Omar Abdullah's Concept of Autonomy for Kashmir

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has been repeatedly saying that Kashmir is a political problem, and it could not be solve through economic measures. He says mere economic packages would not help.

Omar Abdullah's tone and tenor shows he is proud of efforts to find a political solution. Omar says he said this openly even before Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh that power supply in Kashmir cannot solve the issue. A political solution has to be found for a political problem.

Need For Political Solution
Some political observers feel Omar Abdullah has not said anything new, whereas others feel that by avoiding calling Kashmir an integral part of India, Omar Abdullah has been creating doubts in the mind of the federal government. Some leaders of Omar Abdullah's party consider his attitude as dangerous. This time, by talking of the need for a political solution recently the chief minister has shown that he did not mind openly expressing his views.

No one protests when Omar Abdullah talks of a political solution. One has to agree with him that power and water supply cannot resolve the Kashmir issue. However, there are doubts that his boldness may cost him dearly. The reason is that there are many people in New Delhi who consider Jammu and Kashmir to be an economic and not a political problem. They feel people have been agitating for basic economic necessities and not for right to self-determination or autonomy. Such elements can be angry with the chief minister.

Demand of Situation
As far as Omar Abdullah is concerned, he finds it in his favor that Home Minister P. Chidambaram has already said that Kashmir is a unique problem, which needs to be solved politically. The differences between the chief minister and separatists are no secret. Their stands are poles apart.

However, they must have been impressed by what Omar Abdullah has said. At the same time, communal leaders in India may dub Omar Abdullah as a separatist.It can well be asked from Omar Abdullah what is his concept of autonomy, on the basis of which he has been demanding a political solution.

BJP's Opposition To Return of Indians in PoK

Home Minister P. Chidambaram has agreed with Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and has announced that Kashmiri youth who crossed the border and had gone to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) would be forgiven and safe passage would be provided for their return. The decision has sent ripples in New Delhi, Srinagar, Islamabad and Muzaffarabad. This sudden and unexpected decision has led to a controversy.

The first to express his desire was union Health Minister and former state Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has decided to launch a countrywide agitation against it. Newly elected BJP president Nitin Gadkari had fixed 25 February for launch of the agitation in Jammu. The party has termed the decision dangerous.

Immediate Action for Success
Both pro-government and antigovernment elements have expressed their displeasure over the issue, while the National Conference has termed the acceptance of its recommendations a great success. The state Congress has welcomed Chidambaram's decision. PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti has welcomed the decision and has tried to take credit for the same.

Separatists have termed the decision a conspiracy. They have said that the government should take immediate action for the success of a composite dialogue. Kashmiri pundits in Jammu and New Delhi have expressed disapproval of the decision. They said forgiving militants would amount to turning the clock back. Kashmiris in PoK have rejected the decision. They said that the Indian Government should withdraw the army and should give people the right to self-determination.

Major Hurdle
All are expressing their views and nobody can be stopped from doing so. As far as the BJP's opposition is concerned, it is an opposition party, which had been in power in the past. It rules in several states. On the whole the party does not enjoy countrywide acceptance. Many persons, including non-Muslims, consider it a communal and extremist Hindu party.

The party has enmity with Muslims. It wants to keep them backward. If any Muslim makes any protest, he is asked by the party to go to Pakistan. It considers all Muslims antinational and terrorists. However, when elections comes the party begs for Muslim votes. This party is opposed to Pakistan. It has decided to launch agitation against return of Indians from PoK.

However, when it is in power, it develops a soft corner for Pakistan. Atal Behari Vajpayee as prime minister shook hands with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif. L.K. Advani paid obeisance at Jinnah's mausoleum in Pakistan and Jaswant Singh wrote a book favoring Jinnah.

Srinagar Suicide Attack Raises Fear of Return of Terrorism To Kashmir

The suicide attack on Lal Chowk in Srinagar is causing apprehension about the return of terrorism in the valley after a lull of two years. Meanwhile, security agencies have strengthened the doubt by stating that about 700 suicide squad terrorists are waiting to infiltrate the border. Truly speaking, the actual motive of terrorists is not yet clear, except to spread terror. They, however, do seem to have some immediate purpose behind this attack. We have to prevent this from being fulfilled.

