In direct proportion to the fanfare with which the UPA Govt. sent Manmohan Singh to Kashmir to announce a ‘new initiative’, its policies have led to a further deterioration of the situation in the state. What is clear from the ‘political initiatives’ taken by this Govt. is that it is absolutely unwilling to respect the democratic aspirations of the Kashmiri people. It is almost as though the part of J&K under Indian control does not belong to its people. When the slogan of ‘unity and integrity of India’ is accepted across the ruling class spectrum from BJP, Congress to CPM then where is the scope for justice for the pending problem of the 1947 communal division of India? Thus the people of Kashmir continue to be targets of brutal military repression while the ruling classes of India are not ready to even stray anywhere near the solution to the ‘problem’.

Manmohan Singh’s solution to unemployment, announced as a step to ‘improve’ the situation, proved hollow. He announced 'zero tolerance' of violations of human rights. What has resulted is zero improvement. There are very few indeed who believe Chief Minister Azad of the Cong. Govt. in J&K when he is maintaining that figures of deaths in police custody, killings in encounters by police, and the counts of those who have disappeared, have fallen over the last 3-4 years. Mehbooba Mufti, leader of his coalition partner, is one of those who has openly challenged their veracity.

Barbaric Repression by Army Continues

One of Manmohan Singh’s major ‘new’ initiatives was to announce that the Army situated in the valley would be decreased, but the truth was exposed within a few weeks and contributed not a little to eroding the Govt.’s credibility. While on the one hand many units of the armed forces and paramilitary began leaving the state, there was a fresh movement of other units into the state. Simultaneously many sections of the media revealed that the units leaving were going on long pending leave and the actual aim was to effect a turnover of forces posted in J&K, which is anyway a regular feature. Even otherwise, after every major armed incident in the state sections of media in India begin clamouring for more forces to be sent to the state to take on the ‘Pakistan trained terrorists’.

The army and paramilitary are nothing less than occupation forces in the eyes of the Kashmiri people and the behaviour of the Army towards the people is of any occupying army towards an alien people under its rule. The recent events in Dist. Kupwara are excellent examples to understand the situation. This is the district where in 1990, several villages were subjected to ‘search’ for terrorists late one night. The men were physically detained outside the villages while the Army personnel entered their homes and raped the women of the village. Young and old, no one was spared. The news of the incidents in several such villages eventually percolated through the social cover given to this community shame, and spread to the other parts of the country. This year, in July 2006, again in the name of a ‘search operation’ an army unit (of Rashtriya Rifles) entered a mosque in Kupwara city. The news is that they wrought mayhem there. In response, the angry people of Kupwara gathered at the main square and marched out towards the camp of the army unit. If the incidents were untrue, there was apparently time for the local police to intervene. However what resulted is that when the procession reached the camp, instead of listening to the peoples’ grievances, the Army fired on them which resulted in people injured and killed. Thus the demand ‘evolved’ from being for action against those responsible for despoiling of a mosque to a Kupwara bandh for action against army officers guilty of the firings. Local police officials spoke up for the army and the issue went into cold storage in enquiries and committees. Few weeks later, in the early hours of 12th August ’06, in Kupwara Dist. a Rashtriya Rifles unit fired on 13 villagers entering the jungle near a village to collect firewood. One of the men, 48 years of age, held an axe. The excuse of the Army is that they had been warned of terrorist movements in the area. Thus by 5:30 am the village was awake and surveying the dead bodies of a 16 year old girl and the 48 year old uncle. Villagers and also residents of surrounding villages blocked the Kupwara Srinagar highway for over 19 hours, demanding mere registration of an FIR against the guilty army officers. Such incidents are occurring throughout the state and do not exactly endear the army and Indian state to the Kashmiri people.

The UPA Govt. is talking to itself!

One aspect of the ‘new initiative’ of the UPA Govt. was that it would start talks with the representative organizations of the Kashmiri people and that no preconditions would be set for the same. This whole question has to evaluated in context of the fact that people of Kashmir have been asserting that India and Pakistan cannot arbiter the fate of Kashmir, this can only be decided with the consent of the people of that state. Secondly, several of their organizations have also stated that to be successful, talks have to be trilateral and also include Pakistan. The reasons for the above positions are first that nearly 60 years have elapsed since 1947, in which the people of Kashmir have had their own experiences and developed their own organizations, second that one part of Kashmir is in Pakistan and third that many sections of them look on Pakistan as being supportive of their positions.

 However the UPA Govt., like earlier Govts, continues to be captive to the geographical ‘unity and integrity’ slogan without trying to achieve integrating of the people. The true shape of the “new initiative” soon began to be seen. The UPA Govt. refused trilateral talks; in talks with Pakistan it projects its opinions as representing the people of the part of Kashmir in India and is not willing that those who represent the real opinions be present.

