APHC will stand united, says Bhat

By Harish Khare

NEW DELHI, AUG. 26. Professor Abdul Ghani Bhat, chairman of the All Party Hurriyat Conference, is hopeful of swinging the entire organisation in favour of his proposal that two Hurriyat teams simultaneously engage New Delhi and Islamabad on the Kashmir issue. He says the APHC executive is yet to take up the proposal formally, as some of the important members are out of Srinagar.

Acknowledging that there are differences among various members (``just as there are differences between the Prime Minister and the Home Minister, and between RAW and IB''), Professor Bhat says ``no member has the luxury of going out of the Hurriyat.''

Asserting that since he is the `first democratically- chosen chairman' of the Hurriyat, he is bound to ``go by democratic norms'' of argument and debate. ``I trust all my colleagues are reasonable, who believe in principles rather than intransigence; and, I think reasonableness means that you are prepared to be imaginative and open,'' explains the retired professor. (The Centre has been unexcited about his proposal, arguing that the Hurriyat was not even unanimous about it and that the proposal did not require Pakistan to desist from supporting cross-border terrorism.)

Of course, the Hurriyat chairman claims, tirelessly, that his organisation alone represents the heartbeat of the Kashmiris, and all other voices - Dr. Farooq Abdullah or Mufti Mohammad Syed or Shabir Shah - are irrelevant in the search for a ``lasting solution'' to the Kashmir crisis. And, he hopes that the proposed two Hurriyat teams would engage ``brilliant minds in Islamabad and New Delhi, though not necessarily the scintillating minds in Srinagar.''

Prof. Bhat returns to Srinagar early next week, and hopes that he would be able to secure an agreement within his organisation on a collective and united response in a fast changing situation.

(But Mr. Yasin Malik is hospitalised in Delhi and the possibility of his travelling to Srinagar in the near- future is ruled out; similarly, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq is away on ``study leave'' and is not expected back till another month).

Though there is no change in the Hurriyat's stand that the Kashmir dispute is a tripartite business and can be solved only by involving ``India, Pakistan and the people of Jammu and Kashmir,'' the APHC leader believes in the efficacy of American interest and intervention in helping to find a way out of the stalemate.

He believes that the compulsion of economic globalisation propels the United States to ensure that there is a ``lasting peace'' in Kashmir; moreover, nuclear weaponisation of South Asia, according to him, has introduced a parity between India and Pakistan, and this parity has put an ``onerous responsibility on the rulers in New Delhi and Islamabad'' to find a negotiated way out.

The professor also hopes to meet the Hizb commander, Mr. Abdul Masjid Dar, to try to understand the Hizb's perception of the people's mood in the Valley.

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