POLITICS-SOUTH ASIA: Independence Day War of Words over Kashmir

By Ranjit Devraj Reprint | | Print |

Ranjit Devraj

NEW DELHI, Aug 15 2000 (IPS) - The war of words over Kashmir between the South Asian nuclear rivals peaked Tuesday with Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee warning Pakistan not to use force to “redraw” their borders.

India’s troubled northern province dominated speeches Monday and Tuesday by Pakistan’s military ruler Pervez Musharraf and Vajpayee, to mark 53 years of the subcontinent’s freedom from British colonial rule.

However, in the traditional Aug. 15 prime ministerial speech from the ramparts of the historic Red Fort in the heart of the Indian capital, Vajpayee refrained from responding in kind to the statements from across the border.

In his Aug. 14 address on Pakistan’s Independence Day, Musharraf pledged continued support to Kashmiri militants and blamed New Delhi for the failure of the recent peace bid by one of the main Kashmiri secessionist outfits.

“Pakistan…will continue to extend all moral, diplomatic and political support to their (Kashmiri separatists) indigenous struggle against state-sponsored terrorism,” said Musharraf.

Answering back, a day later, Vajpayee asserted that Kashmir was an integral part of India.

“The borders of the country can never be redrawn by force or violence and the hands of time cannot be turned back,” he told a mammoth crowd, which was hemmed in by thousands police and para-military troops, because of threatened bombings by Kashmir militants.

Referring to the communal bloodshed following the subcontinent’s partition along religious lines 53 years ago, Vajpayee said nations could no longer be divided on the basis of religion.

Pakistan claims Muslim-majority Kashmir which joined India soon after independence in the year 1947. The two nations have fought two wars over Kashmir, a third of which is controlled by Pakistan.

In his speech, Vajpayee refrained from any reference to Pakistani President Rafiq Tarar’s independence day warning that the Kashmir issue could lead to a nuclear conflict.

Indian political analysts ascribed Vajpayee’s “studiedly non-retaliatory” response to awareness that the international community is now more sympathetic to New Delhi’s charges against Islamabad.

According to Shekhar Gupta, Chief Editor of the leading national daily, ‘Indian Express’, Vajpayee’s independence day statement on Kashmir was “mature” and “positive”.

Gupta noted that Vajpayee has declared that he wants to resolve the Kashmir issue through continued dialogue, despite the failure of the early August peace talks with a leading militant group.

A two-week cease-fire and peace talks offered by the Pakistan- based, Hizbul Mujahideen failed when Vajpayee rejected the militants’ demand to include Islamabad in the dialogue.

In his Tuesday address, Vajpayee reiterated India’s stand that it will talk with Pakistan only when Islamabad stops encouraging violence in Kashmir. Islamabad denies the charge and instead, accuses Indian troops of excesses on innocent Kashmiris.

India’s independence day celebrations were held under a heavy security blanket because of threatened terror attacks by Kashmiri militants. A late Monday night bomb blast in a passenger train in northern Uttar Pradesh state killed seven people and injured 60 travellers.

Unlike Vajpayee, India’s foreign ministry did not refrain from describing as “alarmist”, the Pakistani president’s assertion that India and Pakistan could be headed for a nuclear war over Kashmir.

“We do not share the assessment about the possibility of a nuclear war,” said Raminder Singh Jassal, foreign ministry spokesman.

“We believe that it is not helpful for confidence building and overall peace and security for countries with nuclear weapons to make statements about the possible use of nuclear weapons,” Jassal said.

Vajpayee’s assertion of willingness to talk to Pakistan on Kashmir is, however, not shared by influential, hard-line sections and affiliates of his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The BJP-led ruling coalition is under pressure from these groups to take a tough military stance against what is referred to as Pakistan’s “proxy war” in Kashmir. There have been calls for a “hot pursuit” of Kashmiri militants across the border.

India’s long-held claim that Pakistan trains and arms Kashmiri militants, found support in a recent report in the ‘Washington Post’, which spoke of 1.75 million men receiving instruction at ‘jehadi’ (Islamic warrior) training camps in Pakistan.