Dealing with the Kashmir issue firmly

Dealing with the Kashmir issue Thursday, 25 August 2016 | Hiranmay Karlekar Dealing with the Kashmir issue Daily Pioneer.com India must deal firmly with the present agitation and make absolutely clear that there will be no weakening of its hold on Kashmir I had stated in my column last Saturday why giving Kashmir to Pakistan is unthinkable. Granting it azadi is also inconceivable as it will be followed by annexation by Islamabad through a combination of an orchestrated demand for its merger with Pakistan and cross-border terrorism. India has to retain Kashmir. The ranks of the small minority that thinks otherwise includes, besides secessionists, some well-meaning souls who argue that we have no moral right to hold on to Kashmir when its entire population wants either independence or merger with Pakistan. But does the entire population — or even a majority — of the Kashmir valley want either? Except for isolated areas, the percentage of voting has been as high as in most other parts of India in the past several elections to the J&K Legislative Assembly and the Indian Parliament, signifying people's acceptance of the Indian Constitution under which the elections were held. Continuing violence in the streets does not necessarily indicate majority support. A determined and numerically significant minority can ensure it, especially when Islamabad and its agents help and assure that Kashmir will inevitably become a part of Pakistan one day. Hope of success plays a critically important role in sustaining a movement. Again, the areas where violent demonstrations continue constitute a very small part of J&K. And, as seen above, only a significant minority in these appears to be supporting azadi or merger with Pakistan. Can their clamour be a sufficient reason for letting these areas go? Doing so would be akin to letting a couple of India's border districts merge with Nepal or Myanmar or Bangladesh because a number of demonstrators want it. Those who ask whether India would be able to hold on to Kashmir if the present agitation continues indefinitely, ignore the fact that every movement has a life-cycle. It ends sooner or later as fatigue and despair overcome the participants. The Occupy Wall Street movement, which raised pertinent issues, has subsided in the United States. The massive surge of student and working class protest in Europe in February 1968 spent itself after a while with its legacy of militancy emerging later in the form of terrorist organisations like the Red Brigade of Italy and Baader-Meinhoff movement in Germany. In J&K itself, the stone pelting movement of 2010 has petered out. The same is bound to happen with the current one. One of the several reasons why it has continued is the stand by a section of opposition parties and civil society groups that the Kashmir issue requires a political and not a law-and-order solution, and one should reach out to secessionists and win them over by offering increased autonomy. This enables secessionist leaders tell the rank-and-file that the offer of enhanced autonomy would turn into the grant of self-determination if they persist with their street violence. The fact is, even if talks begin, an offer of greater autonomy will achieve little. Pakistan, which controls the agitation, will accept nothing less than Kashmir's merger with it. Nor will the agitators agree to discuss autonomy as long as they think that they are winning. If they agree, it will be to use the consequent respite from police action to further strengthen their infrastructure for agitation and violence. The agitation must end for any kind of talk to begin. The Central and J&K Governments must make this absolutely clear, and also that any attempt during the pendency of the talks to reinforce the secessionist organisational infrastructure or to raise the level of militancy, will cause an abrupt termination of the dialogue. It must also declare unambiguously that it will not weaken its hold over Kashmir come what may. Simultaneously the State Government must do more to control the agitation. Cordoning of areas to search for arms and terrorists must begin in earnest. Water cannons should be used in place of pellet guns. Finally, and as important, it must ensure that the various promises made by Delhi to Kashmiris and the funds promised for development are not only released but not diverted to private pockets. The key words are firmness and fair play