Away from that it expressed willingness to talk to organizations of Kashmiri people but with a precondition – they should not stand for separation. Thus it ruled out several organizations important in Kashmir, some of which in fact are the main players in the situation. The root of the problem lies here, that the ruling classes of India have failed to retain the confidence of the people of Kashmir – from 1947 onwards, they have seen baseless promises, breach of faith, rigged elections, and barbaric repression which has continually alienated them from the Indian state.

Even the truncated sort of talks the UPA Govt. went in for, failed to make an impact. The organizations and individuals who took part anyway carried the chip of being ‘traitors’ to the Kashmir movement. But even they stated that the UPA Govt. was actually only ‘talking to itself’ because the talks did not attempt to gauge the sentiments of the Kashmiri people or to ascertain what solution could be acceptable but were only to reiterate the long standing positions of Indian state which can not solve the problem. Thus, the UPA Govt. has failed to take this initiative towards winning over the Kashmiri people and lately has even discarded pretence of attempting to do so. It is only acting through the Army and the Congress led State Govt. which in turn turns a blind eye to army violence.

In late August 2006, Farooq Abdullah, leader of the National Conference, has suggested that the Govt. of India should talk to Hizbul Mujahideen along the lines of the discussions it has held with ULFA in Assam. The Govt. has responded with a barrage of 'ifs' and 'buts' to this suggestion. The fact is that such talks will lead to nothing given the Govt. of India's adamant position on what must be the outcome.

On the other hand, the labelling of common people and organizations who are struggling for right of self determination as ‘terrorists’ continues. Both the Govts. – of India and Pakistan - had in the UN resolution of 1947 acknowledged the right of self determination for the people of the state. Thus the pronouncements of the UPA Govt. today are against the position of the UN Resolution to which Indian rulers paid some initial lip service. For long they have discarded it altogether and project the conditional accession by the then King as final and non-negotiable. Little wonder that the people of Kashmir valley, whose motherland is lying divided, support the struggle to be independent of India. They have sacrificed over 75,000 lives at the alter of their struggle for self-determination. But the UPA Govt. and the ruling classes persist undisturbed in labelling as ‘Pakistanis’ or ‘terrorists’ the Kashmiri youth, born either this side of the border or that, who recognize and move freely in the thick jungles of the valley, who live in these jungles and emerge to attack the army, who are able to mingle into the local people and who cross the border through the mountains and forests. By this, the Govt. throws itself far, far away from the truth and also repeats a lie to the people of the rest of India. When the democratic rights of the people of the state are trampled underfoot for so many years, when they are forced to look to a military solution for their genuine demand as is used by any people against an occupying army, then who is the terrorist and the criminal in such a situation? When Indian ruling classes have inflicted the wound, what is the point of cursing Pakistani rulers or ISI if they are exploiting the situation? The crux of the matter is that in 1947 there was a part of Jammu and Kashmir which did not agree with the communal division of India and over the past 59 years it has been alienated by India’s ruling classes.

On 15th Aug. ’06, in a fortified stadium in Srinagar and while the rest of the Valley observed complete bandh, Chief Minister Azad faulted ‘separatists’ for not coming for talks after two rounds. Considering that Govt. of India only reiterates its position on Kashmir both before and after ‘talks’ and apparently even within them, no one in India at least expects anything to emerge from them.

Role of American Imperialism

For some time past and before getting bogged down in Iraq, American imperialism has been pondering over interfering in this area. Indian ruling classes don’t want such an interference and that is actually why from time to time they avidly propagate how earnestly they are trying to solve the problem, to talk to Pakistan, to introduce confidence – building measures. The ruling classes of India desire to dominate over Pakistan with the help of American imperialism. However despite all the appeasement by India’s govt. American imperialism is not giving a green signal in the matter. Where on the one hand America is accusing Pakistan of sheltering elements fighting American occupation of Afghanistan, it needs a pliant Pak Govt. for its continuing colonization of Afghanistan. That is why US Admn. keeps on patting Musharraf for his cooperation in US led 'war on terror'. On the Kashmir issue it is not going to unilaterally support the Govt. of India.

