SRINAGAR: The JKLFs move to hold a conference of intellectuals to offer a solution to the Kashmir problem has significant implications irrespective of whether it materializes or not. However it is to arouse public interest here. The government and other militant outfits too have not reacted to the move.

Observers here point out that by inviting intellectuals of all political religious and regional factions in the state the JKLF has sought to impress upon the work community that the on-going “freedom movement” is not an all-Muslim affair which ignores the other communities or their aspirations. Talking to reporters in Islamabad the JKLF chairman Manullah Khan had emphasized that the idea behind the proposed conferences was to “evolve a consensus” to solve the problem.

The observers say that though the JKLF has not abandoned “armed struggle” the proposed conference is a step towards solving the problem through dialogue. Ananullah then is conscious of the “international climate” which he said demanded “our willingness” for a negotiated settlement.

According to Ved Bhasin a veteran journalist who hails from Jammu and is also among the invitees the fact that the militants “prefer a dialogue to the gun” is a healthy sign which should be encouraged.

This Opinion is shared by many within and outside India. That being so the government of India may find it quite embarrassing to obstruct the “peaceful process” initiated by the JKLF observers point out It will provide a stick to the JKLF sympathizers and lobbyist outside India and Pakistan to beat India with.

The government has not yet reacted to the JKLF move. Raj Bhavan here has also avoided comment. However the observers say the only situation in which the Indian government will encourage the proposed conference is when it is prepared for a tripartite dialogue with Pakistan and the representatives of Jammu and Kashmir. For they believe that the necessary follow up to the proposed conference would be another meet with invitations to representatives from both India and Pakistan.

The chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Conference Abdul Gani Lone who was released after two years detention in April has a different opinion. He says the proposed conference would be the first ever opportunity for the people of different regions and religious and political faiths of the state to sit together and understand each other’s point of view. By allowing the conference neither India nor Pakistan would bind themselves to any resolution adopted at it he adds.

Ved Bhasin says that the government of India should not only allow but encourage such a conference. He is of the opinion that following the proposed conference would not go against India’s stand on the Kashmir issue After all people from all the regions of different faiths and political commitments have been invited he points out.

A prominent leader from the Kashmiri Pandit community H.N Wanchoo says that the government of India should allow invitees from this side to go to Rawalkot via Uri. “It is after all an artificial division of the state” heads. He says the Kashmir issue has been hanging fire for over four decades now “Exchange of ideas at the proposed conference among people of different regions and persuasions would throw up an solution.”

However one of the invitees says that the venue of the proposed conference is not right. He says the government of India does not recognize “Azad Kashmir” either as part of Pakistan or as a sovereign state. In view of this stand it will not allow anybody from this side to attend the conference at Rawalkot.

He recalls that in 1988 the government had not allowed people from the Valley to attend the International Shah-i-Hamdan Conference held in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (POK) though it was surely religious in nature. However people from anywhere in India do visit the POK on an Indian passport.

Whatever may be the possible implications on the proposed conference the militant groups other than the JKLF here have so far avoided a comment on the JKLF move But the JKLF is not alone in seeking a solution to the  Kashmir problem through political means.

The Al-Barq militant outfit recently came out with a statement that the problem would ultimately be solved through political means and that the gun had to play the role of a watch-dog alone. A senior leader Prof. Abdul Gani was in fact the first to moot the idea of consultations among the people across the line of actual control to evolve a solution

Nevertheless the JKLF move has not yet aroused public concern.

 

Article extracted from this publication >> June 26, 1992