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about Asia Buzz
Subcontinental Drift: What's The Deal?
Delhi should tell the world what it can offer Kashmiris
By APARISIM GHOSH
May 18, 2000
Web posted at 1:00 p.m. Hong Kong time, 1:00 a.m. EDT
ALSO
Subcontinental Drift's Aparisim Ghosh presents
Conversations
Last week, I said the Kashmiri separatist groups should call New Delhi's bluff and accept Home Minister Lal K. Advani's offer of negotiations. The key separatist leaders, including Yasin Malik of the Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front, have been out of prison for a fortnight now, but they remain reluctant to grasp the nettle, mainly because the government is insisting any parleys must take place within the framework of the Indian constitution. That technicality has stood in the way of meaningful peace talks for more than a decade. It has also kept Kashmiris from getting the full picture.
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New Delhi knows exactly where the separatist groups stand: some, like the JKLF, want an independent state, others want the territory to be part of Pakistan. Islamabad's official position is also unambiguous: it wants a plebiscite that would allow the people of the disputed territory to determine their future. But Kashmiris don't know what Delhi can bring to the table.
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All India has done in the decade since the separatist rebellion began is say, ad nauseam, that Kashmir is an integral part of India. It has also conducted some elections to the state legislature, which the vast majority of Kashmiris have routinely boycotted. Oh, and it has sought to smash the rebellion by posting a large army in the territory. None of this has led to anything constructive: on the contrary, it has instilled in most Kashmiris a sense that Delhi is simply uninterested in their grievances and demands.
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CONVERSATIONS |
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Subcontinental Drift's Aparisim Ghosh presents
Conversations
Yasin Malik, chairman of the Jammu & Kashmir
Liberation Front, talks to TIME Asia associate editor
Aparisim Ghosh about New Delhi's offer to open negotiations
with Kashmiri separatists. |
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If
Advani's offer of talks seems to indicate Delhi has at last realized it needs to offer Kashmiris more than just idle words, sham elections and military repression. It is the government's responsibility to convey its plans to the people. If Malik and other separatist leaders won't listen, then Delhi should go over their heads. Advani should openly state his intentions: What, exactly, is the deal he would set before Malik and Co. come to the table?
The separatists say the government isn't serious about negotiations. Now it's Delhi's turn to call THEIR bluff. And not just because it can seize an advantage in a game of political poker, but because this is its duty. If Kashmir is a part of India, as New Delhi says, then Kashmiris are Indians--and they have the right to know what the government has to offer them.
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