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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