Semantics over self-governance

The Kashmir leaders rose above the party line, the PM kept a flexible approach and there are five new jobs for out-of-power politicians

On the face of it the Second Roundtable Conference at Srinagar was a damp squib in all respects. The Hurriyat did not participate, the number of participants dwindled from the first round, there was a surge of militant violence and the only tangible result was the creation of five jobs for out-of-power politicians. It was a typical bureaucratic exercise in the sterile confines of the run-down Centaur Hotel complex.

There was, however, more to the conference than met the eye 8212; just like the Kashmir issue itself. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh addressed the shame of the Kashmir sex scandal in his opening remarks, despite the fact that Congress politicians could be implicated in it 8212; and despite Farooq Abdullah indirectly blaming the Ghulam Nabi government for the affair at the roundtable.

The PM8217;s message of zero tolerance towards custodial deaths came despite the Army and the Intelligence agencies advocating a harder line towards militancy. Less it be misconstrued as Azaadi independence, the Prime Minister stopped short of suggesting khudmukhtari self rule for the Kashmiri people. In fact, that whole paragraph was taken out of the opening remarks.

Though he didn8217;t raise autonomy in his remarks, the five joint working groups are logically designed to let the J038;K politicians reconcile their views over self-governance. Indeed, it8217;s only a matter of time before Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad names Farooq Abdullah, Mufti Sayeed, Yusuf Tarigami, Ashgar Karbalai and P.Namgyal to head the five groups and prepare reports to be considered at the third roundtable. That self-governance was the central theme of the second round came out clearly with Farooq Abdullah talking about maximum autonomy, Mehbooba Mufti advocating self-rule though she claimed that it was President Pervez Musharraf8217;s line, Finance Minister Muzaffar Beg suggesting federalism through regional councils and Namgyal, the Ladakhi leader, wanting union territory status for the cold desert. At the end it was all a question of semantics over the word self-governance.

To their credit, the Kashmiri leaders rose above the party line at the conference with Mufti Sayeed recognizing the need for the security forces and Army to counter terrorism in the state. All he wanted was for the Army to be replaced by the state police, he didn8217;t advocate for counter-insurgency operations to be stopped. His daughter Mehbooba wanted civilians to be armed and trained to handle the insurgency as it would also mean more jobs. It stressed on the fact that militancy needed to be countered for the state to grow was underlined.

The separatists, including the Hurriyat, stayed away but the Prime Minister kept the door open for his 8216;8216;friends.8217;8217; Union Water Resources Minister Saifuddin Soz expressed his unhappiness with the Hurriyat for ditching the government at the last moment, but at the same time he advocated the strong need to engage it for a durable solution to the Kashmir issue.

By keeping the window open for the Hurriyat, the Prime Minister recognizes the pressure posed by the pro-Azaadi or pro-Pakistan supporters on Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, the JKLF8217;s Yasin Malik or even Shabbir Shah. He also knows that US influence on them or on Pakistan can work up to a point, after which it is for New Delhi to engage. But it remains to be seen if the Hurriyat has the time and patience to talk to Home Minister Shivraj Patil, whose limited vision will be dictated by the hardline babus in North Block.

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While the PM heard out all the J038;K leaders for more than 12 hours over two days, he constantly improvised on the situation with his key advisors. He looked on as Farooq clashed with Mehbooba over self rule, Kargil politician Karbalai sparred with Namgyal over Ladakh8217;s union territory status and Saifuddin Soz took umbrage at one of the speakers. If National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan injected a note of caution into the Prime Minister8217;s speeches, Kashmir expert Wajahat Habibullah brought imagination to his vision of Kashmir. In fact, while preparing his concluding remarks, the Prime Minister wedded the liberal ideas of Habibullah and the conservatism of Narayanan. When he found that the draft prepared by Narayanan and PM8217;s private secretary B.V. Subramanian too conservative and babu-like, he got Habibullah to introduce the point about rehabilitation of violence-affected families and quarterly review of detention cases.

While the PM may be blamed for the entire city being in a state of siege for two days, with the entire Boulevard road resembling a war zone, the fact is that the Srinagar roundtable signaled that New Delhi would not be cowed down by grenade attacks, even on tourists from Gujarat. Manmohan Singh8217;s Kashmir strategy is not that difficult to understand as he is moving towards self-governance on both sides of the LoC through greater economic and political contacts in Jammu, the Valley and Ladakh. In the meantime, though, he wants to capitalise on virtually zero infiltration across the LoC to push economic development in the state and increasing the stakes of residents of the Valley. One would not be surprised if the next roundtable is held in Jammu city.

shishir.guptaexpressindia.com