Army
And The Peace
Process In Kashmir
By Ram Puniyani
03 May, 2007
Pluralindia.com
Mufti Mohammad Sayeed of People's
Democratic Party, the party ruling in alliance with Congress in Kashmir,
recently called for demilitarization of the state and withdrawal of
the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (April 2007). This demand was
looked at with great amount of skepticism on the ground that how can
we control the armed militancy in the state without the army presence
and the special act to back that up.
It is noteworthy that since
the last elections when the electoral process was more democratic than
the earlier one's, there is reduction in the overall militant actions
in the state. It is also worth noticing that the atmosphere for dialogue
and the amity within communities is better than before. Surely it is
comparatively more representative character of this government, which
has improved the situation. The question is, is it army, which can end
the militancy, or is it the democratic character of the government and
the keenness for dialogue with the disgruntled elements, which can further
improve the situation. To begin with let's realize that army is trained
to deal with 'enemy armies', enemies only , its functioning is totally
authoritarian and it has its own methods very different from the civic
norms of a democratic society. It is all right that an army is deployed
in some area for a short while, but a prolonged deployment of the army
creates further problems and civilian life suffers a set back which
tantamount to loss of trust in the ruling government, alienation of
people and further boost to the phenomenon which bring in militancy
in the first place.
As such Kashmir has been
in the news most of the times for last few decades but unfortunately
for the wrong reasons. On one hand we have the militancy, military's
heavy handed actions, fake encounters, missing young men, half widows
and streaks of blood on the greens of the valley, on the other there
are efforts to bring in peace through dialogues and still on the other
we have
the gross misrepresentation of the events of Kashmir to communalize
the mass consciousness'. Communal elements have presented it as a Hindu-Muslim
problem and have propagated that events in Kashmir are one more example
of 'Muslim separatism', while the real issue relates to the historical
roots, the regional power equations and the ethnic identity of Kashmir.
The debate on the efforts to bring in amity in the valley needs to be
seen in the historical genesis of the issue and complexities of the
present, the changing tilt of US with the aim to bring peace in the
bullet torn edifice of the society. Also mistakes of the past need to
be shunned if we aspire for the harmony and justice.
With India's independence
the Princely states were given three options, one to merge with India,
two to merge with Pakistan and three to remain independent. While most
of the princely states merged with India or Pakistan, the king of Kashmir,
Hari Singh decided to remain independent on the ground that his 'Hindu'
Kingdom cannot merge with secular India. While the king was Hindu, majority
of populating of Kashmir was Muslim. Pundit Perm Nath Dogra, of Praja
Parishad, the precursor of BJP, Bharatiya Jansangh, endorsed his stand.
Later Hari Singh offered standstill agreement to both India and Pakistan.
As per this some state functions were to be shared with Pakistan and
India. India rejected the offer; Pakistan accepted it and its postal
department started serving Jammu and Kashmir.
When Pakistan army, dressed
as tribal attacked Kashmir, the people of Kashmir did not want to merge
with Pakistan and accordingly the President of National Conference,
Sheikh Abdullah and representative of Maharaja Harisingh went to Delhi
to urge upon the Indian Government to send the army to Kashmir to quell
the Pakistani aggression. As at that time, Kashmir was not part of India,
Indian Government did not accept this request. The negotiations to help
Kashmir resulted in the treaty of accession according to which Kashmir
was to have total autonomy barring in the matters of defense, external
affairs, communication and currency. Kashmir was to have its
own Constitution, with Sadr-e-Riyasat and Prime Minster. It is on these
terms that Indian army went to Kashmir to quell the Pakistani aggression.
Indian army stalled the Pakistani army, but by that time Pakistani army
had occupied nearly one third of Kashmir. The matter was taken to United
Nations, where it was resolved that plebiscite will be held, to ascertain
the wishes of Kashmiri people, after Pakistani and Indian armies withdraw
from Kashmir. Neither of the armies withdrew and no plebiscite took
place.