Increased Activities
Serious preparations are being made to withdraw troops from Kashmir valley. It is not only Chief Minister Omar Abdullah who wants to give the plan a practical shape, but also the central government. Home Minister P. Chidambaram has repeatedly suggested that law and order should be handed over to the state police, as in other states. He has been encouraged by the decline in terrorist activities in the last two years.
Successful elections and formation of a democratic government were paving the way for return of peace in the state. Because of this trend, 30,000 soldiers were called back last year. Defense Minister A.K. Antony was encouraged enough to declare the withdrawal of a few more battalions, as the situation improved. The two-day encounter at Lal Chowk followed by reports of another encounter in Pulwama on 8 January has dampened the enthusiasm for return of peace.

Return of Terror
The possibility of return of terror is increasing. Usually, terrorists are not active in Kashmir at this time of the year. Those who manage to infiltrate before it starts snowing are the ones who carry out terrorist activities during this period. Local militants also become active at this time of the year. But security forces have traced the sources of the Lal Chowk attack to Pakistan. The only person killed in the incident was a Kashmiri youth.
Jamait-ul-Mujahidin has owned responsibility for this attack. Its purpose was to prevent the possibility of any improvement in India-Pakistan relationship. Withdrawal of army from Kashmir will also weaken its purpose. They would neither like any dialogue process to be successfully carried out there.
The process of a dialogue with the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) was started in 2008. It was then that an important APHC leader, who was in favor of talks, was attacked severely. On second thoughts, all such risks cannot be ignored in this atmosphere. At the same time, they must not be exaggerated either.

Kashmir Issue and Dialogues

At a time when it was being expected that the dialogue on the Kashmir issue might resume and that separatist leaders may also be included in that India-Pakistan dialogue, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described separatists "irrelevant." He has, thereby, given rise to a new debate.

Addressing the nation on India's 62nd Independence Day, his assertion that separatists have lost relevance made separatists greatly annoyed. Even pro-India leaders like former Chief Minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed are surprised to a great extent and accused the Prime Minister of ignoring the ground realities.

Changed Attitude
They are expressing apprehension that the improving situation in the state may deteriorate yet again. Ever since Manmohan Singh resumed the Prime Minister's Office for the second term, he has changed his attitude and has been striving to prove himself to be a strong taskmaster. From his tone and tenor, it appeared that he feels that the separatist movement has been quelled for good, and his attitude was full of confidence.

Time for Permanent Peace
The Prime Minister claimed that there was no place for separatist ideology and separatists. It came against the expectation that he would invite separatists, during that address, for talks and would give the impression that with the situation improving in the valley to some extent, the Indian Government would utilize the time and strike for permanent peace.

Also, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had conveyed precisely this impression that he had explained the importance of holding dialogue with separatists to New Delhi and measures would be initiated soon for the dialogue.

However, the Prime Minister, instead of adopting the path of wisdom, described separatists "irrelevant." At that very time, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah was addressing a gathering at the Bakshi Stadium. At that very time, Kashmir observed a total strike at the behest of these very separatists. The Prime Minister claimed that he was closely watching the situation in Kashmir, and that elections to the state assembly and to Parliament had successfully been held in the state, in which there was an overwhelming turnout of voters.

He said that all people and sections participated in these elections, which indicated that there was no place for separatist ideology in the state. He made that assertion at a time when on that very occasion, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah was extending an invite to separatists to shun violence, give up the path of militancy, and hold talks. It was only on the eve of the address by the Prime Minister that Omar Abdullah and his ministerial colleagues strongly advocated dialogue between New Delhi and the separatists. They had termed it the greatest need of time.

Union Government's Thinking
Reading between the lines, the Prime Minister's address conveys that New Delhi has mistaken the activities of separatists as improvement in the situation and everything has been set right. Further, he felt that there was no need for holding any talk with separatists. Yet, several pro-India leaders, including Omar Abdullah, former ministers, and former Chief Ministers Farooq Abdullah and Mufti Muhammad Sayeed differ with this kind of thinking of the union government.

Going by the attitude of his boss, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah somewhat changed his stance at his Independence Day speech, and stressed the need of dialogue between India and Pakistan instead of with separatists, which he had advocated a day earlier. Yet, Mufti Muhammad Sayeed categorically expressed his reservations on what the Prime Minister had said, and warned him not to close his eyes to ground realities in the state.

