Shutters downed in Srinagar on the call of the Hurriyat Conference for general strike while the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, made his bid to “win hearts and minds” in the valley from within a bullet-proof enclosure. The crowd, collected by the joint carting of PDP and Congress, defied its organizers and raised slogans for jobs while Manmohan Singh was plagiarizing Sheikh Abdullah’s call of Naya Kashmir. The PM’s meeting had a delayed start due to two fidayeens who haunted the police and army for three hours barely 200 metres away, before they were killed. Most national media highlighted the photograph of a middle aged Kashmiri woman dancing amidst the audience. None went to capture the mood of the women of Kupwara and Anantnag. Here, less than ten days earlier, once again, two women and a child were raped by army officers during ‘searches’ to defend the integrity of India. But Manmohan Singh sought to win hearts through packages, not through any condemnation of army brutalities on the people.

That was November 17, 2004. By the time the PM’s visit ended 48 hours later, it was already conceded to have been a fiasco.

The Common Minimum Programme

It had to be so. The two major parties in the ruling dispensation at the Centre – Congress and CPM – are one on labelling all expressions of national aspirations as attacks on the “integrity and unity of the country”. They also consider, as does almost the entire ruling class, that the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir is non-negotiably an integral part of India. This position eclipses important truths. First that Jammu and Kashmir historically was a separate kingdom, never part of India, until brought here under the British. It was initially a Buddhist country, and had long been under Khalifat rule. The Muslim population are converts from Buddhism mainly with a tradition of Sufi worship. There is a 3000-year old tradition of Kashmiriyat. At the time of partition, the King of Jammu and Kashmir signed the Instrument of Accession (which still give the state a basic autonomy) on Nehru’s condition for this for India’s army to throw back Pakistan’s invasion. India and Pakistan cut up the state between themselves, promising eventual Plebiscite before the United Nations. The second well-known fact is that the Jammu and Kashmir issue is a problem born out of partition and in the ensuing 56 years, a factor that has emerged is conscious organisation of people of the state for their own democratic aspirations.

CPM has anyway long forgotten Marxist moorings on nationality question and the positions of old communist movement in India. Congress is the author of the policy, since Nehru’s days, to hoax the Kashmiri people while using security forces against them as an occupation force. Not for nothing is it emphasized that the increasing alienation of Kashmiri people from India from 1948 to 2004 is due in the main to machinations and repression by successive governments at the Centre, backed by the entire ruling classes of India. The integrity of geography is being force-fed to these people, for whom now anti-India sentiments have become almost inviolable.

The Common Minimum Programme of Congress and CPM thus states their position that Article 370 will be respected in context of Kashmir. In this it is a positive regression and closing of eyes from the options that had begun to push their way onto the agenda in recent years. The full exposition of the CMP position actually is – solution within Indian Constitution, UN agreement is dead, whole of Jammu and Kashmir integral part of India and people will get some carrots and lots of bullets till they accept the same. In this position, over past 50 years the situation has developed that Indian ruling classes are willing to accept the LoC as the permanent solution, but they keep up their harping on “whole of Jammu and Kashmir” as a bargaining chip against Pakistan.

Under the NDA dispensation, with US arm-twisting, the Kargil temperatures and Advani’s call from akharas were hastily de-escalated. US Government wanted no disturbance of Musharaff so long as he was part of its anti-Afghanistan policy and provided practical airbase. Eventually, Indo-Pak dialogues included friendly overtures to Pakistan. Alongside, a feature of past few years has been attempts to communalize the issue. The suspicious timing of the killings of Sikhs at Chittisinghpura, communal interventions in Jammu including among refuge pandits, talk of the national aspirations of the people of Ladhakh and Jammu alongside those of the Valley (though all three have a shared heritage and history) and also few communal killings by alleged ‘militants’, are examples. Hindutva forces, like VHP and RSS, anyway have a willingness to send out the Muslim-dominated Valley, retaining Jammu and Ladhakh in their quest to build a Hindu Rashtra.

Musharaff Proposal

Musharaff, on October 25, 2004, advanced a proposal for division of the entire Jammu and Kashmir state into seven regions, with demilitarisation of a few and putting them under joint Indo-Pak or UN control. On November 9, US Government’s note of this proposal as interesting, has sent Government of India into a frenzy, covering up Musharaff’s own insincerity and his bid to woo his own people with such proposals. No one has asked the Kashmiri people about such further carvings, no importance has been given to Hurriyat’s reaction.

