People's Democracy

THAT a perilous situation our national unity and territorial integrity are facing today, is evident from the fact that not one but three forces are now conspiring about Kashmir, that is, one of the most important symbols of our national unity. These are --- the US imperialists, the rulers of Pakistan and, believe it or not, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), who all are trying to kill the Kashmiri people’s identity and aspirations. Nay, each of these forces is --- in one way or another, deliberately or inadvertently --- reinforcing the others’ designs.

In fact, it is this very ominous combination whose sinister designs the secular, democratic and patriotic people of our country have to guard against. And more so in the next few months when the J&K assembly elections are scheduled to take place.

As for the role Pakistan is playing in regard to Kashmir, that is perfectly understandable. It is known that since its very inception, that country had been claiming Kashmir on the basis of the two-nation theory, and soon after independence it sent armed raiders into the valley to capture the princely state by force. The rest is history. But yet one cannot ignore the fact that just like his predecessors, General Musharraf too has not given up the discredited claim; if anything, he is pursuing it with a vengeance.

Here one may well recall the general’s address to the people of that country on January 12. The address, as said in these columns then, contained several significant announcements. One was that no organisation would be allowed to conduct terrorist activities from the Pakistani soil or collect funds in Pakistan for such activities. Another significant announcement was that Pakistan does not recognise as jehad the depredations being perpetrated by terrorists in Kashmir. The general also said he sympathised with the Kashmiri people’s "war of liberation" (sic!) but his support to it was only moral. This meant that his regime would not be giving any material support or arms training to the terrorists active in the state. The general also announced a ban on five terrorist outfits operating from Pakistan, in addition to the two banned earlier.

No doubt these were significant announcements and, if put into practice honestly, could have gone a long way in easing the situation in South Asia. This was why the world community welcomed them, more so because today the subcontinent is perhaps the hottest spot of global politics. But this is precisely what did not take place. It soon became evident that Musharraf had made the announcements only to stave off the pressure of world public opinion for waging a fight against terrorism. If only he had been sincere about what he had then promised, the situation in the subcontinent would have definitely taken a turn for the better.

In short, all the hopes the world peoples, including the people of Pakistan, had entertained at that time stand belied.

Nor is there much hope in the near future at least. After the directive given by Pakistan Supreme Court, the general is taking some steps to restore democracy there. But, just like his military predecessors, viz Ayub Khan, Yahya Khan and Ziaul-Haque, he is not willing to relinquish power and has the same fantastic notion of democracy that his predecessors called "true democracy" or "guided democracy." Hence his attempt to amend the constitution to ensure for the army a place in the governance. Hence the move to impose educational and other ‘qualifications’ for contesting elections that would deprive lakhs of citizens of their democratic right to contest. And hence the move to stipulate that nobody would be able to contest more than twice for the provincial or national assemblies. Such moves are intended to establish at the most a truncated democracy in the country.

But this also means that the army and the notorious ISI, that have a vested interest in keeping the Kashmir cauldron boiling, will continue to have a powerful say in the country’s governance, and the elected government will perhaps be in no position to tame them.

At the same time, even though political parties of Pakistan are raising faint voices for democracy, they have not indicated whether they have learnt any lesson from their past follies. The PPP and Muslim League always tried to enlist the army-ISI support in their moves against one another. And this is what gave these institutions immense power to dictate terms to elected governments, instead of working under the people’s elected representatives in the executive. Moreover, these parties tried to incite passions in the name of Kashmir in order to beat one another. And now Musharraf is trying to use the same stick to beat those who are hankering for democracy.

One thing is certain. The stand that Musharraf always took and is still taking on Kashmir is fundamentally flawed. His term for a dialogue with India is that Kashmir should be taken up first for resolution. Which means it is not likely to be solved. Apparently, he is not in favour of taking up less contentious issues first, resolve them, thereby build an atmosphere of mutual confidence, and then go on to knottier issues. This is how, for instance, Indonesia and Malaysia solved their differences. Musharraf’s undeclared support to terrorist outfits is also continuing unabated. It is thus clear that till there is no genuine democracy in Pakistan, there is little hope of a thaw in Indo-Pak ties.

