A very small proportion of the people in Kashmir is for India. There are not many for Pakistan either. The overwhelming majority is for Azadi. But Azadi for them means cessation of atrocities and humiliation by the Indian state, and not being at the mercy of India in shaping their destiny. If these conditions are met under any other rubric, say autonomy, there is a fair chance of their taking it as Azadi. There would still remain some groups .... who will raise pro-Pakistani slogans from time to time, but we will have to live with them ... A democracy must tolerate dissent, even if at times it goes against the very ethos of the nation.

The uppermost thought of the ordinary Kashmiri is to find deliverance from the present fear and insecurity. A Kashmiri constantly lives under the fear of security personnel entering his house and carrying out a search. He is afraid that he or his relative might be the next one to be picked up and never be heard of again. Custodial deaths for the rest of India are a matter of contested statistics. For a Kashmiri, it is associated with the name of a dear friend or colleague or a close relative. A Kashmiri feels threatened by the omnipresent bunkers ... in the heart of the residential area. Practically every family has lost lives. Business is disrupted. A large part of the social and physical infrastructure is a shambles. The economy is shattered. A Kashmiri sees the Indian State arrayed against him at every step.

There was a real window of opportunity in 1996 when the National Conference under Dr. Farooq Abdullah came to power on the autonomy slogan. If the State and the  Central Governments had together worked out an autonomy package then there would have been a qualitative change in the situation. The emotional integration of Kashmiris with the rest of the country would have begun, Pakistan's proxy war would have been rendered ineffective and, perhaps, the Kargil tragedy would have been avoided. Above all, the Kashmiris would have been a happy people ...

But that was not to be, mainly because of the opportunism and lack of vision of our politicians. Dr. Abdullah set up a committee on autonomy for Jammu and Kashmir and another one on autonomy within the State, and forgot all about them for about two years. But he alone cannot be held responsible for missing the historic opportunity. Suecessive Governments at the Centre also did not bestir themselves while the window of opportunity was still open. Dr. Abdullah got the State autonomy report completed and sprang it on the nation in April, 1999.

Dr. Abdullah's recent action to get the report approved by the J&K Assembly and transmit it to the Centre for implementation raised protests from all the political parties except the leftists ... Whatever his failures.

Dr. Abdullah has a feel of the pulse of his people. That is why he has fallen back on the autonomy slogan. But his steadfastness to the autonomy route cannot be taken for granted.

After Kargil ... the window of opportunity for bringing the Kashmiris back into our fold has opened once again. The Kashmiris have turned further away from Pakistan after the latest instance of the trampling of democracy in that country. Besides, they cannot but take note of the fact that India has demonstrated once again in Kargil that it is prepared to make any sacrifice to retain every inch of territory on its side of the Line of Control. Finally ... the fatigue from violence that set in the mid- 1990s still persists.

It is, therefore, extremely important to take a bold new initiative to take advantage of the opportunity available in Kashmir. And autonomy provides die minimum practicable basis for such an initiative ... Today we need (a) unique political contract for the emotional integration of the Kashmiri people into Indian nationalism This is a supreme political imperative and not a matter of legal or constitutional quibbling ...

The argument that autonomy for Kashmir will give rise to similar demands from other States and lead to disintegration is a red herring to divert attention from the main issue ... Pluralistic societies everywhere, particularly in the Third World, are under pressure. They can survive only if they devise new, ingenious and differentiated means to satisfy ethnic aspirations. This may call for different modes of association of different ethnic entities If we do not reach a settlement on Kashmir on the basis of autonomy, we will soon be forced to go in for a superimposed artificial solution ...

There are reports that the Government might stumble upon a political fix such as the trifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir based on religion. There seems to be an unholy alliance of the RSS, the Hurriyat, Pakistan and outside forces in support of this artificial solution.

.. Trifurcation ... may be seen as leading to greater homogenisation of India towards the Hindutva ideology. But this will not prove to be so. Besides, this will hay dangerous implications for the unity and survival of the country The Centre's position on trifurcation is not clear. The fact that it has not so far denied any such move is matter of concern ... Besides, since the Government has summarily rejected autonomy and since it cannot openly accept azaadi for Kashmir or its accession to Pakistan one wonders what is the basis on which it is engaged in informal talks with the Hurriyat Conference. (Source: The Hindu, 29 July. 2000)