ON this Kashmir Solidarity Day, with the people of India-held Kashmir continuing to suffer from the latest bout of violence and repression by the Indian state, some long-standing realities need to be reiterated.
First, India will never be able to bury the Kashmir dispute — not inside IHK and not in its relationship with Pakistan.
To the proud, defiant and infinitely courageous people of IHK, a message of solidarity is important: whatever the rulers and policymakers in the region choose to do or not do, oppressed people everywhere share a common bond — the quest for dignity, basic rights and self-determination are fundamental to human existence. The state of India has long been in denial of core human values in IHK, but its denial cannot go on forever — the rightful and intrinsically just demands of the people of IHK will ultimately prevail.
Second, India’s stubborn refusal to engage with Pakistan on the Kashmir dispute under Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a policy doomed to failure. For parochial, domestic reasons, Mr Modi may be in denial of the centrality of the Kashmir dispute to the normalisation of ties between the two countries, but that cannot undo the legal and moral basis of Pakistan’s demand for a fair and just solution to the Kashmir dispute.
The framework of an eventual settlement is readily available and the initiation of publicly acknowledged or backchannel talks can build on the last pragmatic and sensible approach to conflict resolution: the four-point agenda of the Pervez Musharraf era. While the specifics can change, the four-point agenda was based on the right principles: a phased, progressive, mutually acceptable military de-escalation in the disputed region with a simultaneous, coordinated ramping up of a people-centric governance structure.
If war is not an option — as it can become in a nuclear-armed region — then the honest pursuit of peace is the only alternative.
Third, there are lessons for Pakistan in its thus far faulty strategy of keeping the Kashmir dispute alive internally, inside the country, and externally, on the global stage.
Domestically, the reliance on the religious right and extremist networks to keep the Kashmir dispute front and centre of the national consciousness has been a historical mistake. Mainstream politics based on a mainstream acceptance of human rights and self-determination and rooted in mainstream sections of society is the only sensible approach.
The more the Kashmir dispute is allowed to become the exclusive remit of right-wing and violent groups, the more the inherent justness of the Kashmir cause will be obscured. The external benefits will be clear too if Pakistan can present to the world a rational and peaceful case and if the powerful human dimension of the suffering in IHK is made central to the message of why the Kashmir dispute needs the outside world’s attention.
Kashmir Solidarity Day can be the start of a much-needed diplomatic and strategic rethink.
Published in Dawn February 5th, 2017
