Editorial, The India Today, 5 June, 2000
The RSS, self-proclaimed bastion of Indian nationhood, has reportedly proposed the trifurcation of J&K. Threé territorics are envisaged - Buddhist-majority Ladakh, Hindu-majority Jammu and Muslim-majority Kashmir. The idea is that this will make the battle against militancy casier and facilitate protection of Hindus and Buddhists from Islamic terrorists. Such an action will also represent a clear, final and absolute surrender to the two-nation theory, something India as a civilisational collective has never subscribed to. To reject the philosophy behind Partition is not to reject Pakistan's right to exist nor to advocate some starry-eyed grand unification theory. It is only to cherish and accept the historical reality that different cultures, different religions and, well, different ways of life make up that composite whole called India.
In a sense, trifurcation of the state - a local body has gone to the extent of recommending four sub-regions - will amount to abandonment of the Valley by the rest of the country. It will create a permanent war zone and only strengthen those who hold Muslim Kashmir is a logical extension of Pakistan. In any war against insurgents bent upon ethnic cleansing, relocation of targeted people and creation of safe havens is to be expected. There is, however, a world of difference between tactical retreats and permanent vivisection. Healing J&K's scars is not a task that can be achieved in a hurry.
Rajindar Sachar
The views of Indresh Kumar, RSS Pracharak for J&K and Himachal Pradesh of Himgiri Prant Pracharak reported in the press on 24 May, 2000 show that the RSS is on a programme of colossal mischief to communalise the body politics. Its open support for trifurcation of J&K on religious lines shows that it is acting as a lackey to the US Government sponsored Kashmir Study Group suggestion to the same effect so as to suit US geo-political line ... The BJP must immediately repudiate this suggestion. (Otherwise), the conclusion that BJP has a hidden agenda for the next election and ... will be inescapable ..
Nehru's Pledge to the People of Kashmir
"If, after a proper plebiscite, the people of Kashmir said, "We do not want to be with India", we are committed to accept that. We will accept it though it might pain us. We will not send any army against them. We will accept that, however, hurt we might feel about it, we will change the Constitution, if necessary. (Statement in the Indian Parliament, 26 June, 1952)
Kuldip Nayar
The RSS ... favours the division of the state into three regions: the Hindu-majority Jammu, the Buddhist-majority Ladakh and the Muslim-majority Valley. True, its Hindutva philosophy leads it to drive a wedge between the Hindus and the Muslims:
But it does not see beyond its nose. The division on religious lines weakens the case of Kashmiri pandits who want to return to their homes. The secular character of the state becomes a question mark. It suits the fundamentalist Muslims. How does it benefit the state or the country? And what does the RSS get out of it?
New Delhi has always opposed the division on the basis of religion because it defeats the very secular ethos of India. Is there a change in the Centre's policy? Prime Minister Vajpayee owes an explanation to the country because the RSS his soul, as he has declared many a time advocates the separation of Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists in the state.
The state's division will only provide grist to the propaganda mills that the Muslims, even after living for 52 years in secular India, want to live separate from non- Muslim regions of Jammu and Ladakh ...
The proposal of division was mooted by the editor of an Urdu daily in Lahore many years ago. He wanted the Valley to merge with Pakistan. His emphasis was on the separation of Muslims from the non-Muslims ...
Pakistan has always held that the Hindus and the Muslims are two separate nations. Since the subcontinent was divided on that basis, the Muslim-majority Kashmir was theirs. By supporting the division of J&K, the RSS is unwittingly endorsing the Pakistan line ...
That Hurriyat chief Ali Shah Geelani should talk in terms of the state's division on religious lines is not surprising. He has always been advocating Kashmir's merger with Pakistan. Why should the RSS give credibility to his scheme?
... India takes pride in the fact that it is secular ... India seems to be drifting ... Either in the name of 'forced conversion' or the threat of being swamped by minorities, the liberal ethos is sought to be diluted. The intelligentsia is getting contaminated ...
... There is no doubting the danger of revivalism India faces. In this atmosphere, it is no surprise that many in India should think of dividing the state into three regions. This proposal has been talked about by some think tanks of India and the US. The purpose is to facilitate the merger of Jammu and Ladakh with India and the Valley with Pakistan. That the RSS has also been roped in is a surprise. (Source: The Indian Express, G June, 2000)
