August 25, 2010
NEITHER INDIA NOR PAKISTAN:
Kashmir on Fire: Popular explanations for violent protests in Jammu and Kashmir hold some truth, but the reality is much more complex. (Apoorva Shah, August 25, 2010, American)
[I]n 2007, India and Pakistan almost reached a deal to completely demilitarize the Indian- and Pakistani-occupied areas of Kashmir as part of a broader deal to grant “loose sovereignty” to the region. The deal was derailed not only by the ensuing political unrest in Pakistan but also by what a former Indian ambassador to Pakistan calls a “pathological” anti-India attitude among elites in the Pakistani army and intelligence services—in particular General Ashfaq Kayani, who was director of the country’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) during that time and is now the country’s chief of army staff.While India has shown its willingness to withdraw troops from Kashmir and make a much-needed strategic shift to the eastern border with China, it cannot do so unilaterally without a settled agreement with Pakistan, which also has troops on its side of the Line of Control. No rational thinker in Delhi would ever consider such a one-sided move, especially considering reports of continued ISI and military support of terrorist groups such as Laskhar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Harakat-ul-Jihad al-Islami in the region.
Second, the protests have much more to do with what Professor Happymon Jacob of Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi has coined “the poverty of politics” in Kashmir than the mere lack of economic opportunity in the state. In 2008, Kashmiris, with a remarkable turnout of 61 percent, decisively voted for the pro-India National Conference-led government of Omar Abdullah. It was a time of ebullient hope that the new government could act on some of the most pressing political issues in the state, from human rights violations to land disputes to calls for more autonomy within the Indian political system.
Nevertheless, Abdullah and the state government failed to deliver on many of these promises, instead blaming Pakistan, the LeT, and the state’s opposition party for its troubles. Following Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s speech to Kashmiri leaders earlier this month, in which he called for granting more autonomy to the region, the opposition People’s Democratic Party President Mehmooba Mufti reminded Singh and the ruling National Conference party that autonomy cannot solve the Kashmir issue and that the real problem is that the present government has “failed to provide good governance” to the state. As they say, all politics is local.
But unlike what some Pakistanis may like to think, anti-India or anti-establishment attitudes are different from pro-Pakistan attitudes. In a Chatham House poll conducted earlier this year, only 2 percent of residents in Jammu and Kashmir said they would vote to join Pakistan if offered the opportunity.
A people who think themselves a nation are one.