The fact is that in the part of Kashmir under Pakistan there is a strong support for azadi of the whole of Jammu and Kashmir from both India and Pakistan. The Jamat-e-Islami there has spoken out strongly against Musharaff’s proposal saying that he has no right to dispense the future of Kashmiris and that people of Jammu and Kashmir will decide their own future. Student movements there speak of repression and expulsion from colleges of those who support independence of entire Jammu and Kashmir from both India and Pakistan.

Manmohan’s ‘Road-Map’ – Redrawing Forced

On November 7, the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, gave an “all options open” signal on Jammu and Kashmir. On November 17, he went to Srinagar with a ‘road map’, declaring himself an old refugee and thereby decrying Musharaff’s “redrawing of borders”. He said he had come to ‘listen’ to Kashmir. In reality he only had the beaten track and the old Congress map. No wonder overtures fell flat. The first day’s announcement of a Rs. 24,000 crores package of development led to sloganeering for jobs. And what ‘development’ – after half a century, provision of basic facilities of water and electricity! Numerous institutions of learning and training were sanctioned, but no policy for industrial development of the state! Demand for jobs led, next day, to lifting of ban for recruitment to government jobs (which are anyway being eroded throughout India by NEP) and 10,000 jobs per year in the security forces! The youth will thus be pitted to train the guns against their own people’s movement.

By the time he returned, the sky that Narasimha Rao promised Jammu and Kashmir, began to have a limit. Reciprocal demilitarisation, pre-1953 autonomy (i.e., Indian state only intervenes in currency, communication and defence) without touching the jurisdiction of Supreme Court, Election Commission and CAG! In this diluted state, memories of Abdullah’s call for ‘federalism’ were sought to be revived. (Manmohan Singh’s speech on November 18, 2004)

Only Military Solution – Shivraj Patil Report and Autonomy Issue

Within hours of Manmohan Singh’s return, Shivraj Patil had a 70-page report ready, offering the carrot of ‘autonomy’. The proposals in the Report clearly define in what spirit such autonomy is proposed. They are – putting the state under a united command headed by the Army GOC, Northern area, and in which the Chief Minister (the political head) is a participant, enhanced security coverage to local government and Central government ministers and main politicians, defence committees in villages against ‘militants’ etc. The autonomy sop has been out of the National Conference’s sudden propaganda of such an idea just prior to elections to Kashmir Assembly. Why Kashmiris view it with utter revulsion or just ignore it, is because it is not even meant to be a step towards honouring their aspirations, but is actually a way to undermine them. This Autonomy is pitted against the right to self-determination, not as a beginning to understanding it. That is the only reality behind the Patil solution. Indian ruling classes label the movement for self-determination as ‘terrorist’ and only seek to exterminate it. In this they want the international community’s especially America’s support, which means Pakistan’s silence.

Manmohan Singh’s bravado at “no redrawing of borders and no realigning of regions” with a “world without borders” evokes America’s refusal to recognize borders to its imperialist might and its deliberate violation of the sovereignty (borders) of countries. The Congress-CPM Government package for status quo and no to even discussing the question of democratic aspirations, reads as “reciprocal autonomy, good governance, open borders and free interaction”. The question is of one-upmanship with Pakistan.

Visible in the rhetoric is the LoC which India’s ruling classes hold to be non-negotiable. It is the clearest way of saying that unification and independence of the state is impossible where India is concerned. The problem with both Pakistan’s and India’s ruling classes is that they predominately show it as an issue which they can settle without keeping the Kashmiris’ opinion foremost. But in reality, it is the issue of the people of the state, of those whose families are divided by India and Pakistan, of those whose lives have stoked the fires of azadi.

Pakistan rulers off and on acknowledge these forces in India. But attitude of the successive governments of India towards the leaders of the struggle for self-determination in India is vicious. Even the current Prime Minister has refused to issue an invitation to the Hurriyat Conference leaders for talks. They are now held guilty because of their refusal to meet Shivraj Patil. Dixit lambasted them saying that they are anyway not the true representatives, but “pandits and mainstream political parties” are. (November 13, 2004)

The Kashmiri Women, The People

Bearing the brunt of the reported 7.5 lakh strong armed forces’ presence, the people of the state in India have sacrificed at least 70,000 sons and daughters in their struggle for azadi. Their democratic aspirations may have differing solutions on whether to join Pakistan or remain independent. But azadi from India coupled with a longing for peace has been severely reinforced over the past 56 years’ experience with India. A state which has fattened the Indian exchequer through tourism, its people are neglected, living in severe poverty, villages lacking even minimum development. Industries in the valley – carpet weaving, woven and embroided woolens and cloth, tourism and orchard plantation – have been severely crippled by state repression.

