Aadab,
Just some days after assuming office as India’s HomeMinister your visit to Kashmir is an indication that you are concerned aboutthe Kashmir issue, and the issues of Kashmir. Whatsoever you might have beenbriefed by the state administration, including various agencies, may not comein public domain, but having risen from grassroots level, after seeing much upsand downs, to become the Home Minister of the world’s largest democracy, it iseasily understandable that your good self knows much about Kashmir. Not onlyyou but Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi have been very honest in revealingthat J&K dispute has come into existence because of wrong policies of Mr.Jawahar Lal Nehru and his colleagues. Even Prime Minister has gone to theextent to say that had Sardar Patel been India’s first Prime Minister, J&Kproblem would not have been there. Most of the Kashmiris, political analysts,and historians are in agreement with what you or Mr. Modi have been accusingCongress leadership of viz-a-viz Kashmir dispute. However, current BJPleadership prefers to forget the fact that whatever Nehru Ji did is part of thehistory. Good and civilized nations always respect the international andbi-lateral agreements. Whatsoever commitments and promises Mr. Nehru has madewith people of J&K, successive governments are duty bound to fulfil andrespect them. As long as Nehru Ji’s name exists in the list of Indian PrimeMinisters, people of J&K have every right to seek fulfilling of the promisesmade with them. There is no short cut resolution to J&K dispute, however,if current regime can find some way out to wipe out Nehru Ji’s name from thelist of Prime Ministers, Kashmiris will automatically stop talking about theissue.
Anyway your visit to Kashmir has raised the hope thatCentral Government will review and revisit its military and muscular approachon Kashmir and deal with the situation by having political approach. Sir, onemay agree or disagree with your politics but the fact is that despite all itsefforts and using all agencies against you, Congress party could not muzzleyour voice and you proved your worth by emerging as a strong voice not onlywithin BJP; your opponents see you as a man of strong will, having patience tolisten to your opponents and turn the public opinion towards your side. You canbetter understand that if your voice or that of Narendra Modi could not besuppressed how your muscular policies can make Kashmiris calm down andsurrender. Before praising Sardar Patel you should not forget that as India’sfirst Home Minister he is known for persuading princely states to join theIndian Union, as such his role in the instrument of accession between HariSingh and New Delhi cannot be taken for-granted. Sir, isn’t it a reality thatsuccessive governments disrespected the terms and conditions of instrument ofaccession executed under the leadership of Mr. Patel. By snatchingconstitutional guarantees and eroding J&K’s special status, successiveGovernments including yours are disrespecting Mr. Patel. Please understand thatsilence of graveyard will never help, and every effort aimed at bringing peacewithout addressing the aspirations of masses will never succeed. How strangethat talks offer made by Huriyat leaders is being projected as their weakness,without realizing that how difficult it is for Huriyat leaders to justify theiroffer of talks to their own cadres. Lack of genuine political initiative, andchocking of political space has already created a huge vacuum on the ground andthose who are just counting number of militants being killed every day may beprofessionally correct but are keeping the entire country in dark; eliminatingmilitants and eliminating militancy are two different things. Let us be honestto understand that killing militants acts like fuel for militancy. It is goodto wage a war against corruption, nepotism and bad governance but ignoring thereal dimensions of the issue will take us nowhere. Sir, please understand thecompulsions of Hurriyat leadership. There are growing voices on ground who havestarted accusing Hurriyat leadership of preparing for a sell out and if theiroffers are projected as their weaknesses, it will become more difficult forthem to come forward for the talks. Let us not forget that Huriyat is thecreation of sentiment, and the sentiment is not their creation. Creatingdistrust and pitching Kashmiris against each other will mean anarchy. Let usunderstand that not only Kashmiris but entire subcontinent is suffering becauseof Kashmir problem, and if your good-self and Mr. Modi will rise to theoccasion and show statesmanship people of the subcontinent and the entire worldwill acknowledge your wisdom; this for a prosperous tomorrow for all.
Yours sincerely
AIP President