KASHMIR SITUATION

G.S. Bhargava on Kashmir Problem

If the BJP identifies alienation of the people of the State with terrorism to be put down by force, Justice Tarkunde has tended to overlook the vitiation of the autonomy movement by violence and terrorism. He has demanded "a minimum offer" of "full autonomy, as visualized in the Instrument of Accession signed by the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir on October 26, 1947", before the elections. According to him, such an offer may placate "the people of Kashmir" to give up their demand "for the right to secede from India".

The minimum offer" suggested by Justice Tarkunde as a prelude to the proposed elections will amount to rewarding the failed militancy.

The Government has not set any preconditions for participation in the proposed elections like disowning past involvement in violent activities and renouncing violence formally.

Voices will be raised by the critics of the Government against such accommodation of former rebels. But that is the charm of the democratic system despite its inherent risks.

It is a pity that Justice Tarkunde and his associates have not acknowledged the significance of the Government gesture. Nor have they formally noted that there has been no corresponding reaction by Mr. Yasin Malik and other Hurriyat leaders. They have not even emphasized the need for the Hurriyat leaders to renounce violence and to ask their followers to cease violent activities for generation of a conducive atmosphere for negotiations.

Without the Hurriyat leaders renouncing violence "the minimum offer of full autonomy", suggested by Justice Tarkunde, will become a bargaining chip with the different parties outbidding each other even before committing themselves to eschew violence and participate in the elections... Whatever be the support of a part or group on the ground, it can enter the race in extremism, without any constraints of responsibility or commitment to India's territorial integrity.

The Hurriyat has vowed not to allow the elections to be held. Instead of an election, it wants the Centre to have a dialogue with all parties, irrespective of their representative character and attitude to India's sovereignty over Kashmir. First, resistance to elections, per se, and determination to prevent them cannot be squared with their profession of commitment to democracy. Secondly, such a dialogue will be a free for all and may lend respectability to recourse to violence for political ends. The Prime Minister, for his part, has pledged the Government's willingness to discuss autonomy short of independence.

It will be a different matter if a party or combination of parties wins a majority in the Legislative Assembly, forms the government committing itself to function within the confines of the Constitution and then negotiates with the Centre on the basis of the Prime Minister's offer of a return to the 1974 agreement. It will have the weight of representative character tempered by responsibility.

Kashmiri leaders, whatever be their persuasion, have to bear in mind that the concessions they seek from the Centre, however, legitimate, have to be acceptable to the people in the rest of the country and pass muster with Parliament. It is as vital as any future dispensation in Srinagar meeting the aspirations of the people of Ladakh and Jammu within the State and being acceptable to them. So the "dialogue" proposed by some Hurriyat leaders can take place and be productive only after the elections when the adherents to the democratic method are separated from the protagonists of gun culture and when the following... of the different parties has been tested democratically.

(Source: The Indian Express, 30 December, 1995).

BJP: Views of M.M. Joshi on Kashmir Problem

What steps (are) taken to abrogate Article 370, then we will successfully root out militancy from the state.

By administrative steps, using security and paramilitary forces. it cannot be soft-pedalled. So we will take adequate, strong steps, to give them a clear and loud message that it is the Jammu and Kashmir government's writ which runs in the state, and militants cannot dominate the political scene anymore.

Then we will create normal conditions. All those who have been forced to get out of Kashmir will be sent back to their homes. Political activity will be restored. Developmental activity will be restarted. Elections will be held. But no promises like anything short of azadi or packages like pre-1953. Kashmir is an integral part of India and the only parties in this are Indians; neither Pakistanis nor anybody else.

Kashmir is an Indian problem and has to be sorted out between Indians.

Recent package announced by the Prime Minister will further loosen the bonds between India and Kashmir. It will be one step towards secession.

The opening of the Hurriyat bureau in Delhi is wrong. The government should not have permitted it. They are not a recognized political party, and then they are openly propagating secession. Sitting in Delhi, they will propagate everything anti-Indian. Everybody knows that Hurriyat is backed by Pakistan.

(Source: The Sunday Observer, 19-25 November, 1995)