The elections held in Kashmir
led to the victory of National Conference and Sheikh Abdullah was chosen
the Prime Minister of Kashmir. The major achievement of Sheikh Abdullah
was land reforms without any compensation to the landlords. As such
Kashmir was a society, which stood on the foundation of Sufi Islam,
values of Vedant and Buddhism. These are the ingredients of Kashmiriyat.
After the Kashmiri assembly came to take charge of things, the ultra
nationalists and Hindu communalists in India started the campaign for
abolition of the clauses of autonomy
of Kashmir, demanding its total merger with India. The pressure of this
'forcible integration of Kashmir' led to a discomfort amongst the people
of Kashmir, and Sheikh Abdullah voiced his concern that Indian Government
is going back from its earlier promise. With his statement calling for
respect of treaty of accession, he was dubbed as anti Nationalist and
was put behind the bars. His imprisonment may be amongst one of the
few cases of imprisonment of an elected chief of the state.
His imprisonment was the
first act due to which the process of alienation began in Kashmir. This
alienation was aggravated further by the political parties in power
in Center trying to impose their agenda of power sharing with the National
Conference. The rigging of elections was a regular phenomenon in Kashmir.
With this the alienation of Kashmiri youth turned in to militancy, duly
supported by Pakistan, which in turn was backed by the US. The local
militants were joined in by the one's trained in Pakistan and later
joined by the Al Qaeda elements.
The militancy in Kashmir initially was not based on communal ground
and Kashmiriyat remained the overarching goal. In the decades of 80s
the militancy did assume communal color, targeting the Kashmiri Pundits.
Jag Mohan intensified the problem by encouraging the Pundits to leave
the valley on the plea that every Kashmiri Muslim is a terrorist and
Pundits face the physical threat.
Hanging of Maqbool Butt and
rigging of elections worsened the problem giving a further boost to
separatist tendencies in the valley. The issue was communalized in the
country by presenting it as a Hindu India versus Muslims of Kashmir.
The communal elements in the country made a heavy use of this issue
to polarize the society. The response of Indian government was to go
on increasing the presence of army in the valley. Today the number of
military personnel is so heavy that the air is thick with intimidation
of the army guns. The local Kashmiris are the victims of the acts of
the militants and that of Indian army. Army treats most of the civilians
as suspects.
This alienation of local
people and gross violation of human rights needs to be redressed. The
restoration of part of democratic process during last elections has
been a welcome sign. Any area under military presence cannot breath
freely. Too many disappearances, senseless killings and the orphaned
children tell the story of state of affairs in Kashmir. The confidence
of local people has been shattered by this approach, which looks at
Kashmir as the real estate to be acquired at any cost. Kashmir as the
inseparable part of India on one hand and Kashmir a Muslim majority
state cannot be part of India, these contrasting positions need to be
countered to respect the autonomy and aspirations of Kashmiri people.
That is the only way to restore the human rights and amity in the valley,
which is being wounded by the guns of dissatisfaction and weapons trying
to control the aspirations of people.
Today the thinking on the
Kashmir issue has to begin with the idea of respecting the wishes and
well being of Kashmiri people, and to apply the soothing balm to the
wounded psyche of average person in Kashmir. While dialogue with the
dissident factions goes on we need to reduce the heavy-handed presence
of army in the area. We also should register the fact that a long stay
of army will affect the way of thinking of army itself. We have heard
about the incidents like Chittsinghpura massacre of innocents at the
hands of our own army, many an army personnel have tried to bake their
own bread under the guise of their uniform. By winning over the trust
of the people we can definitely reduce the intensity of militants' actions,
and in due course bring in a more hospitable atmosphere. A long-term
view of the matter is equally important. To begin with we need a social
audit of the actions of army and to devise a mechanism where by armies
actions are not arbitrary but are subject to civic scrutiny, and involvement
of civilians and political representatives in the process of planning
the actions of army.
The over all improvement
in the situation needs to be welcomed and path for further improvement
sought in a proactive way.
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