Dialogue on Kashmir
Seven
decades are on, Kashmir; the conflict torn zone continues to yearn for resolution.
Time and again, Kashmir erupts to make its voice audible to the world
especially India but later lends deaf ears to aspirations of its people every
time. After 2008 agitation new wave of largely non-violent protests against
Indian establishment emerged in Kashmir with youth actively playing part and
2010, 2016 uprising further fanned the flames of discontent. The 2016 intifada left
such an impact that even after a year, peace and normalcy struggles to dominate
in the region and people are adamant not to change their opinion vis-à-vis
Kashmir. This has perhaps resulted into change in government’s callous attitude
which hitherto used all sorts of repressive measures to gag the voices of
dissent, to choose the path of previous regime; that is, appointing of
interlocutor to hold dialogue.
The
objective of dialogue has always been to achieve practical and peaceful
solution to the problems and factually is only the productive way to settle
issues. Politically it is most preferred mode for resolution of matters.
However, dialogue with respect to Kashmir doesn’t hold much significance for
common masses of valley particularly when it is offered by India. The reason
behind its insignificance is the bitter memories of talks on Kashmir that have
been held in past.
It
is noteworthy that appointing interlocutors for dialogue on Kashmir is not new
to its people and leadership. The incoming interlocutor Dinesh Sharma is the
fourth interlocutor appointed by the Centre since 2002. The first one was
former Union minister KC Pant, the second NN Vohra, the present governor of the
state, and the last was a three-member panel comprising former bureaucrat MM
Ansari, academician Radha Kumar and late journalist Dileep Padgaonkar, that
were appointed by government to break ice on political fronts but couldn’t yield
results. After 2010 uprising, when three-member panel arrived to engage
Kashmiri leadership for talks, the move was appreciated by all and people of Kashmir
especially pinned hope and anticipated development. But to their dismay, the
approach proved mere “Eye-Wash”. The report submitted by the panel was not
considered by government of India and continues to gather dust.
The
report asked the government to look into need for revoking of AFSPA and PSA but
no such steps were taken. In contradiction to that, after 2016 agitation
hundreds of youth were booked under PSA. Not only youth, aged men have been
imprisoned under this black law. Even people from professions like teaching,
journalism etc. have not been spared .AFSPA continues to be the “license to
kill” and tool of state abuse, oppression and discrimination, allowing the
members of Armed forces to perpetrate abuses with impunity. Hence for people of
Kashmir, announcing Dinesh Sharma as interlocutor is not going to make any
difference. People of Kashmir believe when previous interlocutors couldn’t
persuade the government even to revoke draconian laws, declared as illegitimate
by Human Rights watch and other human right organizations, how newly appointed can
resolve long standing Kashmir dispute. People ask what is unknown about Kashmir
conflict that interlocutor now wants to know, plus it is well established fact that
no such dialogue would work in which all the stakeholders are not involved.
India, that terms Kashmir as bilateral issue on international forums cannot
neglect role of Pakistan as party to Kashmir. Similarly, ignoring the
resistance leadership who are having massive support makes dialogue a futile exercise.
Also, the recent statement of BJP leader about interlocutor, in which he described
him “special representative and not interlocutor”, has made people to pre-judge
that this initiative wouldn’t bear fruit and consider it headline- management exercise.
So before taking such initiative it was important for the government of India
to overcome trust deficit, build confidence among people of Kashmir, to show
some leniency and outreach all the stakeholders. Since no such effort has been
made, people have no expectations from this initiative.
Doubtlessly,
every section of society in Kashmir wants peaceful resolution of Kashmir
problem through talks. Hurriyat conference termed as “Separatists” have also
repeatedly expressed their willingness to dialogue. No one is averse to this
option provided it is sincere, productive and meant to solve problem rather
than a delaying tactic and an attempt to befool international community.
Think
tankers in Indian administration must understand the fact there is no solution
to Kashmir Issue other than sincere dialogue and
no progress can be made unless a Kashmir-centric approach is taken into
consideration. Moreover, Kashmir-issue if not addressed, will remain
sore in the body of Indian politics and permanent peace can’t be ensured in
South Asia without settlement of this dispute according to aspirations of
people.
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