NEW DELHI: The Army’s bungling at Chrar-e-Sharief appears to have completely paralyzed the Central Government. With official’s busy grappling with the developing ground situation, policy initiatives on Kashmir seem to have receded to the back ground.
Bureaucrats were huddled in endless meetings ever since the destruction of the shrine, and many were unwilling to speak on the issue, There is a sense of dread and drift in both North and South Blocks, and although: an official felt that the situation could be retrieved if the Government played its cards right,” there was little confidence that the political leaderships was up to the task.
As a consequence, it is almost certain that the proposed Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir will not be taken up before July 18, after which the President’s rule in the State has to be extended by a constitutional amendment.
However, collections are not a priority in the Government at the moment. Official concern is directed at two things; the reaction all over the Valley to the events at Chrar-e-Sharief once Curfew is listed; and the botched up operation by the Army which led to the destruction of the shrine.
Although officials claim that is still no clear what actually happened in Chrar-e-Sharief, there is a general mood of anger at the Army. A burette rat argued that there was no need to have a siege in the first place, while another said that if it had to be done, then how it that alleged Afghan veteran Mast Gul and his 12 comrades was escaped from the spot. ‘Officials said that whatever the Government claimed, the perception of the people was that the Army destroyed the shrine.
As a result, many officials now felt that elections would have to be deferred even though many feel that the only way to prevent tragedies like Chrar-e-Sharief recurring was to somehow get a political process started.
A genuine political leadership would not have allowed the Army to lay the siege or make the standoff a prestige issue, a bureaucrat pointed out. An elected Government would have found otter ways to defuse the tension. “For even if the worse possible Government was to be elected and take office, it would still be better than this,” said an official, referring to Governor Gen K.V. Krishna Rao’s administration.
Chances of genuine political dialogues with the “new leadership” in the Valley however seems to have receded with the developments at Chrar-e-Sharief and even an election without the participation of such elements does not seem plausible to officials at the moment
While alienation with India had been deep anyway, official’s approach end that demands for independence would be ignited among even those people in Kashmir who had tired of the continuing violence over the past five years and who was looking for an opening to peace.
Article extracted from this publication >> May 19, 1995
