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Journalism of Courage
At its party conclave in Lucknow, the BJP predictably unveiled its quiver of arrows for the forthcoming elections to the Uttar Pradesh assembly. Amidst the local issues for combat with the state8217;s ruling Samajwadi Party was a question asked of the UPA government at the Centre. Could its silence to comments by Pakistan8217;s foreign minister, Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri, be construed as accepting a return to the pre-1953 position in Jammu and Kashmir? It is to be hoped that the government and the Congress party will be drawn into talking Kashmir with the Opposition, and see the BJP8217;s gauntlet for the opportunity it could be.
This is an especially urgent moment to prepare a bipartisan consensus on Kashmir. Back-channel negotiations between India and Pakistan are said to be enlarging the middle ground for the first time since the early 1960s. The need to settle the Kashmir dispute cannot be overstated. The Iran hiccup notwithstanding, the deal with the US has already liberated India from decades of defensiveness on its nuclear status. Removing acrimony and semantic debates accruing from Pakistan8217;s relentless spotlight on J038;K would bring dividends many times more than that. A post-Partition political reconciliation is necessary not just for the regional good. Domestically, it would take away a lot of lingering bitterness. The Centre must know that on Kashmir or on talks with Pakistan it cannot gain any breakthrough without carrying a political consensus domestically. There is, for instance, Parliament8217;s unanimous resolution claiming Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
