SOUTH ASIA: India’s Kashmir Policy under Strain after Powell Visit

By Ranjit Devraj Reprint | | Print |

Ranjit Devraj

NEW DELHI, Jul 30 2002 (IPS) - India’s government, led by the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party, came under heavy flak in Parliament Tuesday for an overtly pro-U.S tilt that has failed to stop the steady internationalisation of the Kashmir issue.

Ever since U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell declared Saturday in New Delhi that Kashmir was “on the international agenda”, the Indian capital has been abuzz with speculation on whether he meant external mediation on an issue which India insists is a purely domestic affair.

Powell, on an eight-nation Asian tour that took him to Islamabad on Sunday, also called for international observers to monitor state assembly elections, scheduled to be held in the Indian part of Kashmir in October, and for the release of all Kashmiri political prisoners in Indian jails.

Leading criticism of New Delhi’s foreign policy was the BJP’s close and powerful ally in the multi-party ruling coalition, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), which rules southern Andhra Pradesh state and sends 29 members to the lawmaking Lok Sabha or lower house of parliament.

Yerran Naidu, who leads the TDP in Parliament, called Powell’s statements “highly condemnable” and demanded that Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who was absent from the house, immediately clarify the government’s position.

Similar calls to “take the house into confidence” came from the powerful Congress party which leads the opposition, parties in the Left Front and regional parties like the Samajwadi Party in northern Uttar Pradesh, which have been uncomfortable with the BJP’s pro-Washington tilt.

What agitated members was further clarification of Powell’s statements made by State Department spokesman Philip Reeker in Washington on Monday. “As the secretary said, Kashmir is on the international agenda and the United States and other countries are going to take an active interest in encouraging a resolution.”

Reeker also said that the Kashmir issue must be resolved through a “healthy political process and a vibrant dialogue between India and Pakistan that takes into account the wishes of the people of Kashmir”.

“This a direct interference in the affairs of Kashmir and is the result of the Vajpayee government’s consistent efforts to make the United States the arbiter in Indo-Pakistan relations,” said a statement released by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), which rules West Bengal and is allied with the Congress party on most national issues.

Although the government is yet to pronounce its response to Powell’s statement, BJP president Venkiah Naidu said the “only role which the international community, especially the U.S., shall play at the present moment is to prevail on Pakistan to immediately end its policy of cross-border terrorism in Kashmir and other parts of India”.

Naidu said that “the BJP emphatically regrets the suggestion made by the secretary of state that international observers should be allowed or invited to oversee elections in Jammu and Kashmir”.

Powell did say that the October elections in Kashmir would provide an opportunity for peace in the region, which saw the nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours having to be restrained from going to war in May by intense international diplomacy.

He announced that U.S. Assistant Defence Secretary Richard Armitage would make another visit to the region in August to continue the shuttle diplomacy that saw British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw making his third visit to New Delhi this year, in mid-July.

Officially, the spokeswoman for the ministry of external affairs, Nirupama, Rao, said on Monday that “once the problem of terrorism is resolved, Kashmir drops off the international agenda”.

She said that any interpretation by Pakistan that Powell’s statements added up to a call to conduct a plebiscite in Kashmir to decide if its people should stay with India or join Pakistan showed that the neighbouring country was “living in a looking glass world”.

Powell left in his wake intensified acrimony between the two countries, which have been warring over the alpine territory for more than 50 years. He seems to have pleased neither.

In Islamabad, foreign ministry spokesman Aziz Ahmed Khan was quoted as saying that the elections in Kashmir would not solve the problem and that earlier elections held in the territory had been “massively rigged,” and “boycotted by the Kashmir people”.

Pakistan views the holding of elections in Kashmir as attempts to legitimise its status as an integrated state of the Indian union. New Delhi has in turn accused its neighbour of intensifying militant activity every time elections are due.

In May, suspected pro-Pakistan militants shot dead moderate political leader Abdul Ghani Lone at public meeting after he expressed support for the elections.

Rao responded to Khan’s statement by saying that India would be “closely monitoring Pakistan’s attitude” and that the present situation was “not conducive for dialogue”.

India has, in fact, ruled out dialogue with Pakistan until after the October elections.

Before leaving Islamabad, Powell called on all parties “to ensure that the upcoming elections can be held in safety and without interference from those who would like to spoil the elections”.

Opinion is now building up in India for a postponement of the elections, especially after Indian army officials said that crossings by ‘jihadist’ militants over the Line of Control (LoC), which runs through divided Kashmir, appeared to have increased rather than decreased as claimed by Pakistan President Gen Pervez Musharraf.

Said Ram Jethmalani, former law minister in the Vajpayee Cabinet: “Elections ought not to be held unless it is sure that all prominent political actors can participate.”

Jethmalani, an eminent lawyer and parliamentarian, said India was probably overreacting to Powell’s statement and that Kashmir had in fact become an international dispute.

“The United States and India are partners in the international fight against terrorism and they (United States) are giving us some suggestions and if we don’t like it we can politely tell them so,” Jethmalani added.

What was important, Jethmalani added, was that any election held in Kashmir should be free and fair and that there was no getting away from ensuring that the polls be held in such a way as to “inspire international confidence”.