Mission Kashmir!

India has called off foreign secretary level talks with Pakistan- a week before they were to be held in Islamabad as a follow-up to Nawaz Sharif’s presence during PM Modi’s swearing in. The immediate provocations were meetings, despite forewarnings, between Pakistani envoy to India & separatist leaders of J&K. Since such interactions did not take place for the first time, therefore speculation about the real reason for calling off the talks dominated Indian media debates. While the supporters of BJP govt. overwhelmingly saw it as an assertion of strength by the new prime minister who sent a clear message to Pakistan that it will have to choose between Indian govt. & a motley group of its supporters in Srinagar under the umbrella of Huriyat Conference. The Opposition, mainly Congress, initially criticized the govt. for going ahead with talks notwithstanding continuing ceasefire violation by Pakistan but changed track later highlighting that the decision should have come sooner if at all.

The truth is that India has been found wanting in dealing with a rogue state like Pakistan, which has been hell-bent on creating trouble in J&K since 1947 when Pakistan invaded it to ensure merger of a Muslim-majority state with itself while its Hindu Maharaja, keen on independence, opted for accession to India to save it from the same fate. The festering dispute, which has taken a toll of several thousand lives and valuable resources during the last 66 years, could have been resolved on several occasions had the Indian political leadership of the day risen to the occasion. Unfortunately, it did not happen!

When Indian forces landed in Sri Nagar following the signing of the Instrument of Accession by Maharaja Hari Singh, they were just in time to stop the Pakistani tribesmen from capturing the valley. But the time was also ripe to carry on the military operation to its finality. However, the idealist in Nehru got better of the strategist. Nehru thought and not wrongly at that time that Kashmiris will prefer to opt to live in a secular India than in the new nation born out of religious bigotry, hatred & violence. As a liberal humanist & a Kashmiri Pandit himself, Nehru had confidence in his people. He took the issue of Pakistani invasion of Kashmir to U.N. and the rest is history. India could and should have carried on the military operation to its conclusion and reclaimed what is now called POK or ironically, Azad Kashmir by Pakistan.

The 1965 war with Pakistan was fought when Lal Bahadur Shastri was at the helm of affairs in India. Objective analysts believe that military gains were shared by both the parties. While Pakistan made some territorial gains in J&K, India neutralized them in other sectors. A ceasefire followed & USSR intervened to bring the warring nations to bargaining table.  The Tashkent agreement, ostensibly forced upon a reluctant India, enjoined upon India & Pakistan to retreat to positions held before the war started. Therefore, it was another diplomatic disaster, which also tragically ended our prime minister’s life abroad.

The third opportunity to resolve the Kashmir issue presented itself following Pakistan’s rout in 1971 war. Indian military also made significant gains on the western front while taking 80,000 soldiers as POWs following the famous Dhaka surrender by Gen. Niazi. The stage was ripe for a lasting solution to Kashmir but Indira Gandhi frittered away the gains on the bargaining table in Simla next year. Bhutto pleaded that India had inflicted enough damage by finishing East Pakistan. India offered to return either the territories in the western sector or the POWs held during the war under the false impression that Pakistan would prefer the latter. Bhutto promptly asked for the former and explained later that India could not hold on to its men indefinitely. If Indira Gandhi were as cunning as the wily Sindhi from across the border, she would have insisted on Pakistani withdrawal from POK as the only precondition for both.

India was fourth time unlucky when it was let down by the NDA govt. at Agra in 2001. Pakistani dictator-cum-president, Parvez Musharraf, was being hosted at the summit by Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Gen. Musharraf, an army man and architect of Kargil war during Vajpayee’s Lahore Bus Yatra, was keen to go down the annals of history as a game changer. He appeared willing to rule out solutions unacceptable to both India & Pakistan and look for unconventional ideas, including making borders porous and irrelevant. Musharraf was a hard core military commander who was determined to accomplish a difficult mission in a flamboyant style. When the agreement was about to be inked around midnight, Musharraf’s move was checkmated by our Sindhi.  L.K. Advani, then PM Vajpayee’s deputy, reportedly fielded Sushma Swaraj to address a press conference around midnight, which scuttled it.

With Advani’s bête noir Modi as PM and his protégé, Sushma Swaraj as the MEA calling off the talks now, will another opportunity to resolve the Kashmir imbroglio present itself anytime soon?  Only time will tell!

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