POLITICS: India Rules out Talks with Separatists in Kashmir

By Ranjit Devraj Reprint | | Print |

Ranjit Devraj

NEW DELHI, Aug 19 2002 (IPS) - In a sudden toughening of India’s policy on Kashmir, Interior Minister Lal Krishna Advani on Monday ruled out talks with leaders of the main alliance of separatist groups in the disputed territory, ahead of the assembly elections there in September and October.

Advani, known for his hawkishness, also ruled out any deferment of the elections to accommodate groups that may decide to participate in the elections.

This had been suggested by the Kashmir Committee, an informal group of prominent journalists and lawyers that held talks with leaders of the 23-party alliance of separatist groups, the Hurriyat (freedom), over the weekend.

The main aim of the Kashmir Committee was to secure the participation of all political groups in Kashmir in the elections which Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has pledged would be free and fair and open for non-official observers and journalists to witness.

“Their (Hurriyat’s) participation had always been in doubt and those ready to participate, were discouraged by the assassination of Abdul Gani Lone,” Advani said.

Earlier, Advani said he was keen on talking to the Hurriyat.

Lone, a known moderate voice in the separatist Hurriyat, was assassinated at a public function in Srinagar, Kashmir’s winter capital, in May after he said announced readiness to participate in the elections. He also said a campaign of ‘jihadist’ killings to secure the secession of Kashmir had become counter-productive after Sep 11.

India blamed Pakistan-based groups of being behind the killing of Lone and said it was part of a campaign of terror secretly financed and supported by Pakistan to secure possession of disputed Kashmir.

Advani said many Kashmiris were keen on the September elections, but were discouraged by Pakistan President Gen Pervez Musharraf’s speech on Aug 14 calling the elections “farcical.”

“That was a clear message to the Hurriyat not to participate in the elections and therefore their decision not to participate is no great surprise,” Advani said.

Advani’s announcement marked the failure of the Kashmir Committee, whose leader Ram Jethmalani, also laid blame for the failure at Musharraf’s door: ‘The Pakistani ruler has virtually told Hurriyat not to participate.”

Jethmalani said that by staying away from the polls, the Hurriyat had shown that it was either “dancing to Pakistan’s tune” or that it was nothing more than a “paper tiger” and unwilling to face the people.

Indian officials have said that the future of Kashmir would be decided by elected representatives of the people. But the Hurriyat has said it has no faith in any elections run by the Indian government.

A member of the Kashmir Committee and well-known journalist M J Akbar stated in Srinagar on Sunday that Shabir Ahmad Shah, who leads the moderate Kashmir People’s Democratic Freedom Party, had said that he was “not averse to taking part in assembly elections as a means to identify the real representatives of the people for a permanent solution through future negotiations.”

In a speech on Aug. 15, India’s Independence Day, Vajpayee accused Pakistan of trying to grab Kashmir through “terrorist activity” after having failed to achieve that aim through open war.

India and Pakistan have after their independence from British rule in 1947 fought three wars, two of them for the possession of the former princely state of Kashmir which is now divided by the Line of Control (LoC) or ceasefire line.

An undeclared but bloody war was fought at Kargil in 1999 after armed intruders backed by the Pakistan army crossed the LoC, forcing the Indian side to call in its air force.

The Kargil war resulted in a breakdown of diplomatic dialogue between the two countries, with India saying no dialogue would be possible until Pakistan gave up a policy of supporting secessionist militant activity across the LoC.

But these have continued and in December last year, after a four-man squad attempted to blow up India’s Parliament with an explosives laden car, India ordered more than 700,000 troops to its border with Pakistan, which responded with massive deployments on its side.

The confrontation between the two nuclear-armed neighbours was close to erupting into a full-fledged war in May, when it was defused by top international diplomats who extracted a categorical promise from Musharraf that infiltrations into Indian Kashmir across the border would be stopped.

However, military de-escalation since then has been slow more because the slushy monsoon season is considered unsuitable for war than because of anything else.

The two countries continue to exchange sporadic fire across the border and India has claimed to have beaten back an armed intrusion across the LoC a few weeks ago. There has also been no let-up in militant activity in Kashmir, officials say.

India accuses Islamabad of being bent on sabotaging the elections in Kashmir and terrorising people into boycotting it.

On the other hand, Indian leaders readily admit that a 13-year-old secessionist movement in Kashmir began after elections were rigged to favour the ruling National Conference. “We have made mistakes in the past,” Vajpayee said in his Independence Day speech.

According to Indian leaders, Pakistan has taken advantage of domestic issues in Kashmir to push its agenda of incorporating Kashmir into its own territory, which was carved out of British India as homeland for those who follow the Muslim faith.

Pakistan, however, insists that it is only morally supporting the Kashmiris, most of whom are Muslims, in a struggle for self-determination. It says that what is called “terrorist activity”, which has resulted in more than 50,000 deaths over the past decade, is part of an indigenous movement.

India says Kashmir is an integral part of India and symbol of its secular polity which, despite the 1947 partition still includes 120 million Muslims that represent the world’s second largest population following that faith.

POLITICS: India Rules out Talks with Separatists in Kashmir

By Ranjit Devraj Reprint | | Print |

Ranjit Devraj

NEW DELHI, Aug 19 2002 (IPS) - In a sudden toughening of India’s policy on Kashmir, Interior Minister Lal Krishna Advani on Monday ruled out talks with leaders of the main alliance of separatist groups in the disputed territory, ahead of the assembly elections there in September and October.
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