POLITICS-INDIA: Army Holds Fire in Kashmir, But Peace Still Far

By Ranjit Devraj Reprint | | Print |

Ranjit Devraj

NEW DELHI, Nov 28 2000 (IPS) - Indian troops battling Kashmiri militants have put aside their guns as Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s Ramzan truce offer to the secessionists came into force Tuesday.

The ‘cease-fire’, which is to last till the end of the Muslim holy month, marks the second such bid in less than six months, by either side, to find a political solution to the unending decade-old violence in India’s troubled province.

Analysts noted that New Delhi’s initiative had put pressure on Islamabad to show to the world that it is as keen to find a peaceful solution to the Kashmir dispute that is at the root of the half century-old rivalry between the nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours.

The troops have been ordered not to conduct search operations or engage with the armed separatists, despite the killing of 14 people, including four soldiers, in separate attacks by the militants, since Vajpayee first announced the truce a week ago.

However, Vajpayee has to cope with criticism from hardline Hindu affiliates of his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and tough talk from key cabinet colleagues who insist that New Delhi will talk with Islamabad only on the former’s terms.

Pakistan’s military ruler Pervez Musharraf has accused India of using the cease-fire as a ploy to divide the Kashmiri militant groups and keep Islamabad out of any peace negotiations. But he has also refrained from rejecting the Indian peace initiative.

Encouragingly, in an interview to New Delhi’s ‘Asian Age’ newspaper last weekend, Pakistani Foreign Minister Abdus Sattar indicated a significant shift in the Musharraf regime’s attitude to the landmark ‘Lahore Declaration’ signed by Vajpayee and his then Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharief in February 1999.

The Pakistani army has so far distanced itself from the Lahore Declaration, which called for a peaceful resolution of the Kashmir issue. Top Pakistani army officers boycotted the reception for Vajpayee when he arrived in Lahore after a globally-acclaimed overland trip.

The Pakistani army was believed to have encouraged armed intrusions into Kashmir by heavily armed militants even while Vajpayee was in Lahore.

Sattar told the daily that India should follow the logic of the Lahore Declaration, earlier bilateral agreements and also U.N resolutions concerning Kashmir, in opening talks with Islamabad.

“I wish the cease-fire could be made permanent and serious efforts initiated to find a solution,” he said.

But Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh has declared that New Delhi will talk peace with Islamabad only if Pakistan stops what India calls “cross-border terrorism” — training, arming and sending militants from Pakistani territory into Kashmir.

Vajpayee has found more support for his peace bid from other ruling coalition partners and even the main opposition Congress party, than from members of the BJP and its pro-Hindu affiliates.

Urged by the Congress in parliament that New Delhi talk with Islamabad without preconditions, the foreign minister stuck to the position that there must first be evidence of a cessation of support by Pakistan to cross-border terrorism.

Singh said his government’s stand on this has been endorsed by the international community. Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani, who has a tougher stand on the Kashmir dispute, said Pakistan would have to send “positive feelers”.

“Islamabad can take advantage of this offer and show its sincerity in restoring peace and goodwill. It can tell the world that it will destroy the militant training camps in its territory,” Advani was quoted as telling reporters during a visit to the Wagah crossing on the India-Pakistan border.

While describing the Ramzan Kashmir cease-fire as “Lahore II”, Advani, however, ruled out tripartite talks involving Islamabad in any dialogue between New Delhi and Kashmiri secessionists. “Negotiating peace with Kashmiri militants is one issue and holding bilateral talks with Pakistan is another,” he said.

Indeed, Vajpayee’s peace bid has upset the BJP’s radical Hindu associates. A key government ally, the Shiv Sena, ordered its lawmakers to walk out of parliament in protest over the issue last week. Vajpayee was even burnt in effigy by angry Shiv Sena members to show their disgust.

However, Shiv Sena supremo, Bala Sahab Thackeray has since announced that he would not oppose the cease-fire. But an influential Hindu religious leader, the Jagatguru Shankaracharya Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati has demanded its withdrawal.

“He (Vajpayee) has been making mistakes after mistakes ever since assuming office. First he undertook the bus ride to Lahore and we got the Kargil episode in which hundreds of Indian soldiers were killed and the nation suffered huge financial losses. Now it is cease-fire,” the religious leader observed in a statement.

The government is counting on growing international pressure on Islamabad and divisions among secessionist ranks to give a push to its Kashmir peace bid. The chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir has told the militants that the cease-fire could be extended beyond Ramzan if they respond positively.

However, analysts cautioned New Delhi not to expect too much, specially after the collapse of a similar cease-fire then offered by the militants in July.

The first-time talks between Indian government officials and the militants fell apart in August when a key Pakistan-based militant group, which had made the offer, suddenly insisted that Islamabad be involved in the talks.