STOP BEING DEFENSIVE ABOUT KASHMIR

Stop being defensive about Kashmir

By Vikram Sood      The writer is former chief of R&AW

Well-known facts are sometimes forgotten, conveniently overlooked or twisted to suit a particular narrative. So, it is necessary to restate some facts and bring the discourse back on rails.

Kashmir, all of it, belongs to India and it will stay like that. We have a document affirming the status of Kashmir and Pakistan has never observed the UNSC resolutions of April 1948 to solve the issue. In any case, Jammu and Kashmir is no longer listed by the UN as a dispute.

Pakistan has been intruding in various ways virtually from the day it became independent. Over time, this has become more vicious and blatant. We have remained inadequately reactive, offering peace initiatives that were always seen as signs of weakness by the Deep State.

Consequently, we have in Kashmir an externally sponsored terrorism under a nuclear umbrella seeking annexation of Kashmir. It is neither a freedom struggle nor a human rights story. We should not feel guilty about treating terrorism for what it is. We seem to forget that a terrorist attack by stealth does not spare civilians, women and children included.

The present situation has not been brought about by our security forces or by our intelligence agencies. It is the result of repeated political opportunism and ineptitude, which has followed up on a series of mistakes and promises not kept.

Terrorism gets prolonged when it has multilayered external state support accompanied by a comfortable but mistaken narrative in the targeted country that creates sympathy. This narrative is provided by a mixture of political opportunism, woollyheaded opinion makers and an irresponsible media.

The armed forces are doing a great job in handling a situation that is not of their making. They are trained to fight the external enemy, not to shoot at malcontents within the country.

 

Powers be with the forces

If we need to use them in this manner, then they must be covered by Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (Afspa), with adequate means to take on a new kind of enemy. In the process, there will be mistakes and misjudgements, even excesses. That is unfortunate. But we have to deal with this.

We trivialise the supreme sacrifices of these men and women, along with their families, when we lionise terrorists. We can recall the name of the dead terrorist, but can we recall one name among the 18 CRPF men who died in Kashmir and Bihar in the last one month? This is what happens when we call them 'youth leaders', 'national leaders' and run to their families for human interest stories. We provide the oxygen to terrorists and their bloody trade.

Burhan Wani was no misguided young man. He was a terrorist with an agenda. He belonged to a terrorist organisation created by the Pakistanis, whose leader Syed Salahuddin lives in Pakistan. Salahuddin is unable to explain how his son was given admission to study in J&K and none of his other sons has followed their father's footsteps.

This organisation, Hizbul Mujahideen (HM), was responsible for the murder of Mirwaiz Muhammad Farooq. But his son, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, never found the courage or integrity of leadership to name the assassins. And this 'moderate leader' had warned Ahmediyas last year that they should stay out of Kashmir.

The HM has deep links with the Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Jaish-e-Mohammed. Wani's dream was to unfurl the flag of Islam at Delhi's Red Fort through a holy war. How many Indians are prepared to make any compromise on this and how many consider this to be a human rights issue?

Unable to succeed through terrorism, Pakistan has now begun to seek radicalisation of Kashmir. One sees a mushrooming of Salafi madrasas undoubtedly funded by Saudi money. There is enough traction between the radicals of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia to help this. This is going to be our next security challenge.

We must stop deluding ourselves that Pakistan will change its tactics if we make the right gestures (although no one defines what these gestures might be). It has pushed itself into this blind alley where any pact with India on Kashmir will be seen as a defeat. So, jihad is the only kind of war that Pakistan will fight with India no matter what the extent of blowback.

The Valley became an issue just short of the recent elections in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, where it seems neither India nor J&K were electoral issues. Pakistan might have a new army chief in September and keeping Kashmir on the front burner will have an impact on the fortunes of the present incumbent when his term ends.

 

No yielding on terror firma

Finally, any suggestion for talks with Pakistan while terror continues legitimises Pakistani terrorist activity in India. This is often seen as favouring the illegitimate Pakistani position, especially when the situation flares up. After nearly 70 years, we should treat Kashmir without special laws and its never-ending dispensations.

It is time we developed our own response that makes Pakistan's rulers pay a price they cannot afford. Since we have inalienable rights to Kashmir, we should stop being defensive about this and making magnanimity a foreign policy virtue.