The cat is finally out of the bag. The New Delhi-appointed interlocutors’ report, “A new compact with the people of Jammu & Kashmir”, has finally been made public. A dispassionate and detailed study of the 176-page report makes it clear that it is a mixed bag of recommendations based on some selective merit, serious contradictions and an exercise which rather than strengthening the state’s composite political and cultural mosaic seeks to exacerbate the ‘existing divisions’. There were expectations in the state that this committee would primarily focus on a political settlement which will be sustainable, and which, in turn, will form the basis for economic revival, social reconstruction, governance improvement, inter-regional harmony and India-Pakistan political engagement that would address the external dimension of the issue. What, in contrast, most of the report seems to have done is reinvent the wheel, duplicating the work of previous such committees – like that of the Prime Ministers’ Working Groups - that have made recommendations related to confidence building in the areas of civil security, economic revival and social reconstruction. The foundation of the political recommendations of this report seems to be hinged on certain assumptions – primarily that improvement in governance and ‘de-centralisation’ of administrative and financial powers to ‘sub-regions, ethnic and sub-ethnic groups’ would result in sustainable peace in the state. The approach of considering political and administrative ‘divisions within divisions’ of geographically-secluded and linguistically and ethnically diverse groups of the state is fraught with serious repercussions for the composite culture of the state. That will never help in durable peace. If the committee’s first judgment in the report that the people in the state want “freedom from all forces of religious extremism, ethnic or regional chauvinism and majoritarian conceits that disturb communal and inter-regional harmony” underpins the larger narrative of the report, it is time for a serious review of the utility of an approach that doesn’t sound objective and sensitive to the needs and political realities of this state.

Lastupdate on : Fri, 25 May 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Fri, 25 May 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sat, 26 May 2012 00:00:00 IST