The Kashmiri people and elections

For the past several years, govts. of India have been propagating that the people of Kashmir are tired of ‘violence’ and are turning to electoral participation, peaceful lives etc. It is another matter that recent elections have been more of local bodies. Even in these, the statistics of participation in the Valley, the number of arrests, the reports and boycotters, are enough to tell the true story to those willing to see it. As far as violence is concerned, where do common people not desire peace, not desire safety and security for their families?  Kashmir specifically, has been a society based on Sufi traditions. But the leading source of violence for these people is proving to be Indian army and the Indian state which is crushing their democratic aspirations under military boots. Recently, a dharna was organized in Srinagar where the families of thousands of ‘missing’ people demanded that the Govt. hunt for their fathers, sons, and husbands. Dharnas with this demand take place regularly. In the run up to 15th Aug. 2006, a student was shot dead in broad day light on the main road in Srinagar because the security forces alleged that he had a grenade in his hand which he was intending to throw. There are widespread photographs by the Press of the youth lying dead. His Identity card showed him to be the student of a city college and within a short while his college mates poured out and blocked roads. They stated he was a member of the Muslim Students Union and had been deliberately targeted and killed.

It is also true that of the several organizations operating in the Valley, fundamentalist outfits are also functioning. They are overprojected in Indian media and by Indian rulers. The truth is that they do not represent the mainsteam of Kashmiri people, which is fitfully revealed by occasional stories of how they have attacked some women who abandon backward practices.

 The only remedy for the entire situation lies in implementing the 1947 UN resolution, which continues to be relevant even today. In preparation for the same, the Army should be moved out of the Valley and all civil rights of the people should be fully restored. They should not live under siege. But the moves and concerns of the ruling classes are such, and so little do they care for the people, that even Omar Abdullah’s National Conference remembers ‘partial independence’ pre-1953 like situation only when elections are due. It is significant to note that recently the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen and Tehreek-ul-Mujahideen have called on Kashmiri pundits to return to their homes as they are Kashmiris. While this call is positive, they should do more to create conditions for their return.

The RSS has quite another solution to the situation and it has been propagating it for some time. RSS proposes a three-pronged division along religious lines, in which India would deal separately with ‘Hindu’ Jammu, ‘Buddhist’ Ladhakh and the ‘Muslim’ Valley.

In a similar manner it was widely reported that one purpose of recent violence against tourists from other states in which several tourists from Bengal were killed, is to keep the Valley cut off from the rest of India. Another opinion expressed is that the purpose is to capture the attention of the Indian people, to ‘awaken’ them to the fact that the situation in Kashmir is not normal and thus also to counter the Govt. propaganda. Whatever be the message, both the Govt. and the media hardly bother to highlight how many Kashmiri organizations condemn such incidents. As it is very few democratic elements in India openly stand up for the right of self determination of the people of Kashmir, as though it is some criminal or subversive demand and not a promise made by ruling classes of India just over a half century earlier. It is only revolutionary parties and some democratic individuals who support this right. In the rest of India voices are hardly ever raised even for the restoration of democratic rights of the Kashmiri people or against the acts of heinous violence by the state against them from time to time. There is so much false propaganda that the ill behaviour against Kashmiris in the rest of India, their perennial treatment as ‘suspects,’ the difficulties they face in renting accommodation, the continual pressure on them of police, the way they are implicated in false cases – sterling examples being journalist Geelani and Delhi University lecturer Gilani – all this is just allowed to pass off as something inevitable. Leave alone peoples’ protests, in these cases very few lawyers agree to fight for them, and often even colleagues fear to speak up for them. The journalists of Delhi were an exception to this in Geelani’s case.

Govt. officials exposed in Prostitution Racket

Recently, pressure of the residents forced exposure of a prostitution racket in Srinagar. Senior police officers, senior bureaucrats and an MLA have been found to be involved. The residents of the city closed down Srinagar for many days, held huge demonstrations led by local women’s organizations, and ensured arrest of these VIP guilty. The Kashmir Bar Association decided by majority that no one would appear to defend the accused against which decision the Jammu Bar Association went on strike. Major English dailies are publishing articles whose writers assert that the police was keeping a ‘close watch’ on the owner of the prostitution house since 1990 because the ‘clients were holding sensitive posts’ and ‘could be open to blackmail’. Is it not a shame that Govts. did not find it necessary to close down such houses? It is also worth noting that women’s organizations in India, who speak up against violence on women in various parts of the country, did not come out in solidarity with the struggle of the people of Srinagar against this incident.

It is not possible to actually solve the problem of J&K without respecting the right of self determination of the people of this state. Democratic forces in India must popularize the logic behind this demand and the facts of the case among the common people of India to expose the prejudiced views they are fed by the ruling classes. The peace loving and freedom loving people of Kashmir also must recognize that it is only the revolutionary parties and some democratic individuals who are their genuine friends. Solidarity must be built between the revolutionary movement and the Kashmiri people struggling for their democratic aspirations and against state repression.