16 June 2003

IS ADVANI ADVOCATING TO ABANDON CLAIM OVER POK?

From Jal Khambata

NEW DELHI: Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani has surprised and stunned everybody with the advocacy of "give and take" between India and Pakistan on the issue of Kashmir. More so because he has championed for no compromise of any sort with Pakistan or to be soft towards Pakistan.

He has been, in fact, advancing every day of his current US-UK trip to accuse Pakistan as the villain responsible for the cross-border terrorism and violence in Jammu and Kashmir.

His sudden tune of the "give-and-take" shows that he is privy and party to some secret plan of the present government on Kashmir.

He did not spell out what India will be ready to "give" to strike a deal but he has dropped a broad hint about what the government is aiming at in his outburst over Pakistan President General Pervez Mushrraf's talk of many more Kargils in the offing.

He referred to the unanimous Parliament resolution that India should re-acquire the part of Kashmir under the occupation of Pakistan while talking about the "give-and-take" policy. He even talked of taking a mandate of Parliament to compromise on this issue.

What kind of compromise? Is India preparing to give up its right over the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK)? The Vajpayee Government may have the misgiving that this can bring to an end the bloody 13 years of militancy that has ruined Jammu and Kashmir.

Kashmir is, however, an emotive issue for both India and Pakistan and any political party in India that chooses to accept division of Jammu and Kashmir after over five decades of dispute may find it very difficult to win the next election.

Prime Minister Vajpayee knows it. Advani knows it. The BJP knows it that it will be only doom after dividing Kashmir. And, yet advocacy of some sort of such a solution shows that they know well that they were taking a calculated risk and they also know that they can gain ultimately in the electoral battle.

Will the Congress keep quiet if such an attempt is made to give up our claim over PoK? Its spokesman S Jaipal Reddy was not asked this specific question but he was reflecting the Congress position in his answer to another question on the party agree for the government evolving a consensus on sending our jawans to Iraq despite a Parliament resolution on the issue.

His answer was: "No dialogue or exchange can take place in frozen fashion." And so, if India has to hold a dialogue with Pakistan, which the Congress has been pressing all these months, it cannot be on the basis of the "frozen" resolution of Parliament.

While warning the Vajpayee Government not to lower its guards while initiating the process of talks, Reddy decried Mushrraf for threatening another Kargil. Stating that Musharraf has not learnt a lesson from Kargil, nine-eleven or the December 13 Parliament attack, Reddy said: "Musharraf should know that even 100 kargils will not weaken India's will to protect territorial integrity of the country." It is, however, yet to be seen how the Congress reacts when the government compromises this territorial integrity for the sake of peace in the continent.

The Prime Minister is, in fact, preparing the nation for letting PoK go to Pakistan for ever. The last time he did it was in the Rajya Sabha On May 2 in reply to a brief debate on his efforts to improve relations with Pakistan. Here is exact quote:

"Kashmir ka ek-tihai hissa Pakistan ke kabje mein hai. Jabardasti hathiyaya hua hissa hai. Parliament ne sankalp paarit kiya hai. Lekin Hum kahte hain ki uski bhi charcha hum mitrata ke vatavaran me karange. (one third of kashmir is under Pakistan's occupation, annexed by force. parliament has adopted a resolution on it. Yet, we say we are prepared to discuss even this in a friendly atmosphere.)

Earlier also, Vajpayee had made a remark during his Lahore visit that shows what is in his mind. He had then commented that what had happened fifty years ago cannot be undone and better will be to accept this reality. Though he was talking in terms of the partition of India and Pakistan but it could very well apply to Kashmir.

The only conclusion that one can derive from all this is that the Vajpayee Government is toying with the idea of letting the Line of Control (LoC) become the permanent international border so that whatever is on our side of the border remained the integral part of India and whatever is on other side become legitimate part of Pakistan.

But will this solve the Kashmir problem? Or, will it be acceptable to the Pakistan Government? Observers have doubts as they point out that Pakistan has always held the militancy in Jammu and Kashmir as a freedom struggle and it will be reversing its stand if it becomes satisfied with the part of Kashmir in its occupation, forgetting what happens in the other part.

And, if the Vajpayee Government really approaches Pakistan with a "give-and-tale" posture, there should be no surprise that the Musharraf regime would ask for Srinagar or rather the Kashmir valley in return. Any government in India can accept such a demand only at the cost of its own peril.

The LoC can certainly be turned into a permanent border but that is not the solution of the problem of Kashmir. The Governments at the Centre, irrespective of belonging to whichever party, have always treated the Kashmir problem as a land dispute instead of realising that it is the problem of the people of Kashmir.

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