Does
Self-Rule Have
New Delhi 's Backing?
By Zafar Choudhary
30 October, 2006
Countercurrents.org
History makes a full circle on
Jammu and Kashmir at United Nations when former Chief Minister Mufti
Mohammad Sayeed will address the UN General Assembly next week. But
what exactly will Mufti say there involves a crucial question on Government
of India's Kashmir policy.
The PDP patron says that
he will explain to the United Nations the self rule proposal as lasting
solution to Kashmir issue. Political scheme of things suggests that
either Mufti will not speak on self rule at all and if speaks so the
self-rule formula has blessings of the Government of India.
"He simply cannot talk
what he wants. Every full stop and comma has to be read out exactly
as it is handed down to him by the Indian mission to the United Nation",
says National Conference president Omar Abdullah taking a cue from his
stint as a Minister of State for External Affairs in Vajpayee government.
Mufti is the second leader
from Jammu and Kashmir after Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah to make a speech
on this state at the United Nations. Sheikh had presented himself and
addressed the United Nation's Security Council meet in February 1948
while Mufti will be addressing the General Assembly.
In his opening paragraph
at the UNSC, the Sheikh had said, "the Security Council will concede
that I am probably the one man most concerned in the dispute because
I happen to come from that land which has become the bone of contention
between the two Dominions of India and Pakistan". 58 years later
when Mufti goes to UN as second leader from Jammu and Kashmir nothing
seems to have actually changed much on the ground.
Ever since Mufti's name was
declared to head the non-official Indian delegation to the United Nation's
General Assembly session, the Peoples Democratic Party leader has been
making a clear point that he will offer self-rule as plausible solution
to the Kashmir issue.
It was after the invitation
to the United Nations that constituted a committee to prepare a draft
on self rule which he is supposed to present at the UNGA. The self rule
drafting committee and the political affairs committee of the PDP had
final touch meeting on the proposal in Srinagar on Friday.
It was also in the aftermath
of this invitation that Mufti, his daughter and PDP president Mehbooba
and party veteran Muzaffar Hussain Baig launched a vigorous campaign
across the state touching even hitherto unexplored areas of Kargil to
build a public opinion on self rule proposal.
Not only this, last week
Mufti met three former Prime Ministers: Atal Behari Vajpyee, VP Singh
and IK Gujral –apparently to discuss the self-rule proposal and
ramifications of its discussion at the United Nations. As already reported
in this newspaper, Mufti also had meetings with Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh and the Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
A strong opposition to the
self-rule formula for Jammu and Kashmir across the country is based
on the origin of this proposal from Pakistan President Gen Pervez Musharraf.
In a drastic climb down from five decades old stated position of Pakistan
on Kashmir (referendum or plebiscite) General Musharraf was first to
suggest in December last year that a mechanism of self rule on both
parts of Line of Control can be a mutually acceptable solution to the
conflict. A month later the Peoples Democratic Party picked it up as
a plank.
However, last month in an
interview to a leading Indian fortnightly Frontline, President Musharraf
said that self-rule formula is not his creation but that of Government
of India. He said in interview that diplomat JN Dixit, who passed away
earlier this year, had handed him the self-rule proposal at the behest
of Government of India in course of back channel diplomacy.
If General Musharraf's statement
is anything to go by, self-rule seems to be a formula having full concurrence
of the Governments of India and Pakistan. In such case Mufti's campaign
on self rule appears to be backed by New Delhi. But yet again a stiff
opposition to self rule by Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and state
unit of Congress is un-understandable.
"I have been in the
government and I can tell you how it functions. Prime Minister Dr Manmohan
Singh is sending Mufti to the United Nations as the head of the Indian
delegation. He simply cannot talk what he wants. Every full stop and
comma has to be read out exactly as it is handed down to you by the
Indian mission to the United Nation", maintains Omar Abdullah.
Abdullah said Mufti was drumming
up support to cater to his constituency in Kashmir.
"He cannot tell the
Kashmiris that he is going to the UN as the head of the Indian mission
and would talk what is handed over to him.
"If he does so, he loses
support in the valley. He wants to please the government by saying what
the Government of India wants to project in United Nations. On the other
hand, his daughter Mehbooba Mufti is speaking out against the Congress-led
coalition in Kashmir. Mufti wants a win-win situation," he said.
Omar's views reflect some
strength if one reverts back to his grandfather Sheikh Abdullah's visit
to the United Nations.
In his capacity as Prime
Minister of Jammu and Kashmir and delegate to the United Nations in
1948, Sheikh Abdullah stirred citizens and outsiders alike with patriotic
oratory. Concerning the nation's constitution, enacted in 1944, he reminded
Kashmiris that their assembly was "the fountain-head of basic laws
laying the foundation of a just social order and safeguarding the democratic
rights of all the citizens of the State." He championed free speech,
a free press, and a higher standard of living for the poor. At the core
of his speech lay his belief in "equality of rights of all citizens
irrespective of their religion, color, caste, and class."
The author is resident editor
of the Jammu edition of the English daily, Kashmir Images, and executive
director of the Center for Media Research and Documentation at Jammu.
He can be contacted at [email protected]
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