NEW DELHI: The Indian government’s increasingly shrill accusations that Pakistan is trying to provoke India into another war over Kashmir are diverting attention from the inability of Prime Minister VP Singh’s government to stern resurgent tides of secessionism in not one but two strategic Border States, Punjab as well as Jammu and Kashmir.
If these two movements, more militant than they were when. Mr. Singh took office in December were to find common cause as they threaten to do, India could face its most serious crisis since independence.
The response a range of independent Indian experts say, would inevitably have to be a heavy show of force, whether or not this included an attack on Pakistani targets.
Several diplomats here and in Islamabad are skeptical about Indian accusations. But it is universally recognized that Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s recent statements promising “1,000 years of war,” and her allocation of 100 million Pakistani rupees (about $5 million) for the Kashmiri cause fly in the face of official denies of complicity.
A.P. Venkatewaran, a former permanent head of India’s Ministry of External Affairs who is now a resident scholar at the Center for Policy Studies was among the signers of one statement published today which advocated a no war pact with Pakistan. But in an interview today, he acknowledged that talks with Islamabad were now very unlikely unless they were arranged by another nation with influence in Islamabad.
“The United States is the only country that can play an important role here,” he said, adding that the Soviet Union was preoccupied with its own problems. China, which is close to Pakistan, has refused to mediate.
In dealing with both Kashmir and Punjab, Prime Minister Singh appears to have squandered the good will he had four months ago. Visiting Punjab on Friday, he was greeted by sparse silent audiences. In December enthusiastic crowds flocked to hear him promise to “heal the wounds.
At least 500 people have been killed in Punjab since Mr. Singh’s December visit. His reaction has been to fall back on the previous government’s policies: continued suspension of the state’s legislature and rule from New Delhi along with stepped up police activity Punjabis say these tactics helped create the alienation in the first place,
In Kashmir, Mr. Singh has all but sidelined his Home Affairs Minister, Mohammed Sayeed, and a Kashmiri Muslim who had been in office only a few days when his daughter Rubiya was kidnaped by militants in the Kashmir valley. Last week, he came under renewed attack for having agreed to release five militants in return for her freedom while refusing to free three more detainees to save the lives of the head of Kashmir University, his aide and a businessman in Srinagar. The three were found slain on April 10.
There are recurrent rumors that Mr. Sayeed may be shifted in a Cabinet shuffle expected in a week or two.
The reappointment of Jagmohanas governor of Kashmir has also not been a success. Mr. Jagmohan, who uses only one name, was a relatively popular administrator in an earlier tenture, but recent events have overtaken him, and he is now identified in the minds of Kashmiris with New Delhi’s tougher measures. Since January, hundreds of Kashmiris have been arrested or killed in firing by troops.
Article extracted from this publication >> May 4, 1990
