New York times (May 24, 2012)
Is This Kashmir’s Road Map for Peace?
By HARI KUMAR and NIKHILA GILL
Farooq Khan/European Pressphoto Agency
A group of Kashmiri students place candles on the banks of Dal Lake as
they stage a protest against corruption in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir,
May 15, 2012.
In the summer of 2010, the Kashmir valley in Indian-controlled Kashmir
erupted with protests after a school boy was killed under controversial
circumstances. Locals alleged that the boy was shot dead by the police.
The police in the region frequently fired upon protesting youths who
threw stones, killing about 120 young boys that year alone.
In an attempt to calm the region, a parliamentary delegation visited
the Kashmir valley, held discussions with locals and appealed to them
to stop protesting. The former Times of India editor Dileep Padgaonkar,
the academic Radha Kumar and the retired bureaucrat M. M. Ansari were
tasked with the mammoth job of holding wide-ranging consultations with
all sections of the population in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, and
sketching out a regional road map for peace. The Hurriyat Conference,
an umbrella organization of separatist groups, refused to meet with the
group.
After meeting 700 other delegations and some 6,000 people, the three
delivered their recommendations in a 176-page report on Thursday.
Key findings include:
1. There is a deep sense of victimhood in the Kashmir valley. People
want to lead a life of dignity and honor.
2. People want freedom from all forces of religious extremism,
unaccountable administration, harsh laws, judicial delays, intimidation
and violence.
3. A political settlement in Jammu and Kashmir can be achieved only
through dialogue between all stakeholders.
4. Jammu and Kashmir should continue to function as a single entity
within the Indian Union.
5. The state’s distinctive status guaranteed by Article 370, which
gives its citizens and government special rights, must be upheld.
Except a few strategic departments like defense, finance,
communications and foreign affairs, the central government needs the
state government’s assent to pass laws in the state. Residents of other
states cannot buy land there.
6. All the central government acts and articles of the constitution
related specifically to the state should be reviewed by a
Constitutional Committee.
7. To promote reintegration with the rest of the country, there should
be a dialogue between Indian-controlled Kashmir and surrounding Indian
areas and an exchange program of artists, students and intellectuals.
Tourism across the Line of Control, which divides Indian-controlled
Kashmir from Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, should be encouraged.
8. The state should create special economic zones to encourage
investment, should provide export incentives for handicraft s and
horticulture, and should complete pending rail and road projects.
9. Jailed stone throwers and political prisoners should be released,
and the government should facilitate the return of Kashmiri youths
stranded across the Line of Control. A judicial commission should be
appointed to look into the unmarked graves discovered last year in the
area, which hold thousands of bodies.
10. The government should facilitate the return of Kashmiri Pandits,
Hindus from the area who fled decades ago under threat of violence, and
of groups who migrated from Jammu and Kargil.
11. Dialogue between the Indian government and Hurriyat Conference,
aimed at should be resumed as early as possible, and independently of
talks between India and Pakistan.
12. The government should promote interaction between civilians in both
India- and Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.
The report was immediately rejected by some leaders. Mr. Yasin Malik, a
separatist leader and chairman of Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front,
said in an interview he had been “proved right in not meeting” with the
report’s authors. “The report proved their intellectual bankruptcy.
They are trying to divide Jammu & Kashmir on ethnic and Communal
lines,” he said.
Omar Abdullah, the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir said on Twitter
he would “take a few days to examine the report, discuss it with senior
colleagues and then react."
_______________________________________________
assam mailing list
[email protected]
http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
