HVK Archives: Backtrack record
Backtrack record - The Pioneer
Editorial
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29 July 1997
Title: Backtrack record
Author: Editorial
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: July 29, 1997
If ever an award is instituted for inventing a political conundrum, it
should unmistakably go to the Prime Minister, Mr Inder Kumar Gujral. His
contradictory utterances on the critical issue of holding talks with
Kashmir militants are not just baffling but could also send altogether
wrong signals. First, he said he was prepared for an unconditional
dialogue. Then, he modified his statement to clarify that his offer was
limited to only those who laid down arms. And now, in a fantastic
justification for change in his tune, he has said he must have been
misunderstood about his initial offer because he spoke "in chaste Urdu" at
public meetings in the Valley. If the Prime Minister was hoping to hoodwink
the people, he did it quite ham-handedly and, naturally, failed. The fact
is that though an old Kashmir hand, Mr Gujral has evidently not been doing
his homework properly of late. Actually, he has bungled at every step
during his first ever visit to the Valley as the Prime Minister. His first
mistake was to have made overtures to Kashmir militants while he could have
easily left this job to the State's duly-elected Chief Minister, Dr Farooq
Abdullah. Mr Gujral, apparently, did not realise that his observation
would only fuel the suspicion of the National Conference that there was
once again a conspiracy to upstage it. The ruling party in Jammu & Kashmir
has, too often in the past, accused the Centre of stabbing it in the back
by pandering to other political interests. It is possible the National
Conference has conveyed its annoyance to Mr Gujral, prompting him to
immediately disown his misconceived offer. But, while retracing his steps,
the Prime Minister has done even worse. He has, in the process of shutting
doors on armed militants, also foreclosed negotiations with the multi-party
Hurriyat Conference, a conglomeration of traditional opposition parties of
the Valley. How does it help the Centre to send a message to the Hurriyat
leaders-almost all of whom are conventional politicians and have friendly
relations with Mr Gujral -that New Delhi proposes to disregard them
totally? In any case, what was the need for raking up the issue at this
juncture?
The Prime Minister's claim that his "chaste Urdu" was Greek to audience in
the Kashmir Valley is also quite preposterous. Jammu Kashmir is the only
State in the country where Urdu is the official language and nowhere in its
three regions it is better understood than in the Valley. Mr Gujral is
within his rights to play the pontiff. But he should resist the temptation
of shifting blame if things go wrong or taking credit where it is not due.
He had sought to justify his original offer to Kashmir militants on the
ground that a similar experiment, purportedly initiated by him, in Nagaland
had evoked positive response. Nothing can be farther from the truth. If
there finally is a chance of a breakthrough in Nagaland, it is because of
good work initiated by Prof M Kamson when he was the Minister of State for
Home in the Narasimha Rao Government. Mr Gujral, like his predecessors, is
merely doing a follow-up exercise. Therefore, his bid to corner the glory
smacks of the insecurity characteristic of a leader whose ability to govern
has become suspect in the eyes of his own allies.
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