Author: K.N. Pandit
Publication: Vijayvaani.com
Date: October 11, 2008
URL: http://www. vijayvaani.com /FrmPublicDisplayArticle.aspx?id=173
In response to BJP President Rajnath Singh's
idea of an enclave for internally displaced Kashmiri Pandits and nationalization
of the Amarnath route - floated during the BJP conclave in Bangalore recently
- the PDP chairperson reacted frantically and threatened a mass uprising in
the valley. Handing out unbridled, albeit meaningless, threats and blackmail
is her political style. Theo-fascists, meanwhile, have accelerated their destructive
activities in major cities.
In recent months, Kashmir separatists have
been persistently defying law enforcing authority and obstructing normal flow
of administration in the valley. They issue threats to those who intend to
participate in the democratic process. The Peoples Democratic Party, which
remained in power for six years, is now pandering to a pro-separatist agenda.
Day in and day out, its chairperson is accelerating hostile attitudes and
adopting confrontational postures vis-à-vis the Indian State.
The pretext of an imagined economic blockade
during the Jammu agitation has been made an instrument of inciting mass agitation
against authority. The State is sought to be made a private fief of a few
Kashmiri ruling houses and dissident groups who are playing a dangerous religious
card. The call to march to Muzaffarabad in reaction to the so-called economic
blockade has exposed the ambivalence of many political leaders in the valley.
They were in the forefront of anti-India brigades whose bravado of crossing
the LoC was trumpeted to the international media.
This situation has developed in Kashmir simultaneously
with the resurgence of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda combine in Afghanistan and
Waziristan. Pakistan's ISI appears to be visualizing a new role for itself
in intensifying theological crusades in the region east and west of Waziristan.
Islamists revive the dream of an Islamic Caliphate in a sensitive geographical
region from the Dardanelles to Xingjian in China, then down to the Straits
of Malacca. Kashmir is integral to this scheme of things. An article by PDP
chairperson published under the title 'Let's Revive Silk Road' in Jammu-based
journal Epilogue (25 July 2008) speaks loudly of the grandiose plan of the
Caliphate.
Given the anti-India nexus between Islamabad
and Beijing, and their avowed policy of stonewalling India's growing international
stature, the security of India's eastern and western borders has come under
heavy pressure. Their overt and covert support to theo-fascists, terrorists
and subversive elements is India's primary concern. New Delhi cannot let border
vulnerability go unplugged.
In this background it becomes unavoidable
for India to re-visit her security plans for her northern border. Kashmir
is crucial to this re-think. Curbing anti-India hysteria is a prerequisite
for fortifying territorial integrity of the State. The Constitution authorizes
adoption of feasible measures to ensure national sovereignty and territorial
integrity. Further, the State, drawing power from Parliament, can make constitutional
amendments to any proviso that it thinks will help combat subversive and disruptive
activities against the state.
Article 370 ensures the special identity of
Jammu and Kashmir in the Indian Union. But when territorial integrity is at
stake, neither the constitution of J&K nor of India permits secession
of a part of the Union under any pretext. India responded to such a threat
in August 1953. Any campaign under the pretext of "freedom" is treason
under national and international law, and has to be dealt with accordingly.
It is increasingly felt in political circles
that restructuring the border State of Jammu and Kashmir is unavoidable in
view of the nefarious designs of our western neighbour and its inroads in
Kashmiri Muslim society. Informed circles emphasizing security parameters
suggest restructuring the State.
The idea of nationalizing the route to the
western border of Tibet in Ladakh region surfaced in security and political
circles in New Delhi after the Kargil war. The internal displacement of the
minuscule Pandit community from its original habitat cannot be accepted as
a permanent phenomenon. Their relocation is an obligation under the constitution
and under international law.
Thus, the BJP President struck the right note
in Bangalore that an enclave be created for the internally displaced Pandits
in their original habitat. Nationalization of the road running through the
valley and connecting the farthest point on the border with China/Tibet is
of paramount strategic importance as revealed by the Kargil episode. Way back
in December 1990, internally displaced Pandits in a conclave in Jammu adopted
Marg Darshan Resolution which asked for a Homeland in the valley and a nationalized
route that linked their contemplated homeland to the national highway.
The exiled Hindus want the homeland be placed
under union administration for security. This idea has been picked up by the
BJP and it is hoped it will catch the imagination of wider sections of civil
society. Panun Kashmir, the frontline political organization under whose aegis
the Homeland resolution was adopted, has already drawn the map delineating
the Homeland territory.
India must establish a Himalayan Mountain
Command from Kupwara to Guraiz region. The area must be safeguarded with ballistic
missile installations of long range strike capability. If need arises, the
districts of Kupwara, Baramulla and some tehsils of Uri should be vacated
within a ten kilometers long strip along the western international border,
and displaced persons re-located in the hinterland. A motorable border road
like the Karakorum Highway should run from Leh through the western border
down to Kathua. Vacated border strips should be placed under joint military
and civilian administrative mechanism with full participation of local panchayats.
The sole purpose of this planning is to secure
the borders against infiltration and to scuttle internal subversion. This
has to be the re-structuring concept of Naya Kashmir if the Centre wants lasting
peace in the sub-continent.
- The writer is former Director, Centre of
Central Asian Studies, Kashmir University