Prime Minister maintained that the union government was wrongly taking the peaceful holding of elections in the state as the final resolution to the Kashmir issue, and warned against the tendency. He called on the union government that taking peaceful holding of elections as a first step, it should move forward to find the final resolution to the Kashmir issue, failing which uncertainly would rear its head again and we may return to square one.

In another statement, Mufti Muhammad Sayeed said that there was lack of coordination between the state government and the union government, and by rejecting the chief minister's suggestion, the Prime Minister had deflated it. In his statement, Mufti Muhammad Sayeed asserted that while Omar Abdullah trumpeted dialogue between the union government and the Hurriyat Conference, the union government had rejected his suggestions of dialogue in toto. It is an indication that there is no coordination between the union and state governments.

Referring to fail separatist leaders like Syed Ali Shah Gilani and others, Mufti Muhammad Sayeed said that it was strange that leaders with whom the claim of holding dialogue was being made were languishing in prisons. Throwing a challenge to the government, Mufti Muhammad Sayeed said that if it had the power and the strength, it should come out and compete with separatists democratically.

By saying this, Mufti Muhammad Sayeed has recognized the stature and reliability of separatist leaders, and has said that not holding talks with them is a serious blunder.

Wrong Assertion
Mufti Muhammad Sayeed is not the only mainstream leader who has described the Prime Minister's assertion as a blunder. Several organizations have also expressed their annoyance with this, but in a subdued tone. The Communist Party of India (CPI) termed the assertion wrong, and held that separatists continue to be relevant. CPI National Secretary Shamian Faizi, rejecting the Prime Minister's statement, demanded at a press conference that the union government should immediately initiate action to hold talks with separatists. He added that the talks with Pakistan on all pending issues, including the Kashmir issue, should immediately be resumed. He termed the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act and other similar black laws in the state draconian, and demanded their immediate revocation. He maintained that separatism and separatists continue to be relevant in Kashmir and that dialogue with Pakistan be resumed immediately and unconditionally.

Unrest is also spreading in the National Conference on the issue, though the ruling party for the lust of power has quietly swallowed the bitter pill that the Prime Minister gave. It would not be out of place to mention that all National Conference leaders, including Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, had repeatedly said in their election campaign that the Kashmir issue has nothing to do with holding of elections. Instead, the process is being adopted only for formation of an administration.

Political Upheaval in Jammu and Kashmir

Whatever is happening in Jammu and Kashmir politics is unfortunate. Nobody could object to differences between the ruling party and the opposition in politics, but there is a definite limit to differences in parliamentary democracy. Politics should not be so directionless and shallow that it creates a situation of political instability. It is the result of this political situation that Chief Minister Omar Abdullah announced his resignation after being emotionally hurt. However, it was unnecessary.

Kinds of Allegations
The opposition levels several kinds of allegations against the government, and the head of the government has to function, tolerating them. The allegation leveled by People's Democratic Party [PDP] of his involvement in the sex scandal case is totally baseless.

In a restive and unstable state like Jammu and Kashmir, politics needs to be sensitive and alert. PDP's attitude was exactly the opposite. After all, the manner in which Mehbooba Mufti rushed to the assembly speaker's seat and snatched the mike from him on July 28 was very irresponsible behavior by a legislative assembly member. The irony is that she is not at all repentant about her behavior. On the contrary, she continued to accuse the speaker of behaving indecently.

Role of Mainstream Political Leaders
In reality, PDP's attitude cannot be called the role of a responsible political party from any angle. The real role of mainstream political leaders of Jammu and Kashmir is to work toward foiling such attempts, be it from Omar Abdullah or Mehbooba Mufti.

On the issue of peace and development, there has to be political unity in Jammu and Kashmir. In contrast, Mehbooba is engaged in the politics of conflict. There is no problem in accepting that she is in a way making things easy for separatist forces. This is not going to do any good to anyone.

There does not appear to be any justifiable reason to take up what occurred at Shopian in this manner. It would have been in everybody's interest to make efforts to stop recurrence of such incidents and give solace to the victims.

Future Ahead
After all, what do Mehbooba and her PDP want? There are no elections at this time that she could take political advantage of it. But, being the head of the government, Omar should also have refrained from emotional extremism. He has got majority in the assembly and there is no danger at the moment of his government being reduced to a minority.

Omar should understand that he is leading a state whose foundation is being shaken by cross-border terrorism and internal secessionism, and disruptive forces have been trying to keep it at unrest. At this time, the need is to work together to restore normalcy in Kashmir.