Kashmir after Poll: Will new Government seek independence?

by Dr. Abdul Ruff

(December 30, New Delhi, Sri Lanka Guardian) Soaked its hands in Kashmiris blood, India still talks about its democracy and secular credentials and trumpets its success in conducting polls in Jammu Kashmir with terror forces posted street by street by keeping the freedom leaders and other activists behind the bars. The nearly two-decade of essentially Kashmir Muslim struggle for independence from occupying India suppressed brutally by terror India and the resultant insurgency in Kashmir has left more than 100,000 innocent Kashmiris, though according to the official count “over” 47,000 people dead. Ever since the Muzaffarabad March several Kashmiri Muslims have been murdered by India. Now the Indian election in JK has already added few more Kashmiri dead bodies to Indian tally Muslim murders.

Too keen to come to power, the pro-India Kashmiris politicians from both NC and PDP are now busing trying to form a pro-India government which cannot be pulled down by Indian agents.. India is exploiting that ambition as an anti-Kashmir instinct common in Kashmiris blood. Pro-India parties wooed the Kashmiri voters by focusing on independence. Abdullah's National Conference party, the biggest in the previous legislature, is currently battling for the right to form the next state government in elections that began last month and ended on Dec. 24.

I

The media of the alleged Indian democracy can interpret anything in any way so as to suit its claims. As Indian media are strengthening Indian arrogance & Hindu misrule, anti-democratic & anti-secular maneuverings, and state terrorism & external manipulations, a deaf & dumb India cannot see what its terror forces and media are doing in Kashmir and India. Fascist India, a so-called secular democracy, the high-caste outfits’ domination autocracy indeed is just the ‘democracy of persecution, terrorism, killings in fake-encounters, rape, humiliation, dehumanization, genocide in Kashmir case. India has least respect for its international crimes or the United Nations guidelines. It does not talk about the truth about Kashmiris, the people of the Internationally Disputed Areas of Jammu and Kashmir under military occupation of India since 15th August.

India wanted to prove a point: Kashmiris are Indians and they live India. Indian focus on the constituencies in Kashmir proper, Srinagar and of those areas where the freedom leaders hail India wants to show to world that people in the areas of freedom leaders love and want to live with India come what may and that the some “separatists” want independence from an innocent India. Now a strategic partner of USA and Israel, India cannot accept any defeat whether in cricket or in international politics. Now the poll was is “won” against the boycott from the freedom leaders, India would now like to show that popular uprising was against independence and from Indian subjugation.

Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) exists thanks to the Muslim issue in India and in Kashmir the plank has come handy for it as it as a policy always looks for opportunity to squeeze the Hindu voters to support the communal agenda of Hindus. Perhaps as a prelude to separation of Jammu form a future independent Kashmir, BJP has taken position in Jammu as the dominant political outfit. Kashmir assembly elections 2008 has made the BJP the chief beneficiary of recent communal flare up in JK by its fascist role played during the Amarnath land agitation in the state blocking movement of essentials from Jammu to Kashmir causing enormous economic problems for Kashmiris amounting to economic terrorism. it is the and it BJP Muslim or Kashmiri domination sis the core theme of BJP which, as speculated, got maximum mileage in the JK poll out of the illegal deal issue for Amarnathji, an NRI Hindu god. BJP draws its support from the urban sentiment of predominantly trading migrant community whose orientation is drawn from Punjab or border districts and who are strongly opposing so-called Kashmiri domination.

The PDP cast itself predominantly as party representing Muslim interest after Amarnath agitation and it has helped it to increase its graph. The PDP’s “Muslim agenda and soft separatism” had appeal in Jammu and various constituencies of rural Kashmir. The PDP, an ally of Congress in the coalition government and parted ways during Amarnath controversy has increased the tally from 16 in 2002 to 21 in 2008. In 2002 despite having 16 seats the PDP succeeded in forming the government with the Congress. Now NC has amazed plenty of seats and is claiming to form a government. It has to be seen whether this time the PDP would succeed in forming the government. In Muslim dominated districts of Jammu, PDP patron Mufti Muhammad Syed and the PDP president Mehbooba Mufti went for extensive campaigning knowing well the areas have potential to increase the tally of the PDP. The party played what is being described as “soft separatism” in Kashmir and espoused “Muslim cause” in Jammu and Kashmir. Mehbooba Mufti attributes loss in Srinagar to the boycott and says it helped the NC in Srinagar.