The way the Government of India behaves with an area which it treats as an ‘integral part’ of India is something which must be especially considered by women organizations in India. This is more relevant because of the deafening silence of otherwise vocal women organizations on what is befalling Kashmiri women. Sons and husbands arbitrarily picked up and taken away, children orphaned, themselves part of picketing, agitations and other forms of struggles and protests. On the night of November 6, in village Badran Pyan, near Handwara town of Kupwara district (northern Kashmir), an army ‘search’ at midnight left a 29-year old woman and her 11-year old daughter raped at the hands of a Major of India’s Army.

The Major’s name is Rehman. As Kashmir erupted in anger and revulsion, the forces were out on the streets with lathis and arrests. 20 protestors were arrested at Lal Chowk in Srinagar, Kashmir University students boycotted classes and faced lathi-charge, Handwara town witnessed angry protests. Call was for action against the Major. In this melee the CM, Mufti, announced confirmation of the rape of the mother but no action against the Army officer. The governments of Mehbooba and Sonia battled the protesting people on such an issue. It was only to buy peace for the PM’s visit that the Major was suspended. To the same end, routine moves planned by the Army for the winter months (there is now a fencing in place on the LoC and the mountain passes will be blocked by snow) was projected as partial “withdrawal of Army”. While the irritated Army itself gave away the truth, so severe is the repression the people of the state face that several sections welcomed even this hope of partial reprieve. The reality seems to be that troops are actually being increased in Jammu and Kashmir (see box on p. 11). Meanwhile Anantnag district reported another rape by the ‘searching’ Army in village Mattan just days before the Kupwara rape.

There are no exhaustive or even approximate figures of the violence against Kashmiri women by security forces. But Kupwara must ring a bell about the late 1980s and early 1990s when BSF raped dozens of women in one night in the name of ‘unity and integrity’. Almost two-dozen women dared to depose before Enquiry Commissions then. However, successive governments of Jammu and Kashmir and Centre are better at talking about atrocities by fidayeens rather than by security forces. It bears reiteration that an outstanding reason for continual alienation of the people of this area from India is their routine life coming under an Army which behaves fully like an occupation force.

Not only women, the situation of general human rights is no better. Five local people were killed by security forces and this was misrepresented as an encounter with the killers of Chittisingpura. People blocked highways and gave three more lives before the then CM Farooqh Abdullah announced an enquiry. Eventually DNA samples pronounced the truth. The problem is, these are not aberrations but the simple everyday experiences. In fact the successive governments of India only envisage a military solution.

The ruling classes and their organizations are able to live with this dichotomy very easily – that the state is geographically an integral part, but its people are akin to enemies who must live under the boot of security forces. The relative silence amongst intellectuals which greeted the arrest and torture of Geelani of Delhi University, the persistent refusal of CPM-led teachers’ association to speak up even for his routine rights, failure of reactionary and revisionist women’s organizations to meet the women accused in this case – all reinforce this.

Pakistan Prime Minister’s Visit

The entire current hectic interchange on Jammu and Kashmir has taken place in the backdrop of US elections, and known US anxiety to put a finger in this pie. Pakistan Prime Minister’s visit to India is likely to result in an opening up of Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road, and other such general measures. It is unlikely to yield more. Congress and CPM led Government at Centre is yet adamant on refusal to talk to those representatives of Kashmir’s movement who stand for independence, or for alignment with Pakistan, calling them “small men in big chairs”, and the movement a ‘terrorist movement’. The movement of the Kashmiri people for voicing their democratic aspirations has run through half a century – history shows that such movements find their leaders and sizes of figures are better measured by historical roles rather than the methods taught at the World Bank to Manmohan Singh. The autonomy package being proposed by the Government is only a propaganda counter to Pakistan and to bypass rather than to honour or even assuage the sentiments of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

Ruling classes of India are facing a serious political crisis and are totally unable to address the real issues of the people. All over the country, movements on local issues are breaking out and even extracting concessions. North-East is aflame with struggle against Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act and women and students stand undaunted in the forefront of this struggle. It is for the people of Kashmir to further develop their struggle for self-determination and it is the task of revolutionary forces, democrats in India to stand up for it and against national oppression. The ruling classes’ propaganda about ‘terrorist’ role of Kashmir people should be exposed so as to subvert plans to crush it by military might and morally tire it by reiterating non-negotiability of “instrument of accession”.

The struggle before the people of Jammu and Kashmir is fraught with challenges. There is a section of leadership which wants unity with Pakistan, while on both sides of the border the sentiment is strong for azadi from both. The leadership also has to unite all sections of the people of their state, including the minority Hindus to prevent the success of communal conspiracies of both India’s and Pakistan’s ruling classes. The challenge is also there before the revolutionary forces to link the struggles of such oppressed nationalities with the New Democratic Revolution.