Musharraf’s game is bolstered by the game US imperialists are playing in regard to Kashmir. As is known, the US has since long been eyeing Kashmir that has an important place in its geo-political strategy because of its location in the centre of the Old World. There was a time when Pakistan was a member of the SEATO, a US-sponsored military bloc that was dissolved later, when the US was contemplating to build a base in Gilgit in the Pak-occupied Kashmir.

No doubt that US plan failed to materialise, mainly because of China’s opposition, but the US has not given up its game of making Kashmir independent, if it can. Not to talk of the past US attempts to intervene in the region, the statements emanating from the US ruling circles in the past few months also make the US duplicity clear. Even when the US leaders made some statements to placate India, they made their pro-Pakistan tilt clear beyond doubt.

The cat was out of the Americans’ bag when the former US president Bill Clinton said he would take "personal interest" in the issue. US thinktanks have been drawing plans to make Kashmir independent, presumably to have a puppet government there. And all this is going on while the US has been consoling India that it is not interested in intervening in Kashmir that is a bilateral Indo-Pak issue.

It is in this situation that, inadvertently if not deliberately, the RSS and its outfits are playing in the hands of US imperialists and of Pakistan’s military rulers.

There is nothing surprising in the RSS stand on Kashmir. Before independence, the RSS was active in the princely state in the garb of Praja Parishad and fully backed the Maharaja’s attempts to crush the people’s genuine aspirations. The Parishad also tried to physically liquidate the leaders of Kashmir people who were struggling for the state’s merger with India. When the Maharaja was trying not to merge with India and remain independent under the Mountbatten plan, he received full support from the Praja Parishad. And it is this very anti-national RSS that never tires of moralising others about patriotism!

The RSS antipathy to Kashmiri identity and culture is also no secret. It was the Kashmiriyat of the state’s predominantly Muslim masses that made them take up guns in their hands to fight the Pak-sponsored raiders and also force the Maharaja to accede to the Indian Union. These people, proud to the core of their composite culture, did realise that their future lay with a secular India and not with a theocratic Pakistan. This way they gave a big rebuff to the Muslim League’s two-nation theory whose central but flawed point was that religion is the defining factor of nationality and therefore Hindus and Muslims are two separate nations. It is another thing that this theory was no original contribution of the League. It was in fact borrowed from V D Savarkar, an idol of the saffron brigade, who had propounded it in 1925 --- 15 years before the League demanded Pakistan on the basis of this discredited theory.

And now it is the same discredited theory the RSS is truing to revive. In a recent resolution, the RSS has demanded trifurcation of Jammu & Kashmir along communal lines. Though the union home minister cum deputy prime minister, L K Advani, reportedly snubbed the RSS for making this demand, the point to ponder is whether any RSS cadre is really so high as to snub its leadership. The meaning is clear: Advani’s rejection of trifurcation demand is for public consumption, and an instance of the worn-out blow hot, blow cold tactic of the RSS-led brigade.

The RSS is also dead against restoring to the state the autonomy that it once enjoyed as per article 370 of the Indian constitution. As much has been already said on this score, we must not dwell on it any more. Suffice it to say that without restoring maximum possible autonomy to the state and without guarding the distinct identity and culture of the Kashmiri people, we cannot overcome their sense of alienation, nor can we foil the US-Pak game regarding the state.

And now comes a statement from M G Vaidya, an RSS leader, that the RSS will contest the coming J&K assembly elections! This has a catch. After the RSS was banned in the wake of Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination, the ban was lifted only after its leaders gave a written undertaking to Sardar Patel, the then home minister cum deputy prime minister. They said they would work only as a cultural organisation and never take part in politics. However, though the RSS has so far followed the letter of this undertaking, it has always violated its spirit. It floated the Jan Sangh and then its present-day incarnation, the BJP. Thus, though the RSS cannot take part in elections in its own name, Vaidya’s statement cannot be lightly dismissed. It does indicate that the RSS is going to throw its full weight behind the BJP.

This is an ominous sign as any attempt to give the coming assembly elections a communal colour will compound the problem manifold. Courtesy the BJP-led government at the centre, undoubtedly the issue of Kashmir has been internationalised and the danger of the state’s separation from India has grown. Now, if unchecked by the democratic and secular forces, the RSS drive about Kashmir may take the country to a stage where we would be playing in the hands of US and Pakistani rulers. A lenient attitude to the RSS drive will only jeopardise our national unity and maybe our territorial integrity.