That's Justice S Ahmad

When I went to Baramulla a couple of years ago some locals asked me,”Are you from India or Kashmir?” I replied that I was from India of which Kashmir is an integral part of. They didn’t like it. Today the violence in the state may have come down a lot but they still don’t like to be called Indian. The report of the fifth panel on J&K wherein Justice S Ahmad has recommended grant of autonomy and referendum of people of J&K for Article 370 is a reflection of the same attitude than anything else. Justice Ahmad would have done well to suggest some new ways than beating down on old and dilapidated demands of National Conference.

First things first, if the panel was constituted by the PM why has the panel submitted it’s report to the CM of J&K Omar Abdullah? Doesn’t it show the lopsided bias of the panel with which it was working? Omar Abdullah too on his part has promptly made most of the report public possibly even before the PM had read it. Shouldn’t the panel be asked to submit a written and public explanation for this? I think the PMO should do so although the Liberhan Commission report which was handed over to the PM also got leaked out. But still a moot point to ponder over.

Secondly, if the commission comprised of several members including Arun Jaitley (BJP), Saifuddin Soz and Tara Chand (Congress), Abdul Rahim Rather (National Conference), Muzaffar Hussain Beig (People’s Democratic Party) and Ajay Chrungoo of Panun Kashmir how come the panel prepared it’s report without consulting all it’s members, as Arun Jaitley and Ajay Chrungoo have confirmed? They even say that they were not shown the draft recommendations of the panel. Also, the very fact that the panel did not have a formal sitting in the last two years proves that the panel was biased to begin with and was working on a one point agenda and that was to please National Conference, which it did.

Thirdly about the recommendations of the panel, I wonder on what grounds has the panel made the recommendation to grant autonomy to the state? Has the panel taken note of demands of people from Ladakh and Jammu region before making it’s report? From what it seems, the panel has only rubber stamped the resolution of National Conference which was passed in the J&K assembly on 26 Jun 2000 and which was rejected by then BJP govt at the center. Omar Abdullah seems to have literally dictated Justice Ahmad what to write. Well, after the flak he faced in the Shopian rape and murder case he sure is learning tricks of the trade pretty fast, from his father I might add. But he’s got to be careful here. If he really wants to do well for Kashmir he has to rise above petty politics and the proposal to grant autonomy to J&K is just that, dirty politics, to be used by Omar Abdullah to influence the public opinion within the state.

If you really see both these recommendations are contrary to each other. On one hand you say that we should grant them autonomy and on the other you say that a referendum should be held in J&K to decide if and when Article 370 should be removed. I mean whom are you kidding? Autonomy is nothing but an extension of Article 370 itself. By giving autonomy, the resolution of NC clearly implies that, Kashmir would be “affiliated” to India only for defense, currency, foreign affairs and communication. In other words they would have all other powers like stipulating laws, having a separate flag, their own anthem, citizenship and property rights etc etc. Please note that they already have most of these powers by way of Article 370. Autonomy will only make the state govt more powerful on this score, something like ’state within a state’. If you grant them autonomy Article 370 would as it is become redundant in the state. They would enact their own more stringent laws wherein they may deny even Kashmiri pundits their right to own property in the valley. And the govt at the center would not be able to do anything in the matter. So what referendum are we talking about? I really wonder why our govt and the media have not really publicized this issue of similarities between autonomy and Article 370. It would really help in influencing the public opinion not only in J&K but in the rest of the country as well.

Fact is that grant of autonomy is not the answer to the solution. If you grant autonomy to one state there will be others who will start asking for the same, mostly from the north east. As we have seen recently on the issue of Telengana  when demands for more states picked up as soon as Congress acceded to that of carving out Telengana out of Andhra Pradesh. We may be a democracy alright but it does not mean that every demand of people has to be met. People will demand the moon from you like giving them free power, water, food and God knows what all. Can you give in to all these demands? The slogan of Democracy by the people, for the people and of the people may be good for text books but when it comes to implementing it you have to see what is correct, just and affordable. And grant of autonomy is most definitely not.

We are living in the twenty first century India where the need of the hour is to amalgamate the Kashmiris into mainstream politics of the country. Giving them autonomy will do exactly the opposite. Yes, Article 370 also cannot be abrogated right now. But that’s because of past poor policies of the govt at the center. If we want to solve the problem we have to infuse money and revive the economy of the state. It is only after the state is economically not so backward that we can think of removing Article 370. The govt though is trying to do a few things like bringing railways and expanding airports of the state but the fact remains that there is indeed a lot more to be done before people start considering themselves Indians and not just Kashmiris. If the youth of the state have jobs, a home to live in and good infrastructure and good governance to boot the issue of autonomy and Article 370 can be made into non issues. It is only then  that we can think of a lasting solution of J&K. If you try and change equations now we will further alienate the already alienated populace of the state. You may say that I’m being too cautious in my approach. You may also say that we need to change the demography of the state by allowing more people to settle there. But the fact is that at this juncture it would be a mistake to jump to that level. Patience is the key. So let’s have some patience.

As for this report, well, less said the better. Just junk the damn thing into Jhelum or Chenab for that matter.

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Posted on December 26th, 2009 India calling • Tags: autonomy, BJP, Congress, J&K, NC, Omar, panel, report, Telengana. • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback