Saturday, June 22, 2002
Just thaw and serve
The one message that Defence Minister George Fernandes sent out all of last week was that infiltration along the border has come down. On Thursday, he went a step further and stated that it had ‘‘almost stopped and whatever little infiltration is still there will also end’’. These words speak of an optimism that would have been unthinkable even two weeks ago. Clearly, the process of de-escalation set in motion by the Armitage-Rumsfeld visits — which was premised on General Musharraf’s promise to permanently end cross-border terrorism — is running on course. The ordinance promulgated by Musharraf to regulate the functioning of madrassas is part of this process.
While the Indian government has consciously adopted a cautious wait-and-watch policy and is certainly not in any rush to pull back its army from the border, the acknowledgement that there is forward movement is in itself significant. Significant, not just for Indo-Pak relations but for — what is arguably even more important today — the Kashmir elections. Here two other developments that occurred recently need to be tagged — Chief Election Commissioner J.M. Lyngdoh’s promise on Monday of a free and fair election and the indirect response from the All Party Hurriyat Conference of jettisoning its own ‘election commission’ and suggesting that it send a delegation over to Pakistan to urge militants there to agree to a ceasefire. Interestingly, the latter suggestion met with a cautious endorsement from Fernandes, even as Syed Salahuddin of the PoK-based United Jihad Council, rejected it. Clearly, New Delhi has discovered the virtues of subtlety, of not appearing too dogmatic, in its approach to solving the Kashmir problem. There is also the recognition that a credible election process in J&K, which the whole world is watching closely, is the key.
There are two obstacles that the Vajpayee government would do well to anticipate. First, of course, is the possibility of the cycle of violence reasserting itself. There are many vested interests, within the state and across the border, which would like nothing better than a Kaluchak-type operation occurring again. While every effort must be made to see that this does not happen, the government must craft an extremely considered response to it, should it take place. Second, the BJP’s political imperative of courting and encouraging hawkish popular opinion must not be allowed to scuttle the government’s initiatives on deescalation and Kashmir. Somehow party and government would have to seek ways to appear more in sync than they have thus far. This would mean asking the more hyperactive within the party to pipe down. What is at stake goes far beyond a mere party agenda — it is, in fact, a national agenda.
URL: indian-express.com |
