POLITICS: Kashmir Remains a Stumbling Block for India, Pakistan

By Ranjit Devraj Reprint | | Print |

Ranjit Devraj

AGRA, Jul 17 2001 (IPS) - Kashmir remains an obstacle to accord between India and Pakistan after the South Asian rivals abandoned plans late Monday to crown their two-day summit with a joint declaration.

The failure to produce a joint statement has left in question the fate of other issues that were on the agenda for the summit. These include nuclear risk reduction, bilateral trade, and the laying of a natural gas pipeline from Iran to India through Pakistan.

The talks had appeared to begin well enough Sunday, with officials from both sides describing the one-to-one talks between Pakistan President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee as “very cordial, frank and constructive”.

But a grim looking Musharraf left for Islamabad shortly before midnight Monday, having extending by nine hours his stay in this former seat of the Mughal empire to enable negotiators to thrash out a statement that he and Vajpayee could sign.

Soon after his departure, Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Nirupama Roy expressed disappointment at the talks’ failure, saying: “Although the commencement of the process at the beginning of a journey has taken place the destination of an agreed joint statement has not been reached.”

Despite their differences, the two leaders have left a door open: Vajpayee accepted Musharraf’s invitation to visit Pakistan in September, suggesting that at least a small step forward had been made during the first summit since 1999, when the two countries fought each for four months at Kargil, on the Line of Control that runs through divided Kashmir.

Musharraf had indicated, at a breakfast meeting Monday with media editors from both countries, that yawning gaps remained between the Indian and Pakistani positions on Kashmir.

The Pakistani leader said he had difficulty in getting the Indian side to “accept that Kashmir was the main issue – if not a dispute” and to acknowledge that there were three parties involved: Pakistan, the Kashmiri people and India.

The two sides, Musharraf told the editors, had difficulty even choosing between the words “issue” and “dispute” to describe the 54-year-old Kashmir problem. “By all definitions, it is a dispute,” he said.

While Pakistan wanted Kashmir recognised as the central issue in any joint statement, India insisted that it could only be one among several bilateral issues including cross-border terrorism, which it accused its neighbour and rival of supporting.

Vajpayee released a statement reiterating India’s position that Kashmir could be discussed only after a “conducive atmosphere” had been established.

Referring to Kashmir, which India says as an integral part of the country but which Pakistan says is disputed territory, the statement read: “The terrorism and violence being promoted in the state from across its borders do not help to create such an atmosphere.” It added that there should be no illusion that India did not have the “resolve, strength or stamina to continue resisting terrorism and violence. .We will counter them resolutely.”

Musharraf denied Pakistan had a hand in Islamist violence in Kashmir. “We are not encouraging violence in Kashmir. This is an indigenous freedom struggle going on,” he said.

“I keep talking about Kashmir and you keep talking about cross- border terrorism and confidence building measures,” Musharraf said, referring to the Indian government. “Is (confidence building) possible if you are shooting across the border, killing each other?”

Musharraf’s three-day visit to India was marked by a sharp escalation in violence in the Kashmir valley. Indian news agencies reported at least 90 deaths, including those of five soldiers.

Vajpayee, who has held Musharraf responsible for armed incursions that led to the undeclared but bloody war over Kargil, had refused to speak to the Pakistani leader or resume normal diplomatic ties with Islamabad. He surprised the world in late May by suddenly inviting the general to the summit here.

For his part, Musharraf, at breakfast with the editors, said India’s sense of injury over Kargil could be compared to Pakistani grievances against India – for example, stemming from New Delhi’s 1971 intervention in what was then East Pakistan that resulted in the creation of independent Bangladesh.