The problem of Jammu and Kashmir is a long pending issue, which needs to be resolved with immediateness and seriousness. The solution to the problem depends largely upon the healthy relations between India and Pakistan.

There are three parties to the conflict Jammu and Kashmir, India and Pakistan. The state of Jammu and Kashmir is the internal party to the problem while India and Pakistan are external to it. The notion that there are three parties to the conflict has a direct and logical link with the position of the state in 1947. The Jammu and Kashmir state is that unfinished job of the partition, which so far neither India nor Pakistan could manage to finish. This unfinished job of the Britishers became so difficult for the leaders of India and Pakistan that they preferred to fight three major wars in 1947-48, 1965 and in 1999 on the issue of Jammu and Kashmir rather to sit on a common table to resolve the issue. Even if on few occasions they sat on common table, the attitude of the leaders or negotiators who shared the table was stiff and rigid that consequently resulted in blaming the other side for the failure of the consensus. The fact is neither India nor Pakistan was and is serious enough to resolve the issue of Jammu and Kashmir and end the bloodshed of the people who in reality belong to none of them. India wants Kashmir, Pakistan wants Kashmir, but a common Kashmiri wants the problem to end, the bloodshed to end, the suffering of the people to end. People here are been killed, tortured and there is no value of human dignity. The Indian establishment has made the state a militaristic one - where schools, hospitals, orchards, government buildings, shops are used as barracks by army and other paramilitary forces. The people are living in a Hobbesian state of nature in which they have fear of not a simple but a violent death. There is no place for human dignity and human rights. Paramilitary personnel who might have not attended a single day of school use his sticks to beat a person who may be a student, a teacher, a doctor or even a professor. This indicates the level of dehumanization of the people in the state. When people start to protest to express their anger against the atrocities, they are dealt with bullets. In the mainland like Delhi and other states of India, rights are fundamental and people cry like hell if state dares to infringe on anyone of those, but in the margins like Kashmir protesters are targeted to death. On the other hand, Pakistan keeps changing its stand on the state in general and on the valley in particular. One day they label fighters as terrorists while on the other day they call them freedom fighters which makes the issue more complex. The sate opinion about the resolution of the issue is also divided into two campus- the mainstream or pro India political parties like National Conference, People’ Democratic Party, Indian National Congress, Bhartia Janta party etc. National Conference believes that the problem can be resolved if the state is given maximum autonomy while PDP’s modus operandi for the resolution of the problem lies in self-rule. The BJP’s solution to the problem lies in the abrogation of the article 370 of the Indian Constitution. The other camp is branded as separatists precisely because they want the resolution of the problem through the institution of self-determination. Even the so-called separatists camp is further divided into various sub-camps. Therefore, such a variety of opinions and parties within the parties and also the attitude and inefficiency of India and Pakistan have made the problem so complex and vague that most of  us are not in a position to get the idea that what could be the way-out to come out from this whole mess and mire.

The dirty game of politics that India and Pakistan have been playing since the partition of the country to get the Kashmir as its reward has proved detrimental to the peace and stability of the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

People die and are been killed, the political parties use these killings to get political mileage. The schools remain closed, the hospitals remain shut, the business is blocked, the economic condition of the people worsens, the laborers remain hungry and the different institutions of society are experience a downfall. To be precise, the state is damaged in every respect. The political parties and different governments follow the methodology of escapism by blaming the circumstances all the time and are doing nothing for the overall development of the state. The political institutions of the state are weak, its political culture is parochial and underdeveloped, and its administration is corrupt which largely works on the norms of bribe, red-tapsim, nepotism and favoritism. After all, who are the real suffers of this historic blunder committed by the Britishers and nourished by India and Pakistan. Why won’t India and Pakistan come out from the parochialism and hidebound attitude to end the bloodshed in the state of Jammu and Kashmir? Who will teach the political establishments of India and Pakistan that the methodology of rationality and sincerity can resolve this serious issue? Why India and Pakistan fail to understand the resolution of Kashmir issue is directly proportionate to their overall development? Why can’t both the countries make fewer compromises for the bigger and long-term gains? If India and Pakistan are really well wishers of the state of Jammu and Kashmir, then they must resolve this long pending issue with seriousness and immediateness. Let the aspirations of the people of state be respected and rewarded and give an ultimate solution to this problem which has cost much more to all the three parties of the dispute.

Let us stop the bloodshed in the state particularly in the valley and save the lives of the youth. Time is ripe to finish this job right now as both India and Pakistan are already back on track to revive their relations which saw a standstill since the Mumbai attack. Why not solve the problem now and put an end to the bloodshed in the valley.

(Khurshid Ahmad Mir  is Research Scholar, International Politics, School of International Politics, JNU. Feedback at khurshidjnu@gmail.com)

Lastupdate on : Wed, 21 Jul 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 21 Jul 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 22 Jul 2010 00:00:00 IST