People's Democracy

NOW that the Jammu & Kashmir assembly elections are approaching fast, the nation is waiting to see, with bated breath, what its outcome would be. This is a reflection of the alarm over the threats to our nation’s unity and integrity, which the GoI’s post-1998 Kashmir policy has created.

The situation in the state seems to have taken a U-turn in the last 55 years, and has particularly worsened during the last 4 years. Recalling a bit of history would not be out of place here. When a plebiscite was held in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) in 1947, under the Mountbatten award, the province opted to join Pakistan. The Congress was defeated there despite the influence of a towering personality like Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (Frontier Gandhi), even though the NWFP people had never been enamoured of the Muslim League. The reason was simple. While voting in the plebiscite, the people took into consideration weighty issues like geographical situation, cultural affinities, and the like.

At about the same time, however, the people of the princely state of Kashmir were agitating for accession to the secular Indian Union. They fought with arms the Pak-sent raiders, even before the Indian army reached the state. They also forced the Maharaja to join India, foiling his game of remaining independent. This was a game in which the Maharaja was being fully assisted by Praja Parishad, the name under which the RSS was functioning in the princely state. It was thus that the J&K people threw overboard the Muslim League’s erroneous two-nation theory. This role of the J&K people was duly acknowledged by the Constituent Assembly by including article 370 in the Indian constitution.

This was soon after the rest of north India had seen a communal holocaust and communal passions were still running high. The struggle of the J&K people for secularism stood in sharp contrast to the hell let loose in other parts of India during 1946-47. In fact, the decision of the J&K people went a long way in subsiding the passions that had gripped a large chunk of the people. The jubilation the secular forces felt at that time is something which only the citizens of those generations can adequately describe.

COMMUNAL DEMAND RESURRECTED

But if the Muslim League defined the two-nation theory on the basis of religion, now the RSS and its outfits are doing the same thing. The RSS has given up all pretence and officially demanded trifurcation of the state along communal lines. Nay, months before its Kurukshetra resolution, it floated a new outfit in J&K to press for the same demand.

And true to the fascistic style of RSS functioning, its outfits are speaking in many voices at one and the same time. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) has, for instance, demanded that "five Hindu-dominated districts of Jammu should be made a separate state, a union territory be carved out of areas north east of the Jhelum river in the Kashmir valley for settling Hindus there and Ladakh be given the status of a union territory" (Frontline, August 3-16). Coupled with the rest of the valley, the demand amounts to the state’s tetrafurcation.

The wording itself shows how the demand is a communally motivated one. But there is nothing surprising in it. We do not go into how V D Savarkar, an idol for the RSS, was the original author of the two-nation theory, which the League adopted 15 years later. Yet the fact is the RSS-led outfits have been demanding a division of the state into two, three, four or even five parts right since the birth of Jan Sangh, the BJP’s earlier incarnation.

In sum, according to Frontline, "The Hindu Right seems to have taken on the task of preparing India for this debacle-to-come: a cutting apart of Jammu and Kashmir along Hindu-Muslim lines."

Here it would be redundant to go into the details of who is how much responsible for creating the present situation in the state; that has been dealt with in these columns several times. But one thing is certain. It was the Deve Gowda government that showed courage to hold the assembly elections in 1996 in a state where no election had taken place after November 1989. This had generated a lot of hope among the people and it was reflected in their participation in the polls, despite the threats doled out by terrorists. Unfortunately the United Front government did not last long to pursue its initiative.

But the whole orientation changed since the BJP assumed office at the centre. Not to talk of other things, the centre did not even make adequate security arrangements and took no political initiative even though it was knowing that the extant assembly’s life was to end soon and fresh elections would have to be held. If anything, its stand on autonomy only complicated the matter. And the RSS and its outfits further confounded the confusion with their divisive demands.

It is in the background of the centre’s monumental failure to evolve a negotiated political, democratic solution to Kashmir problem, and the state government’s striking failure to address the day-to-day issues of the people and initiate developmental works, that the J&K elections are going to take place. It is true that the central and state governments cannot make any policy announcements or initiate developmental works right now, as that would be a violation of the model code of conduct. But yet there are one hundred and one ways of convincing the people about the centre’s sincerity in the matter. However, the centre is lacking even on this score.

