Opinion - News Analysis   

A bus service going nowhere?

B. Muralidhar Reddy

The Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service seems to have been virtually grounded by the complicated documentation process and the attitude of the intelligence agencies.

— File Photo: Shanker Chakravarty.

GRAND BEGINNING: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi flagging off the first bus to leave for Muzaffarabad from Srinagar on April 7, 2005.

A YEAR after its inaugural run, the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service, christened Kaarvan-e-Aman (caravan of peace), has been reduced to mere symbolism. This state of affairs is due mainly to the inflexible mindset of the bureaucracy and security establishments on both sides. So far, only 816 people have been able to avail themselves of the facility on 16 trips. The fortnightly service was interrupted for about three months after the October earthquake and again for a month in March following landslides.

What went wrong with what was hailed as a "historic breakthrough" in India-Pakistan relations? The political leadership of India and Pakistan had displayed flexibility to make it a reality. The Manmohan Singh Government ignored the political and security-related reservations expressed by hawks within the establishment and waived the requirement of passport and visa.

Likewise, the Musharraf regime overruled the hardliners within who were uncomfortable at the prospect of links between the two sides of Kashmir.

Unfortunately, it was left to the bureaucracy and the security establishment to firm up the modalities on operationalising the service. And the hardliners on both sides seem to have succeeded in their design to ensure that the service was as good as a non-starter. The first and foremost impediment is the travel document form itself. Add the time-consuming documentation process and mandatory security clearances, and it is clear the service has been virtually grounded.

The National Conference leader, Omar Abdullah, who was recently in Islamabad in connection with the Pugwash conference on Kashmir, was bitter. "As a literate Kashmiri I found the form so difficult to fill. One has to give so many details that ultimately one gives up in sheer exasperation. I wonder if the form is meant to encourage or discourage Kashmiris to take the bus!"

On paper, clearances for travel are processed by the designated authority in Srinagar and Muzaffarabad. In reality, the intelligence agencies of the two countries decide. The ever-suspicious agencies tend to be niggardly. Distrust of everyone is the norm rather than exception. No wonder it takes months for applications to be cleared.

It is not true that there are no takers for the bus service. According to estimates, over 35,000 travel forms have been distributed in the past year. Reports suggest that over 2000 people are waiting for clearances.

It is not just the bus service that has become a victim of bureaucratic apathy. The case of the five points along the Line of Control (LoC), thrown open in November to facilitate earthquake relief work in Kashmir, is worse. They were opened to allow people from the two sides to help each other in their hour of grief.

For days India and Pakistan debated on the modalities for verification of people wanting to use the five points. They ultimately agreed to adopt the same procedure followed in the case of the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus. Then they decided that each point would be open once a week!

According to the Pakistan Foreign Office, between the first week of November (when the points are supposed to have been operationalised) and the first week of April, 241 people from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and 185 people from Jammu and Kashmir have managed to take advantage of the facility. In other words, just 426 people have succeeded in crossing either way in a span of nearly five months!

Again, it appears that most of these lucky ones are those who had originally applied for travel on the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus. India and Pakistan have exchanged "some lists" of people wanting to cross over through the designated five points but there have been no clearances.

"We understand on March 30 India and Pakistan have exchanged fresh lists of persons wanting to cross over through the designated five points. Hopefully there would be progress soon," the Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson, Tasneem Aslam, told The Hindu.

So much for the confidence-building measures (CBMs) to raise the comfort level of Kashmiris on both sides of the divide. Unless the political establishments of India and Pakistan work to change the mindset of the bureaucracy and the security establishment, the best of political initiatives can yield little.

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