RAJESH SINGH
Union Minister for Home Affairs Rajnath Singh voiced the sentiments of a billion-plus Indians when he said that the recent conduct of Hurriyat Conference leaders was bereft of Kashmiriyat. Separatists Syed Ali Shah Geelani and others had turned away some Members of Parliament who had gone to meet them at their residence. These MPs were part of an all-party delegation which had visited Kashmir to interact with the people and find a way out of the present unrest.
The Hurriyat’s behaviour was an insult not just to the MPs in their personal capacity but also to the country’s democratic system. The irony is obvious: A bunch of unelected and self-appointed leaders sought to ridicule elected representatives of the people from across the country. It is a mark of the maturity of those MPs who stood before shut gates, waiting in vain for them to open, that they have been restrained in their response. Communist Party of India (Marxist) leaders Sitaram Yechury said the Hurriyat leaders did what they wished to do, but he and other MPs did what they felt would help in resorting peace in Kashmir valley.
And yet, somebody had to speak out. As the leader of the all-party delegation, Rajnath Singh could not have remained silent in the face of humiliation members of his delegation faced. it is true that going to the doors of Hurriyat leaders was not the mandate of the delegation; the MPs who took the initiative did so in their personal capacity. The Home Minister did not approve of the move, though he did not express disapproval either. The idea was that, if individual efforts can lead to a thaw, let the space be given.
The Hurriyat’s behaviour was an insult not just to the MPs in their personal capacity but also to the country’s democratic system. The irony is obvious: A bunch of unelected and self-appointed leaders sought to ridicule elected representatives of the people from across the country. It is a mark of the maturity of those MPs who stood before shut gates, waiting in vain for them to open, that they have been restrained in their response.
After Geelani & company’s pettiness, even its sympathisers in the media and elsewhere are finding it difficult to defend the Hurriyat Conference’s attitude. One defence being put out by way of damage control is that the Hurriyat leaders refused to meet the MPs because they (the Hurriyat) had not been invited formally for talks by the all-party delegation. The delegation’s leader had made it clear from the beginning that everyone who had an interest in peace returning to Kashmir was welcome to meet them and present their opinion. Nothing had stopped Hurriyat leaders, who don’t tire of claiming they are fighting for the rights and dignity of the ordinary Kashmiri, from meeting the delegation.
In any case, a formal invite too would have probably met with a similar fate. After all, Mehbooba Mufti had, in her capacity as leader of the Peoples Democratic Party, formally called the Hurriyat for discussions. The separatists had contemptuously rejected the offer. Had the Hurriyat showed sense and accepted the offer, the way for further negotiations would have opened up.
The separatists clearly want the Government of India to approach it on bended knees. This is unlikely to happen in the case of the Modi regime. It is equally unlikely that the Hurriyat will reform its thinking. The Hurriyat takes its cue from Pakistan. And, Pakistan wants the unrest to continue in Kashmir. When was the last time that Hurriyat leaders sided with India in an India-Pakistan spat on the issue? It’s never happened. On the contrary, they have often spoken Islamabad’s, and Rawalpindi’s, language.
Separatists like Mirwaiz Umar Farooq love to parrot the line that the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government had talked directly with the Hurriyat. They lose no occasion to remind everyone that no less than the then Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister LK Advani had interacted with them across the table. That is true, but what was the outcome? Besides some feel-good moments in the valley, nothing substantially changed. Vajpayee was a remarkable Prime Minister who was willing to write a new and bold narrative, but the Hurriyat did not rise to the occasion. Its leaders never had a change of heart. They continued to behave as before — as Pakistan’s proxies.
Despite the snub, a few MPs believe that the Government should invite the Hurriyat Conference for ‘unconditional’ talks. In the same breath they say that Jammu & Kashmir’s accession to India is a non-negotiable and closed chapter. But this is just the chapter that the separatists want New Delhi to deliberate on and offer a re-think. In their vocabulary, ‘unconditional’ means everything, particularly those issues that are outside the Constitution of India’s framework.
Unfortunately, some mainstream parties and leaders who should know better, are prepared to fall into the Hurriyat’s trap. They talks of increased autonomy (as if Article 370 is not enough) for Kashmir without having an idea of what it entails. They speak of a political solution but are unaware of even its bare contours. They call for the healing of Kashmiri wounds, but fail to acknowledge the wounds of the Indian solider who is in the line of duty to protect his motherland. The most laughable, and also the most tragic, is their contention that the separatists are, after all, Indians, and so we must deal with them as such. Ask the Hurriyat leaders, and they will say they are not Indians but Kashmiris. They will claim that the Indian state had “occupied” Kashmir. How we deal with ‘Indians’ who refuse to be Indians despite holding an Indian passport and availing of various benefits of the Indian state?
For far too long, romanticism and not realism has guided the Indian response to the crisis in the valley. It began with the Nehru era, and since then successive regimes believed they could win over the hearts and minds of the separatist elements — or whatever they called themselves since the past — through concessions and emotional appeals. This only emboldened them. Today, both the so-called moderate and hardline factions of the Hurriyat Conference are united in their opposition to the Indian state. It’s time the Indian state, through its leaders cutting across party lines, also speak in one voice against the Hurriyat’s destructive agenda.
(The writer is editorial director of nationalistonline.com, English)