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A defining moment for Kashmir

By Malini Parthasarathy

It is unlikely that the Kashmiris whose historical imagination remains fixated on the dream of independence can be wooed back with anything less than a dramatic paradigm shift towards autonomy of a radical kind.

IF THE credit for what has been widely acknowledged as a free and fair election in Jammu and Kashmir should go primarily to the dogged efforts of the Chief Election Commissioner, J.M. Lyngdoh, to ensure the transparency and the security of the electoral process, thus producing a result that is credible as it is promising, the real heartwarmer was the fact that large numbers of Kashmiris voted, thereby signalling their willingness to renew their faith in the Indian democratic system. The defeat of the National Conference, a partner in the NDA coalition ruling at Delhi, the strong electoral showing of the Congress party and the emergence of the People's Democratic Party have yielded space for a fresh set of political interlocutors who can now commit themselves to work for a genuine resolution of Kashmir's identity crisis. With the international community, particularly the United States showing no hesitation in pronouncing the J&K elections as "credible" and "free and fair", it is for the Indian Union to seize the moment and utilise the political space that is clearly opening up for fresh initiatives from New Delhi to reach out to the embittered and weary Kashmiris.

But it must be recognised that the holding of the elections to the State Assembly cannot be seen as an end in itself and the Vajpayee administration would do well to eschew the temptation of indulging in triumphalist rhetoric and using this as another opportunity to gloat over the contrast with a more beleaguered Pakistan. More than anything, the Kashmiri electorate appears to have not only sidelined the National Conference but also has pointedly snubbed the BJP which has won only one new seat, losing all the eight it had won earlier in the 1996 Assembly elections. It is clear that the Hindutva majoritarian project which is in essence the BJP's primary political platform, despite its protestations to the contrary, and which the NC had inexplicably allowed itself to be associated with when it joined the NDA coalition, has been resoundingly rejected in all the regions of J&K. The RSS's hard-sell of the trifurcation proposal has evidently not found favour even with the non-Muslim minorities in the State. The fact that the Kashmiris did determinedly vote in this election, braving a hail of jehadi bullets and bombs, also testifies to their eagerness for a political solution which can no longer be deferred.

The Congress party which appears most likely to lead the new Government in Srinagar will have to live up to the expectations implied in the votes that were cast in these elections. The onus is now on the new leaders in Srinagar to devise fresh political strategies to address the persisting sense of the alienation of the Kashmiri people. The Congress party has had a long if complex historical association with the Kashmir problem given the troubled dynamics of the relationship that existed between the Nehru family leaders and the Abdullahs, which often erupted into full-scale conflict and bitterness between the two, leading to the Congress party's own loss of credibility as an interlocutor. Therefore it has now to regain the political confidence that it has lost. Complicating its task is the political reality that these election results are more a reflection of the unpopularity of the NC rather than the appeal of any other party.

If the Congress is to make the most of this new and historic opportunity and is serious about leading the secular and pluralist forces in this country in a principled resistance to the Hindutva majoritarian project, Kashmir is a test-case of the sincerity of its intentions and of the maturity of its political approach. It is true that under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi, the Congress has been making a spirited attempt to regain its moral authority in terms of reclaiming the high ground of India's strong secular and pluralist traditions. Shedding much of its earlier ambivalence, the Congress party has recently shown itself willing to assertively stand up for the minorities, for the idea of a nation-state based on the equality of all communities, as in its political response in Gujarat where it has shown itself ready to do battle with the confrontationist and destructive policies of Narendra Modi.

But there is no evidence as yet that the Congress party and its leader are willing to go further and break fresh political ground in their attempt to offer a credible and appealing alternative to the BJP-led NDA. Merely swearing allegiance to secularism and piously repeating slogans of yesteryears would not really help in rebuilding the Congress party's image as a party that means business. There is still a strong impression that the party's political approach remains timorous and lacks creativity when it comes to figuring out new responses to old problems such as Kashmir or relations with Pakistan. The Congress party has appeared to prefer to adhere to the time-worn and traditional formulations adopted on these issues. Even during the election campaign in Jammu and Kashmir, while Ms. Gandhi did promise an "unconditional" dialogue with the Kashmir people, she seemed to carefully stop short of spelling out her party's stand on the issue of the historically-mandated right of the Kashmiris to more autonomy than in other Indian States.

The Congress party is in fact well placed to pick up the dialogue process on autonomy, given that it was a Congress Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, who more than three decades ago put her signature on an agreement with Sheikh Abdullah, reaffirming the State's right to autonomy and vesting in it, the residuary powers of legislation. The 1975 pact, an updated version of the original 1952 agreement between Jawaharlal Nehru and Sheikh Abdullah, contained the core of an approach that remains as valid today. If some of the features of these accords have become obsolete or rendered irrelevant by the passage of time, it remains that the Kashmiris feel betrayed that the historical commitment of the Indian nation to the Kashmiri people that their accession to the Union would always be contingent on the condition that the State would retain control of most of its own affairs, except for defence, foreign affairs and communications, has been repudiated.

Thus given that the Kashmiris, much like the Sri Lankan Tamils, have internalised in their imagination the idea that their aspirations have been cold-shouldered and that they have been repeatedly betrayed with unkept promises and brute repression, it would be foolhardy and reckless to presume that if the situation is left alone to "cool down", their sense of alienation will disappear. By all accounts, the strong sense of anguish in the Kashmir Valley that thousands of young lives have been sacrificed for the cause of "azadi" cannot be so easily diluted by suggestions that once the spectre of jehadi terrorism is banished, normalcy will return. There have been glib and misleading suggestions that the political aspirations of the Kashmiris can be managed without having "to give away too much". These assertions apparently bank upon winning the diplomatic support of the U.S. and the international community, and are premised on the calculation that a Valley flooded with a barrage of economic incentives from New Delhi would be more eager for integration with the Union. But it is unlikely that the Kashmiris whose historical imagination remains fixated on the dream of independence can be wooed back with anything less than a dramatic paradigm shift towards autonomy of a radical kind. Even if the new leadership in Srinagar is reluctant to pick up the old texts of 1952 or 1975, it will have to make the conceptual acknowledgment that there is a historical and Constitutionally-mandated commitment on the part of the Indian Union to the people of J&K to restore to them the autonomy that was promised to them when they acceded to India.

In a larger sense, the moment cannot be more in India's favour than it is now as it proceeds to address the one issue that has so severely tested India's political energies and diplomatic skills. All the indications are that the international community has welcomed these elections as the start of a political process that will help keep the Kashmiris within India's democratic framework. The Hurriyat has been told bluntly that the international community will not support the idea of an independent Kashmir and more importantly, Pakistan has been politely told by the U.S. that it is not a good idea to sound contentious on the election process in J&K. It is now for India to strengthen the moral authority of its rule in Kashmir by honouring its promises to its people. It would also have to embark on a creative engagement of Pakistan which will in the long run help to succeed in dissipating the challenge to India's sovereignty over Kashmir.

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