Not to talk of other things, take the question of security itself. While the people are willing to take part in the polls as they feel an elected regime in Srinagar would be far better than anarchy, the thing is: how many of them would dare to come out on the polling day? The Pak-backed terrorists have already indicated their thinking by murdering Abdul Ghani Lone and killing 9 Amarnath pilgrims besides injuring many. On the other hand, as Frontline reports, "VHP vice president Ashok Singhal… has repeatedly threatened collective reprisals against Muslims for terrorist crimes against Hindus in the state." All this can only add to the glee of the terrorist outfits. In sum, the RSS and its outfits are only playing in the hands of Pakistan.

The question of security therefore assumes paramount importance today, so as to ensure maximum possible participation of the people in the polling as well as in the preceding political campaign.

But this is not all. Several times we said that while the people of Kashmir are fed up with militancy that has ruined their whole life in the last 15 years, their past experiences prevent them from reposing their faith in the centre. Hence the need to initiate a political process aimed at overcoming the people’s sense of alienation and winning them over. This also requires sincere efforts to put the state’s economy back on the rails.

But a more important requirement here is that the state must be restored, to the maximum possible extent, the autonomy that has been eroded in the last half a century. The BJP-led government has summarily rejected the state assembly’s resolution on autonomy without even discussing it with the state government or political parties, even though the resolution enjoyed a wide consensus in the country. But still it would be better for the BJP to realise that no government at the centre can bypass the issue of the state’s autonomy, though its extent can certainly be discussed.

Right now, the people’s desire about participation in the poll process is so strong that even the All Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC), an open but heterogeneous conglomerate of the extremist organisations of various hues, is feeling the pressure of public opinion in the state. Today, an intense discussion is going on within the APHC. While some of its constituents are in favour of participating in the coming polls, some are against it though they want to have a dialogue with the centre after the polls are over. According to indications, the most widely held opinion within the APHC is that even if its constituents do not take part in the elections, they must not issue any boycott call and persuade the extremists not to issue any threats. All this has unnerved Pakistan and the secessionist elements who will do whatever they can to disrupt the political process.

It is here that the Frontline’s contention assumes importance. The journal says many of the APHC centrists are "unwilling to participate in elections without cast-iron guarantees that the centre would then engage in final status negotiations." The report says that short of secession, only autonomy can be the issue that may be negotiated and a final settlement reached.

But the Vajpayee government is not willing to give to the Kashmiri people any categorical assurance of the sort. The BJP said Arun Jaitley, the centre’s interlocutor, would discuss not autonomy but only devolution. (What that means is left unspecified.) This will certainly not be helpful in ensuring the participation of as many groups as possible in the poll process and the subsequent dialogue, which Vajpayee has himself promised.

One has also to note here that both India and Pakistan are nuclear powers today and the world peoples are afraid that the subcontinent may any day witness a nuclear conflagration, to the detriment of the whole world. That is why the whole international public opinion is today concentrated on the J&K assembly polls and its outcome. Therefore any untoward turn to the poll process would not only shatter the hopes of the peace-loving people all over the world but also give a chance to Pakistan and, still more ominously, to US-led world imperialism to intensify their interference in the Kashmir issue. We have already dwelt in detail on the US design for an independent Kashmir and need not repeat it here. We would only reiterate that if any such unpalatable situation arises (and this is a strong possibility in view of the de facto internationalisation of the Kashmir issue, thanks to the myopic, communal and pro-US stance of the BJP), our national unity and integrity will be greatly jeopardised. For that, the BJP, and in fact the whole RSS-led brigade, will be held squarely responsible.

But the patriotic forces too cannot afford to remain complacent. They have to realise that it is no ordinary election, no simple question of power. No less than our very existence as a civilised secular, democratic nation is at stake here. These forces have to intervene with full force to see that neither the communal outfits nor Pakistan, nor imperialists succeed in their game.