The Hindu : Skirting the main issue

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, May 25, 2002

Opinion

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Skirting the main issue

THE ONLY TANGIBLE outcome of the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee's much-hyped three-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir is perhaps the announcement of a Rs. 6,100-crore-plus development package aimed at employment generation, more assistance for migrants and creation of crucial rail/road links. To be noted, however, is that a few of its project-specific components have figured in an equally impressive Rs. 7,200-crore package unfolded on the eve of the 1996 Assembly elections by the then Prime Minister, H.D. Deve Gowda. The rationale for such a massive economic support is unquestionable, given the crippling effect that the as-yet-uncontrolled scourge of insurgency has been having on the State's economic matrix and exchequer. Since joblessness and neglect of development imperatives themselves fuel insurgency, any initiative that seeks to address them needs to be welcomed. But also daunting is the stark reality that such massive doses of Central aid go substantially to benefit the unscrupulous politicians and power-brokers, leaving the targeted groups high and dry, and that several of the promised schemes never take off at all. Given this context, such grandiose announcements made ahead of the impending elections, as now, are bound to be seen as no more than gimmicks or sops.

If the primary purpose of Mr. Vajpayee's visit was to boost the sagging morale of the armed forces that remain mobilised along the LoC and the international border in Jammu and Kashmir for over five months now, it must be said to have been served by and large, what with the Prime Minister indulging in a binge of war rhetoric at Kupwara where he talked of a "decisive battle" ahead, a "new chapter of victory and triumph" waiting to be written and of "teaching a lesson" to the perpetrators of proxy war.

Where Mr. Vajpayee has strikingly failed to send positive signals, during his visit, is in critical areas of more immediate concern, and they have to do with political initiatives to end the longstanding alienation of the people. Far from coming up with a political roadmap, so to say, indicating how the Centre proposes to go about cracking the core issues of the Kashmir conundrum, the Prime Minister did no more than stating rather blandly that his Government's doors are always open for "talks" and reiterating his "resolve" to ensure a free and fair election this time. As far as the poll exercise is concerned, apart from ensuring its smooth conduct, there is the question of enlisting the participation of Kashmiri nationalist groups that have hitherto chosen to remain outside the pale of the democratic process but now, in the changed global context and due to compulsions from within, at least several of them are known to be inclined to join the mainstream. The concerns of these elements, brought into sharp focus by the brutal murder of Abdul Gani Lone, a `moderate' Hurriyat leader, were left unimaginatively unaddressed by the Prime Minister.

In fact, Mr. Vajpayee's responses to the media's queries on vital political issues carried no suggestion of any new initiative by the Government rendering unclear whether the Government's inclination was for the largely unfocussed and conceptually-flawed `K.C. Pant mission' or a restoration of autonomy to the State. While the `Pant initiative' ended up, not surprisingly, as a glorified `grievances cell', the `autonomy' issue, which is a matter of solemn constitutional commitment, is being treated rather lightly, with the Prime Minister tossing the ball into the court of the State Chief Minister, Farooq Abdullah. For its part, the Centre has been calculatedly vague and prevaricating on the issue for reasons that have much to do with the BJP's ideological plank of abrogating Article 370. Dr. Abdullah's own blatant opportunism as reflected in his non-seriousness in pursuing the `autonomy' objective has eminently suited its purpose. It must be realised that there can be no real solution in the absence of a devolution package that recognises the ground realities and is also consistent with the special provisions under Article 370.

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