Funds coming from India, Pakistan and till recently Saudi Arabia meant that the Valley is flush with cash.
Secure under the Westphalian sovereignty rules (the principle of international law which states that each nation-state has exclusive sovereignty over its territory and that external powers should not interfere in another country’s domestic affairs), the BJP government is ring-fencing its policy drift in Jammu and Kashmir.
The principle underlies the modern international system of sovereign states which is all very well as far as global diplomacy is concerned, but with the rapidly deteriorating situation in the Valley, the concern is heightened among a vast swathe of Kashmir watchers.
The BJP leadership has, over the past few years, squandered enough opportunities and lately the Rubicon appears to have been crossed in terms of control over south Kashmir, now held by the security forces. So perilous is the situation that one shudders to think what will happen if the forces are removed.
Four years of BJP rule at the Centre and years of its rule in the state has turned the situation in the Valley similar to the aftermath of a low-tide shipwreck, exposing skeletons that are visible to all. By choosing to unleash majoritarian forces with a subliminal message of Islamophobia and Muslim-bashing, and foregoing all opportunities for a dialogue, the Hindu Right has distanced itself from Kashmir.
I strongly feel that those who take up arms against the country must be dealt with severely, be they Kashmiri militants, Naxals or Northeast rebels who oppose and challenge the idea and idiom of India by taking up weapons.
Nevertheless, we must have space for dialogue to bury the recriminations and bring them back into the fold. In the absence of any dialogue and the return of jackboots in the Valley, this point has unfortunately been overlooked.
In my view, Mr Modi has disregarded eight massive opportunities so far:
The policy of drift in Kashmir has come to such a pass that nobody trusts or believes the Centre any more; the trust deficit is monotypical as the youth take to the gun all over again. It is said so many people are sponging off the Kashmir militancy industry that no one wants it to end.
Funds coming from India, Pakistan and till recently Saudi Arabia meant that the Valley is flush with cash.
The PM had a singular opportunity to at least ensure that peace returned to the Valley, as say in 2012, one of the best years in recent times, if not resolve the Kashmir issue. But he lost it. Perhaps he should learn from his own ideologue and Sangh Guru M.S. Golwalkar.
When Maharaja Hari Singh, under the influence of his rajguru Swami Sant Deo, who floated the idea of Dogristan, chased away Congress president Acharya J.B. Kripalani, sent Viceroy Lord Mountbatten trout fishing and even made Mahatma Gandhi wait before seeing him, Sardar Patel reportedly convinced RSS sarsangchalak Guru Golwalkar to visit him to convince Hari Singh to accede to India. Of course, Gandhiji too played a huge role in convincing Hari Singh.
According to late Madhavrao Muley, who was then Prant Pracharak of Punjab and J&K, Golwalkar could convince the Maharaja about accession with the Indian Union. The Maharaja sent the accession proposal to Delhi and Guruji directed RSS workers in J&K to shed the last drop of their blood for the security of the State. After issuing these directions, he returned to Delhi.
Muley has given a detailed account of this historical fact in the book Shri Guruji Samagra Darshan. He writes: “Union Home Minister Sardar Patel, had told Mehar Chand Mahajan, Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, to prepare Maharaja Hari Singh for the accession of the state to India. Mehar Chand Mahajan conveyed the message to Guruji requesting him to meet the Maharaja and prepare him for the accession. Mahajan had arranged the meeting between Guruji and the Maharaja”.
“Guruji reached Srinagar by air from Delhi on October 17, 1947. The meeting took place on the morning of October 18. During the meeting prince Karan Singh, with his plastered fractured leg, was present while lying on the bed. Maharaja’s contention was that ‘my state is fully dependent on Pakistan. All routes pass through Sialkot and Rawalpindi. Lahore is my airport. How can I have relations with India?”
“Guruji made him understand by saying: ‘You are a Hindu king’. By acceding to Pakistan your Hindu subjects will have to struggle against grave difficulties. It is correct that there is no road, rail or air link with India but it can be set right quickly. In your interest and in the interest of Jammu & Kashmir State it is better for you to accede to India.”
“Prime Minister Mahajan too supported Golwalkar and said to the Maharaja that he was right. We must accede to India. At the end of their meeting, the Maharaja presented a ‘Tosa’ (best quality pashmina shawl) to Guruji and conveyed his readiness to accede to India.”
“After a period of eight days, the Maharaja signed the Instrument of Accession with the Indian Union and thus the princely state of J&K became an integral and inseparable part of India. The then RSS Chief Golwalkar Guruji played a very crucial role in convincing the Maharaja and securing the merger.”
This fact is not highlighted in the public domain, so very little is known about it. But it can safely be said that both Gandhiji and Golwalkar had a role in the accession as they appealed to different strands of sentiment — one to the idea of a secular India and the other to a Hindu King — in Hari Singh.
In such a scenario, it is not difficult to endorse former CM Farooq Abdullah’s train of thought — “The BJP government at the Centre, instead of helping us get out of this vortex of violence and anarchic, communally-polarised situation, is watching as a mute spectator. They seem to have given up on the state and have so far failed in bringing in a workable, practical and sensible way out. When it comes to Kashmir, the present leadership of the BJP is so dogmatic in their approach that they are not ready to listen to reason.”
Yes, what he is saying is pure politics, but everything he has said is also the absolute truth. The truth so unpalatable that no one wants to deal with it.