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Kashmir : No redrawing of boundaries, says India |
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The talks on the Kashmir issue have hit a bad patch with New Delhi reacting coolly to Pakistan President Musharraf’s plan which he unveiled at an Iftaar party and Islamabad accusing Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of making contradictory statements. The Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman, Masood Khan, said on Dec. 23 while Dr. Manmohan Singh’s statement that India would pursue dialogue to resolve all outstanding issues was “a good sign”, his remarks ruling out a redrawing of maps and boundaries “contradicted” his stand to explore various options to resolve the Kashmir issue. On the other hand, Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has declared that his country will not leave its principled stance on the Kashmir issue. Claiming that Pakistan has “moral support” from the international community on its position on Kashmir, Aziz, who had come to New Delhi last month for talks with Indian leaders, was quoted by a Pakistani daily, THE NATION, as saying that he had told the Indian leadership that “We are not going to give up our principled stand on Kashmir” though Pakistan wants to solve the Kashmir dispute through peaceful and meaningful talks.
Masood Khan was referring to a statement by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Parliament on Dec. 21 when he said “while we are willing to look at various options [for a negotiated settlement of the issue of Jammu and Kashmir], we will not agree to any redrawing of boundaries or another partition of the country.” Singh replying to a debate on foreign policy.
The considered opinion in New Delhi is that India has never shied away from discussing the Kashmir issue with Pakistan and would never do such a thing in future as well. It has, however, never been India’s case that the starting point of discussions on Kashmir should be the Line of Control. To say that New Delhi is willing to accept the LoC as international border is a misrepresentation of the Government of India’s position.
During the last few months, an impression has been created that in any eventual compromise, New Delhi may settle for converting the present Line of Control with minor adjustments as a border between India and Pakistan as a final settlement of the Kashmir dispute. The Pakistan President rejected the idea publicly saying the LoC was part of a problem and a problem cannot be a solution. Sources say at the coming talks, New Delhi intends to clear any misconception that the LoC as a border would be acceptable to it because the whole Kashmir belongs to India. Sources say India intends to make it clear to Pakistan that it does not consider the present status quo in Kashmir as acceptable. India is not prepared to accept the LoC as a border ad is prepared to see it move West. New Delhi will point out that the 1994 Parliamentary resolution that declared Pak-occupied Kashmir and the Northern Areas as an integral part of India still stands. India will argue that Pervez Musharraf’s seven-region proposal for Kashmir is an evidence that the status of the Northern Areas is back on the negotiating table. On Pakistan’s demand that representatives of the people of Kashmir will have to be associated at some stage in the negotiations for a final settlement of the Kashmir dispute, India will underline the view that the true representatives of Kashmiris are those who have been elected. This is a further evidence of New Delhi’s increasing displeasure with the Hurriyat Conference.
Analysts note that India would be expected to toughen its position before the Foreign Secretaries meet on Dec. 27-28. Sources say this hardening stance follows from an Indian perception that Pakistan is showing no leeway in the peace process. As many as eight Indian proposals on Kashmir have been ignored, including the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service. Islamabad has also yet to respond to a June proposal for family meeting points along the LoC.
The Cabinet Committee on Security at its meeting held on Dec. 24 approved the stance that India would take at the Foreign Secretary-level meeting starting on Dec. 27. Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran, who is headed for Islamabad, is likely to remind his Pakistani counterpart, Riaz Khokhar, of President Musharraf’s commitment to shut down terrorist camps across the LoC and stop cross-border terrorism. The two will also review the progress on CBMs, including the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service proposal. They will also chalk out a schedule for the second round of discussions on the eight issues of dialogue.
Though some quarters in India regarded the initiative by Musharraf to resolve the Kashmir issue on the basis of a seven-part division of the State which he unveiled at an Iftaar party, as a giant step forward, Manmohan Singh sees it otherwise. “I have made it clear to President Musharraf that any redrawing of the international border is not acceptable to us. Any proposal which smacks of further division is not going to be acceptable to us”, he said.
Musharraf also had to face music from some of his critics at home because his formula entailed the formal burial of Pakistan’s traditional stand on Kashmir based on UN resolutions. The General was, therefore, quick to realize that his Kashmir formula has converted his own constituency into a hornet’s nest which might force him to follow in the footsteps of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. He lost no time in ordering his media mouthpieces to orchestrate that his Kashmir formula was floated to start a public debate and to gauge the public mood. After all, his seven-part division formula has put through shredder the traditional stance of Pakistan on a solution based on the UN resolutions.
Insiders believe that a number of senior officers are unhappy with Gen. Musharraf’s volte-face on his avowed policy. He had earlier described the Nawaz Sharif-Vajpayee Lahore declaration seeking “a composite dialogue process” as nothing but “hot air”. He further declared: “India is hegemonic power. Low-intensity conflict with India will continue even if the Kashmir issue is resolved.” This author of the Kargil intrusion wrongly believed that after enduring ten-years of low intensity conflict since 1988, the Indian Army did not have the stomach or the will to recapture the snow-bound hill-tops. But, he changed his stand within five months of ousting Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
Denial of democracy in PoK
Meanwhile, whereas President Musharraf is accusing India of suppressing the people of Kashmir, military excesses and holding sham elections in the State, the Northern Areas and Gilgit in Pakistan are being denied by Islamabad of political rights, civil liberties or legal redressal. A member of an Indian delegation of journalists which visited Pak-occupied Kashmir, Vinod Sharma, reports that fifty-seven years since 1947, the natives of Kashmir’s Northern Areas under Pakistan’s control – a mix of Shias, Sunnis, Nurbakshis and Ismailis – have little by way of political rights and civil liberties. A made-in-Pakistan bureaucracy, a compromised media and a so-called Legislative Council that is bereft even of powers of a civic body, constitute an Orwellian order where nationalist aspirations are marginalized or defeated through sectarian strife.
Administered federally, the Northern Areas have no entity under the Pakistani Constitution. They are neither a province nor a colony nor a protectorate. But, in the administrative hierarchy, two of the top three slots –those of the CEO, which is occupied by the Pakistani Minister for Kashmir and Northern Areas, and Chief Secretary – are filled by Islamabad. Only the Deputy Chief Executive, tied mostly to the apron strings of federal nominees, is from among the local legislators. There is no democracy. The Council members are mere puppets. Only the Ulema carry weight in matters of jobs, postings and transfers. Religious leaders are kept in good humour to continue serving the “colonizers” by keeping the society divided on sectarian lines to subdue nationalist urges. The Ulema do not permit TV viewing.
Islamabad’s hold over Gilgit-Baltistan is mightier than the mountain ranges encircling the Northern Areas: the Karakorams, the Hindukush and the Himalayas. As has been recorded by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, free speech, free thought and political freedom are casualties in the region where movements for “Azadi” – of the kind conceded to “Azad Kashmir” – are hamstrung by lack of funds, organizational back-up, adequate public awareness and official allurements. The Legislative Council’s largely “rubber stamp” character is accepted with greater candour by the Opposition, PPP and PML {Nawaz]. Their leaders want parity with Pak-occupied Kashmir which boasts of a President, a Prime Minister, an assembly and a Supreme Court of its own. It is another matter that “Azadi” is as much of a misnomer in the so-called Azad Kashmir [AJK].
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