II

The Indian “win” story is indeed a freedom case, should be viewed like wise only and not as a fairytale romance with New Delhi’s version of calibrated democracy or disillusionment with the Kashmir cause, but symbolic of a strong urge in the souls to find utterance. It is as vivid an expression of determined independence mind as the mammoth rallies of pre-election days, which, it must be remembered, were totally unbidden and spontaneous. People were driven to the polling booths by much the same motives as drove them to the streets in hundreds of thousands in popular uprising; Vote shows the overpowering desire of the freedom & independence to make themselves heard. Seekers-after of power can ignore the popular sentiments of Kashmiris only at their peril.



As the National Conference (NC) prepares to work out an alliance with the Congress in Jammu and Kashmir after emerging as the single largest party in the assembly polls, party patron Farooq Abdullah reiterated on Monday that he will become the next Chief Minister, though the Congress has not yet said who it will support for the post. Abdullah has been Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir thrice before. As the NC managed to retain the 28 seats it won in the 2002 elections, Farooq Abdullah said he was ready to shake hands with the Congress, which managed to get 17 seats, to give the troubled state its second coalition government. The coalition will have 45 seats, one above the halfway mark.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi is scheduled to hold talks with former Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and senior party leader from the state Saifuddin Soz in New Delhi today afternoon. The Congress is unlikely to forge an alliance with the People's Democratic Party (PDP) led by Mufti Muhammad Sayeed, which bagged 21 seats as against the NC's 28. The NC's number of seats and the fact that Ghulam Nabi Azad is a strong advocate for aligning with the NC makes things very clear. The badly shaken Congress plus the PDP does not get to the halfway mark anyway, and any such coalition will need support from independents. There are reports already that the Congress would prefer to support NC president Omar Abdullah rather than his father Farooq for the Chief Minister's post. Although the NC is ready to mark a new chapter in its relationship with the Congress, Farooq Abdullah, who has held the state's reins three times, made it clear that he and not the Congress candidate will be the Chief Minister.

The poll result is likely guide the future Indian strategy in Kashmir. India has hinted, rather sophistically, about vacating Jammu Kashmir in a peaceful manner, making the freedom leaders to skip violence in preference for a peaceful struggle and consider violence as a better weapon to armed struggles. But then India, like Israel, changes its color and tries another terror strategy to rekindle violence so as to brand, once again, the defenseless Kashmiris as “terrorists”. This double-speak from New Delhi cannot fool the world, though the pro-India outfits in JK could be bought with such hypocritical gestures plus some cash.

III

Resolution of Kashmir is where momentum should be building in the post-poll JK. Perhaps, NC patron Farooq Abdullah, slated for the CM’s chair in Srinagar, is keen to complete his unfulfilled task of making Jammu Kashmir free again. New Delhi's reluctance to let Kashmiris define their future – options include independence, a UN trusteeship, comanagement by both India and Pakistan,– butts against recent history demonstrating that "letting go" more than holding on benefits politically divided states. Indian strategists could witness the pacific and beneficial demise of the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, and Serbia/Montenegro.

An Indian war with Pakistan, a major non-NATO ally, would make the NATO involvement imminent and the NATO would land in Indian territories too. India's future rests on maturing & becoming a 21st century economic power house. Hanging on to Kashmir does nothing to promote that goal. Letting Jammu Kashmir go not only will benefit New Delhi's economic ambitions and modernization drive by reducing the heavy military burden bad relations with Pakistan engenders, it also will allow Islamabad to redirect its military resources to the rebuilding of nation with focus on shattered tribal areas and stop killing Muslims to appease the USA US strategist view that a peaceful Pakistan would also benefit Washington's position in Afghanistan.
Many say that Mumbai's tragedy can give momentum to resolving one of the 20th century's most confounding impasses. A fast diplomatic start, not Cold war, would benefit all. India upholds a sort of cold strategy in relations with Pakistan. But emerging scenario should make India rethinks it’s overall posture and decide the priorities accordingly. If India is keen to focus on economy, leaving apart the tensions, then quick solutions are imperative. The major issues merit immediate attention: Kashmir and Babri Mosque.

Now Mumbai gives the strategy renewed stimulus. In pursuance of the ongoing Indo-Pakistan peace process, both would play constructive roles. In recent years, Pakistan and India have sought to relax tensions by promoting confidence-building measures – a bus line and commercial truck service between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad, regular meetings between Indian and Pakistani local commanders, a crisis hot line, dialogue with moderate Kashmiri freedom leaders, and improvement in the region's economic and human rights. These steps have meekly tempered conflict; India should now take serious notice of Kashmiri objection to Indian military rule and approach the soveriegnty issue sincerely and honestly. - Sri Lanka Guardian