Kashmir panel flounders

Firdous Syed
First Published : 24 Apr 2011 11:25:00 PM IST
Last Updated : 24 Apr 2011 11:50:58 PM IST

After the 2010 summer uprising, it was assumed that the civilian unrest besides the large scale deaths and destruction will galvanise New Delhi to work for a long-lasting solution of the Kashmir problem. Contrary to the expectations, sticking to its usual style of dithering and dilly-dallying, Manmohan Singh’s government at the Centre has pushed into action multiple instruments of summer management. It looks like the primary goal is to prevent a repeat of 2010 unrest this summer. The three-member group of interlocutors, headed by Dileep Padgaonkar, instead of conducting a dialogue with the separatists, has been carrying out an academic exercise. The official panel has kept itself engaged in knowing the views of different sections of society in J&K for more than six months.

The interlocutors claim that rather than narrowing down differences between New Delhi and Srinagar to reach a workable solution “their mandate is to frame recommendations for New Delhi”. Is it a fact-finding mission? Meanwhile at least three other Kashmir committees or panels have sprouted. As a matter of fact official interlocutors are unable to break any ice with any significant separatist leader, particularly the hardliners, and this seems to be the reason for the other groups to join the fray. A Leftists-inspired group with members like A B Bardhan and D Raja from the Communist Party of India- Marxist (CPI(M)) general secretary Prakash Karat, Lok Jan Shakti leader Ram Vilas Paswan and civil society members Kamal Mitra Chenoy, Mahesh Bhat, Meena Menon, Anuradha Chenoy and Seema Mustafa has also been making the rounds in Srinagar.

The BJP was not to be left behind; it also announced the formation of a study group to “interact with a cross-section of people in the state”. Recently a high-profile team, headed by former BJP president Rajnath Singh toured Jammu and Kashmir. To add further confusion, after remaining in hibernation for almost a decade the ‘Kashmir Committee’ headed by the noted jurist Ram Jethmalani has been revived again. The BJP leader and Rajya Sabha member in October last had accused Congress for sabotaging the efforts of the earlier avatar of ‘Kashmir Committee. “I personally thought we had practically reached a solution. We had a written agreement with the Hurriyat leaders on five important issues... There are people in this country who have an interest in not solving the problem. They are a pervasive phenomenon and it is not an unfair statement to say that Pakistan is full of them,” the maverick leader had lamented.

If Congress had sabotaged his brokered peace deal last time and when the Congress-led UPA is still in power, how is he expecting a smooth sailing this time around? What is going on is the comedy of absurd, which instead of arousing any expectation of early peace has ironically confused the common Kashmir minds.

Forging peace in a conflict-ridden Kashmir, wherein tens of thousands have lost their lives and with many hardline ideologies and foreign influences being at work, is not to reconcile with the already reconciled. It is to build a consensus among divergent views, warring parties and interest groups to work together for the resolution of a conflict; peace is made with the enemies and not the friends. The interlocutors’ team has been treading the beaten tracks. It is a useless exercise which over the years has lost its futility. Especially when the same set of people coming forward for interaction are not ready to move away from their parroted positions. During their seventh or eighth trip to the Valley, (one really has lost the count), the official interlocutors claimed to have achieved a sort of breakthrough; they were able to meet separatist Shia leader and former chairman of Hurriyat Conference, Moulana Muhammad Abbas Ansari, at his house.

Making fun of himself, Ansari claimed that interlocutors dropped in “unannounced, uninvited” and, “I told them since you have come to my house I can’t close my doors on you”. Nobody comes uninvited or uninformed, particularly when Padgaonkar sometime ago had made it clear; “We want to reach out every stakeholders of Jammu and Kashmir provided that they are interested in talking to us. We will not knock the doors of anyone uninvited and unannounced”. For this duplicity only the separatists have lost their credibility with the people. Almost all the moderates including Mirwaiz, Yasin and Shabir Shah have been privately in touch with the interlocutors; they lack the courage and conviction to own it publicly. Moulana Showkat Ahmad Shah, who was killed recently, had also met the interlocutors.

Either the three-member panel is overjoyed due to a misplaced notion, or else the idea is to hoodwink public opinion. The so-called moderates, due to their clowning around and unfair dealings, have lost the clout and space to hardliners led by Syed Ali Geelani. New Delhi is also partially responsible for the erosion of moderate space in the Valley. The middle-of-the-road approach is a conviction not an apology; principled reconciliation is not a compromise to further one’s own vested interests. Who are these moderates and what clout they have beyond their respective mohalas (localities)? Even if New Delhi is willing to concede substantial political concessions, moderates convincingly known as part of the conflict enterprise in Kashmir are least suited to work for any honourable compromise with the government. Travelling on a one-way street moderate separatists only possess the nuisance value. Making courageous peace is not the hallmark of paid agents; it needs strength of character. Regrettably moderates here are part of the problem and not the solution. More paradoxical is the fact that hardliners are not ready to see the reason and work for an amicable resolution of the Kashmir problem bilaterally with Delhi. In case New Delhi is seriously interested in resolving the problem on a Delhi-Srinagar bilateral track, it will have to work with pro-autonomy National Conference and self-rule favouring Mufti’s PDP. Had moderates been the real leaders and not scarecrows they were ideally suited to work for peace. But they are not is the real travesty of Kashmir.

Firdous Syed, formerly a separatist, is an analyst based in Kashmir. E-mail: firdoussyed@yahoo.com