Valley sees a glimmer of hope

Many feel that despite the final outcome, the Hizbul offer and the Government’s response will benefit the peace process in the long run. “This has proved that the complex Kashmir problem cannot be resolved through short cuts and little ground work,” says Noor Ahmad Baba, a Kashmir University professor. “Parties involved will now have to see the realities and complex dimensions of the problem on the ground.”

Baba says that the positive spin-off is that there is now a fastgrowing realisation that dialogue is the only way to resolve theissue. “The differences are more about the parameters and notwhether to come to the table or not,” he said.

In other words, the Government-Hizbul dialogue was stuck in modalities, not the substance of the issue. “Next time, the process will definitely move further,” he said.

Pressure is also mounting on the separatist Hurriyat to do more soul-searching. “Now the people are not ready to accept the politics ofstagnation. They are tired of death and destruction. They wantthe political leadership to do a rethink and get them out of thisquagmire,” a second-rung Hurriyat leader said. “We (Hurriyat) have to move quickly on this. If we don’t do it, any militant outfit will take the lead,” he said.

In fact, other hardline foreign-dominated militant groups too have beenforced to accept dialogue as a means to resolve the issue though they haveput difficult and unacceptable pre-condiions. “Groups like Lashkar andHarkat are essentially anti-democracy and extreme hardline. Their onlystand had been that Jehad is the only way,” says a Hizbul sympathiser.“Now there is a slight change in their approach too. They have started putting pre-conditions on any dialogue with India like the Army and paramilitary forces should vacate Kashmir before talks,” he said.

New Delhi is being criticised for being confused about its reaction to the Hizbul offer. “The Government of India needs to deliberate on theissue and clarify its stand. They (Centre) have to decide as to what canthey offer and how far can they go in any dialogue on the future ofKashmir’s relations with India,” says Rekha Choudhary, head of the political science department at Jammu University.

Choudhary adds that a consensus at the national political level is a must before a clear-cut policy is formulated. “Most of thedecisions taken on Kashmir in Delhi are taken under thecompulsions and pressures of electoral politics in the rest of thecountry,” she said. Citing the London-IRA talks, she said: “They (British) first sat down to resolve their own differences to reach a consensus and then opened a dialogue with the Irish,” he said.

There is also a growing consensus here that Pakistan’s involvement is imperative since it is a party to the conflict. “Let us not shy away from this reality,” says Baba. “If the Centre has problems in a tripartite dialogue, they can open negotiations with both Pakistan and the Kashmiri leadership independently.”