased to surprise for a while. That is why the decision of Mirwaiz Omar Farooq and other groups in Srinagar not to attend the roundtable conference that the prime minister has called doesn’t come as a surprise. Yes, the leader of the so-called moderate faction of seems to have said goodbye to the process of dialogue. Even then there is no need to raise any eyebrows.

Mirwaiz has tried to give respectability to his decision and the remark that attending the Delhi round table is a ‘waste of time’. He has cited support from the Hurriyat’s executive, general council and working committee, quite a formidable list of endorsement. What he did not say is also equally clear to the observers of Kashmir scene. And it is that his decision was actually greatly influenced by the militants on whose support separatists outfits in Kashmir thrive internally while externally always banking on open and not so open Pakistani help in various forms—men, material and diplomatic. The militants do not like the separatist leaders talking to Delhi as they see it as a ‘surrender’ of sorts. Their mentors’ talks with Delhi are a different ball game probably.

The militants, who have umbilical ties to Pakistan, or more specifically its ISI, have never shown any enthusiasm for resolving the Kashmir imbroglio or ending the strife there through a peaceful dialogue because they have a vested interest in the continuation of militancy. It will also go against the strategy of their masters across the border. If at all the militants favour any dialogue they want it to bring instant results—and the ones that they want. The ‘waste of time’ line taken by the Mirwaiz has to be read in conjunction with his and other separatists’ oft-repeated allegation that the dialogue on Kashmir was ‘not going anywhere’.

A matter that has festered for over 50 years will not be sorted out within a matter of few months or even few years. The Mirwaiz was also reported as saying that the three parties—the governments of India and Pakistan and the Kashmiris—were yet to make a ‘forward movement’ in the dialogue process. In this backdrop he felt there was no need for a roundtable conference. He did not spell out what he meant by ‘forward movement’. But will he say that the Kashmiri people—the ‘divided families’—are unhappy with the Kashmir-specific confidence building measures taken so far as, even though they may not have met all their aspirations? The militants and the separatist leaders are being unrealistic if they are not ready to be patient in finding a solution to the problem and accept that a solution can be many years away.

The militants and those who support them from across the border, overtly or covertly, do not think that there is any other viewpoint on Kashmir except theirs. They cleverly camouflage their long-held single-point view on Kashmir—that at least the Muslim majority areas should be allowed to secede from India—by talking of ‘flexible’ formulas. All these formulas, or whatever, show an uncanny resemblance with the formula floated by Islamabad. It is no coincidence that the impatience over not getting ‘results’ through the so-called peace process is frequently aired by the military ruler of Pakistan as well as his minions.

It is not that everyone in India was warm to the idea of talking to groups which tacitly extend support to men and organisations that are waging a ‘bleeding’ war against India. Initial attempts by New Delhi to involve the separatist groups in the dialogue process had raised misgivings, not the least because groups or people claiming to represent ‘the people of Kashmir’ are remarkably shy of seeking the people’s verdict through the polls. They live in India, travel on Indian passports and yet pledge their allegiance to another country. And despite claiming to represent ‘the people of Kashmir’ they always look towards Pakistan for guidance.

Critics of the invitation to organisations like Hurriyat think that talking to such groups will not yield any positive results—‘waste of time’-- as they would utilise the opportunity for grandstanding on behalf of Islamabad. The minority community in Kashmir too is unhappy, unsure if the self-styled champions of ‘the people of Kashmir’ are really keen to restore the demographic map of the valley and undo the ethnic cleansing, despite their calls to the Pandits to return to the valley.

The authority with which men like the Mirwaiz speak on behalf of ‘the people of Kashmir’ looks questionable as even with the ‘all-party’ tag in his party’s nomenclature, there are several other separatist groups which remain outside the Huriyat and all the other groups are keen to maintain their identities. There is no ‘authentic’ voice of even the separatists.

All that no longer matters much as it has become apparent now that war and attrition will offer no ‘solution’ to Kashmir. Protracted dialogue and immense patience are required to get anywhere near a solution that might be acceptable to all. Sticking to rigid stands that have not changed for over five-decades will not help matters. ‘Flexibility’ has to come under as wide a popular support as possible and with sincerity and conviction. Groups like the Hurriyat reflect, at best, only one point of view in Kashmir; they certainly do not represent all the sections. Their commitment to ushering in peace in Kashmir is not unconditional.

The separatists and Pakistani leaders claim they have shown ‘flexibility’ on Kashmir by offering a solution that favours ‘communal division’ of the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir, with a larger part taken out of Indian sovereignty. To begin with that is something that will require concurrence from the people in the Jammu and Ladakh regions; the Hurriyat cannot talk on behalf of the people of these two regions. The Hurriyat has no following in these two regions and the Mirwaiz had received a hot reception from the people of Jammu when he toured the area recently ostensibly to win friends.

Both the separatists and the Pakistani leadership fail to see that while it may be easier for them to talk about ‘flexibility’ as they are not accountable to people, the government of India cannot survive even for a day unless the people back up any change in its stance on Kashmir. Many in the country have criticised the government for going back on its own previous stand that it will not talk to any pro-Pakistani or separatist group as long as violence and terrorism continues in Jammu and Kashmir. The Mirwaiz and others may have only helped these critics in the country to get more rigid, and that will make it difficult to see further ‘flexibility’ in the Indian government stand.


Courtesy : Syndicate Features

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