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Editorial
Valley’s Secrets
 It
tears our hearts asunder to note that a movement led by completely
devoted fighters of the Sikh community did not come close to a
situation to which those fighting for Kashmir have taken theirs.
Behind India's claims that it has been successful in getting the
militant organizations to come to a negotiating table in Kashmir,
hidden beneath its glee that New Delhi has managed to somehow clinch
a deal with the fighting Naga rebels is a hard reality that the
world knows only too well, no matter how much the Indian media
cooperates with the establishment to hide.
New Delhi has
got its nose nastily bloodied and had little other option but to
accept demands of Kashmiris and Nagas which it so casually rejected
out of hand only a few years ago. The brave people of Kashmir and
Nagaland have brought India to its knees.
Look at Kashmir.
Three young men
with a tragic and powerful common bond — they lost their fathers to
terrorists on exactly the same day 12 years apart (May 12), targeted
for trying to talk to New Delhi. Meet Hurriyat’s new generation
leaders Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, Sajjad and Bilal Lone and of course
that often lonely voice who knows how much a gun weighs and what
state persecution and prosecution can do, JKLF chief Yasin Mallik.
These are the
men leading the secret talks which are no more secret.
The sincerity
that has been displayed by these Kashmiri leaders has ensured that
even the secret talks were undertaken after making an announcement
that "secret talks will be happening." That is the kind of
transparency that often was lacking in Punjab. Even after India's
Home Minister P. Chidambaram was made to admit in Parliament what
his government took great pains to deny for months — that he was in
‘quiet talks’ with separatist Kashmiri leaders, there was a quite
acceptance in the Valley.
The street is
watching, and if the deal is skewed, it will rise. Chidambaram has
done the right thing by announcing withdrawal of several
paramilitary battalions from the valley, pushing Jammu-Kashmir
police into the frontlines of state security and promising some
other measures, but
Kashmir
needs a much more decisive healing touch.
Just like the
north-east, Kashmir too must insist on completely scrapping the
Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). We understand that it will
be difficult to find a consensus among Chief Minister Omar Abdullah
and Leader of the opposition Mehbooba Mufti, the various Hurriyat
factions, the Hizbul Mujahideen, the Pakistan interlocutors and New
Delhi but it should be clear to all that there is no sole
representative of the Kashmiri people. In fact, that is a mistake
that armed movements often make, and then pay heavily for.
The ongoing
talks may not be an opportunity for final resolution but they are a
chance to change the course of history from here onwards.
New Delhi
refuses to acknowledge that Pakistan has made a contribution to the
ongoing talks that will be criminal not to acknowledge. The
ceasefire along the Line of Control announced in November 2003 has
largely held for six years and it is because of this that other
initiatives have followed.
The
Srinagar-Muzzafarabad bus, the Manmohan Singh-Musharraf talks
(2004-2007), the return of the Army to barracks in Srinagar,
Baramullah, Kupwara and Anantnag, the transfer of control to
paramilitary forces, the strengthening of the J&K police force, and
work on cross-LOC linkages- transport, trade, tourism all are a
result of Pakistan's commitment to the ceasefire.
New Delhi is
acting too small by refusing to acknowledge and is acting as a rogue
by continuously demonizing its neighbor.
As for those
talking, it is for the Hurriyat’s factions and Kashmiri people to
decide how much they want to descend from their declared objective
of achieving Azaadi, the rallying cry for the Kashmiris. Those
involved in secret talks must understand that the silence or absence
of defiance by the war weary Kashmiri should not be treated as a
change in the sentiment.
16
December 2009
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