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A Tightrope Walk

A Tightrope Walk

Author: Editorial
Publication: The Times of India
Date: August 1, 2000

Sunday's headline, "Guns fall silent in Kashmir", was the most powerful in years, in a decade, to be precise.  The symbolism of the words cannot be missed because they contain a glimpse of a future thought to be unattainable for Kashmir.  Whatever the eventual course of talks between the Hizbul Mujahideen and the government of India, the fact that hostilities have ceased for now is of enormous significance to the ordinary Kashmiri.  Peace, or aman, as the locals call it, has long been a fond dream in the Valley.  However, in all this time, there was hardly anything like hope for a people caught between unrelenting militancy and excesses by the Indian security forces.  For the average resident of the valley, it had become something of an everyday ordeal to be first used by the militants and then face harassment from the security forces for being involved with the militants.  So, over the weekend when guns fell silent, the Valley for once cast aside its scepticism and rejoiced in the promise held out by the ceasefire.  It is precisely this that places an extraordinary burden on the shoulders of the Indian decision-makers.  A single wrong step can set back the negotiation process by many more years.  Fortunately, the Indian side appears to have realised the futility of holding on to words that are calculated to upset the militant groups.  As the now chairman of the Hurriyat Conference, Abdul Ghani Bhatt, told The Times of India sometime ago, when the Indian government offers to talk, it does so in its constitutional capacity.  To state this explicitly is to deliberately provoke the other side and derail the prospects for talks.

With the subtle change in the Indian government idiom, at least informally -- the Indian Constitution will not be a pre-condition for talks, but it will be for a solution -- the two sides may have crossed one obvious stumbling block.  However, the trickiest bit is still to come.  And that concerns the involvement of Pakistan.  The Hizbul and even much of the Hurriyat are pro-Pakistan and it is only to be expected that they will insist on tripartite talks between India, Pakistan and the militant groups.  For India this is not easy because to invite Pakistan for negotiations on Kashmir is to give that country jurisdiction over territory we have always held to be ours and ours alone.  To be sure, the accession of Jammu and Kashmir to India was complete in all respects.  Nonetheless, it was Jawaharlal Nehru who took the issue to the United Nations and thus made it a dispute.  India also pledged to hold a plebiscite, which was not honoured because Pakistan did not keep its promise to withdraw from Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK).  Even leaving aside all this, we cannot wish away Pakistan.  Pakistan is very much behind the Hizbul ceasefire move which came about largely because of intense backroom manoeuvres involving intermediaries from the United States.  The obvious way out for India is to devote the initial part of the talks to Pakistan's involvement.  It might be a good idea to ask the Hizbul, and other militant groups, to justify an invitation to Pakistan.  This will ensure that the talks do not flounder even before they have begun.
 


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