Author: Kanchan Gupta
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: August 9, 2006
The UPA Government is reported to have submitted
a 'non-paper' for Gen Musharraf's consideration, offering to roll back Jammu
& Kashmir's integration with India ---- The Nation of Pakistan carried
an interesting story on its front page on Monday, August 7, whose astonishing
contents, based on a 'non-paper' reportedly submitted by New Delhi to Islamabad,
have gone unnoticed in the brouhaha over the Justice RS Pathak Authority's
non-report.
Headlined 'India offered HK autonomy to Pak'
- HK being the abbreviation for 'Held Kashmir', Pakistan's description of
Jammu & Kashmir - the Islamabad datelined report says, "Prior to
the Mumbai bomb blasts there was a marked progress in the peace process to
the extent that New Delhi offered even 'autonomy for Kashmir' through a non-paper
to its nuclear rival but Saturday's tit-for-tat expulsions of diplomats by
both Pakistan and India proved a serious setback to the already stalled dialogue
processs."
A 'non-paper', for the uninitiated, in diplomacy
means a proposed agreement or negotiating text circulated or submitted informally
for discussion without committing the originating country to the contents.
In other words, if the UPA Government did submit such a non-paper, to use
subcontinental bureaucratese, for Gen Pervez Musharraf's "kind perusal",
then it means a substantive proposal was made without committing India to
honouring it.
But before analysing the implications of the
reported offer, let's get back to the story in The Nation. "It was days
before the Mumbai blasts that Pakistan received a 'non-paper' on Kashmir from
India containing the proposal of autonomy to Kashmiri people but within its
Constitution," the report says.
It adds, quoting diplomatic sources in Islamabad,
"The proposal on Kashmir's autonomy calls for the return of the State
to its pre-1953 constitutional condition, which means that all its affairs,
sans defence, foreign affairs and communications, would be run by the State
Government... Nonetheless, the deadly blasts in India's financial capital
changed the whole scenario with ties between the two countries coming under
duress reflected well by the expulsion of each other's diplomats on Saturday."
The Nation further says, "In the non-paper...
India also offered to reduce more troops in Kashmir in case of end to subversive
acts in Held Kashmir by the militants with the alleged support from elements
across the Line of Control... Besides, New Delhi also expressed its willingness
to set free the Kashmiri detainees not involved in terrorist acts... The Indian
non-paper was in response to President Pervez Musharraf's proposals with regard
to demilitarisation, self-governance and joint management of Kashmir to resolve
the core issue on permanent basis."
Had the July 11 Mumbai bombings not intervened,
the 'non-paper' would have become the basis of further discussions between
India and Pakistan. According to The Nation, "no discussions on the Indian
proposals are likely in the months to come but if the peace process is put
back on the track, it could become a basis for formal discussions on Kashmir
issue between the neighbours."
Are we missing out on something over here
in Delhi of which people in Islamabad are aware? If what The Nation has reported
is true - there has been no formal denial by the Ministry of External Affairs
till Tuesday evening, in the absence of which we must, for the moment, proceed
on the assumption that it could be true - then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,
who has been personally steering the so-called peace process with Pakistan
and is given to coming up with "out-of-the-box ideas", has offered
to, no matter how informally, radically alter New Delhi's terms of engagement
with Srinagar. More importantly, he has offered to undo more than half-a-century
of Jammu & Kashmir's integration with the rest of The Nation which has
brought it within the ambit of the Constitution, rendering Article 370 more
or less redundant.
In other words, to reach a concord on the
"core issue" as defined by Pakistan, he is willing to consider,
ever so informally, cutting Jammu & Kashmir loose from the Union of India.
Not only does the 'non-paper' referred to by The Nation make a mockery of
the 1995 Parliament resolution on Jammu & Kashmir, it endorses Pakistan's
position that "India should first declare Kashmir as a disputed State
and revoke the 1995 Parliament resolution declaring Kashmir as an integral
part of the country."
For some time now there has been talk about
the UPA Government conceding "autonomy" to Jammu & Kashmir,
of pulling out security forces from that State, and, of greater 'coordination'
between institutions and people of Jammu & Kashmir and Pakistan-occupied
Kashmir. If The Nation's report is not incorrect, then what has till now been
vague talk has begun to take shape.
Since Parliament is in session, it would be
in order for the Prime Minister to take The Nation into confidence over the
reported proposal. If Pakistan can know, surely India deserves to know, too.
