The talks have begun
Quiet talks between the Kashmiri separatists and centre have started. It is a long and bumpy road ahead.
The process has started. Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has ordered the release of separatist Kashmiri leader Shabbir Shah. This confidence building measure is in keeping with the Union Home Minister’s plan of “quiet dialogue” and “quiet diplomacy” while holding talks with Kashmiri separatists in a discreet manner.
The list of confidence building measures demanded by Mir Waiz is the usual mix of polemical and orotund, designed to keep the allegations of capitulation from the rival Geelani faction at bay.
India should completely demilitarize the cities, towns and villages of Kashmir, Disturbed area act and other draconian laws should be repealed, International humanitarian organizations should be allowed to visit Kashmir, Human rights violations should be stopped immediately, political prisoners should be released, cross LoC trade and interaction should be allowed as confidence building measures before dialogue is initiated.[Xinhua]
No one should be fooled in to taking these demands seriously because the quite talks between the centre’s emissary and the separatist leaders have already started. It is also clear that the Indian government is keeping the pro-Pakistan Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani out of the ambit of these talks. It has been rumoured in some circles that the US state department has pushed forward Mir Waiz as the Kashmiri leader with whom India should settle the Kashmiri problem. And the recent events wherein Mir Waiz seems to be at the centre of these talks certainly lend some credence to these rumours.
However, Mir Waiz still wants to be seen as engaging Geelani, and bring him to the table for these talks. This is mere public posturing by Mir Waiz because for one, Geelani will never accept the leadership of Mir Waiz, and secondly, he is unlikely to change his long-stated “Kashmir is part of Pakistan” stance now. Mir Waiz is going to find it equally difficult to convince Yasin Malik, Shabbir Shah, Abdul Gani Bhat and Bilal Gani Lone to even accept him as the “first among equals” in the separatist leadership during these talks.
Meanwhile, Geelani has assiduously refused to comment on the peace dialogue between the separatists and the centre. This raises suspicions about his next move because the support from the Jamaitis provides him with a substantial base in certain pockets of the Valley. If the centre succeeds in its strategy of marginalising Geelani, then it would have won half the battle in its quest for normalcy in Kashmir.
It has to be conceded that the timing could not have been more favourable for these talks between the centre and the separatists. Violence in the state has come down, Pakistan is preoccupied in fighting its own internal battles, the political opposition at the centre is in a state of complete disarray to meaningfully oppose any of the UPA government’s proposals, and the international community (bar China) would favour a negotiated settlement of the dispute to dispel the Pakistani bogey of Kashmiri dispute distracting it from taking on the “good” jehadis in that country. It is now a test of political will of the Indian government and the willingness of the separatist leadership to seek a peaceful solution to the Kashmiri problem. The road ahead will not be easy, but a start has been made nevertheless.
Finally, Prem Shankar Jha has been again proved wrong — as always on most issues — in his reading of Indian government’s treatment of the Mir Waiz.
Nobody is going to get anything more. Don’t see what there is to talk about. Except say residual minor issues like grave credits, if the party is over ? Pakistan is lobbying hard with the CWGC to mark ie rightly partition the WW I and WW II subcontinental war dead as ‘Indian’ or ‘Pakistani’ despite odd ‘ticklish’ questions on NOK and district of birth etc. So all the separatists can now argue over is whether Kashmiri’s 2m under are theirs or ours despite 2 gaz being occupied collaterally. Cursed be he who moves their bones ?
[...] and stealthily, the Indian government is steadily moving forward on Kashmir. Close on the heels of reports of a quiet dialogue with the separatists and push on developmental projects in the state by the government comes another interesting report [...]
What exactly the Kashmiris( not the Punchis and the Jammuiats and the Ladakhis and a host of other people who are not on the Govt radar) want freedom from??? They want freedom from democracy from secularism from pluraltity in social domain so they can roast alive or drive away the balance of terrified Hindus so that after all this cleansing they can join the Darul Islam , their dreamland in the West. They want from the Indian state what they do not wish to give to their own minorities in the state. How foolish and naive can they get?? Even God will not forgive them. They are sowing what they have reaped. They want right to self determination, a modern concept based on the concept of a state of twentieth century political thought but after that they want to travel back to dark ages. They can not even convince a mentally retarded child of their cause. All communities have to collectivley pay for their ‘Karama’. Kashmiris are doing exactly that and they have a huge credit of sins in their account.
Sorry!! They are reaping what they sowed.
Their dreamland to the west with which Geelani is in love; many would agree that now calling it ‘nightmereland’ would be more appropriate.