Volume 3, No. 7, July 2002

The geo-political scene of the South Asian Subcontinent post September 11 is changing fast. All equations are out to undergo major changes and this is going to affect the attitudes of both India and Pakistan vis-à-vis the national liberation movement in Kashmir. India is threatening Pakistan on an unprecedented scale. Indian aggressiveness threatens to plunge the region into a nuclear catastrophe. Emboldened by the Gujarat experiment-in-terror and the US victory in Afghanistan the Indian rulers have embarked on a frightening campaign with the aim to bring Pakistan to its knees and force the struggle in Kashmir to some demeaning conciliation.

The decisive US thrust into Central Asia has added another important factor to the complexity of the situation. Kashmir has closeness to Central Asia and this has further evoked US interest. It has increased the chances of US intervention, political or otherwise, in the region on a greater scale. The US is already carrying on military operations in the Northwestern tribal belt of Pakistan that borders Afghanistan. In the changed international situation, where the US is the one and the only superpower, US support to the Pakistani State has become one only of a tactical nature as India, with far more deadly potential and power, is ready to do the bidding of the international gangster in all eagerness and servility. This was clearly visible during the period when Clinton was the president of the USA. With this strategic shift in the situation the US approach towards the Kashmir problem underwent a whole metamorphosis.

The US was no longer interested in keeping the Kashmir pot boiling. Clinton, while commenting upon Kashmir after his return from Asia-Pacific, had said that "Kashmir is not East Timor: and the right to self-determination of the Kashmiri people was no longer applicable." With the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in September 2001the US has effectively moved to control internal policies, including the policy on Kashmir, of Pakistan. This may look ridiculous given the Pakistani build up on the border. But the build up is in the face of the gravely threatening mobilization of armed forces and the belligerent posture adopted by India. The reality is: Pakistan has undone most of its earlier stand on Kashmir. The Pakistan Government is facing its worst crisis in the whole of its historical approach towards Kashmir.

The US no longer needs to counter Russia, as the latter is nowhere on the scene, by supporting the Pakistani position on Kashmir. On the contrary, it is out to brand every national liberation struggle or people’s movement as "terrorism" that threatens to disturb its world hegemonistic designs. It liquidated the national movement of the East Timorese people through political chicanery and ultimately secured its control over the oil rich sea around East Timor in the name of supporting the liberation of East Timor. The national struggle in Kashmir too cannot think of utilizing the US support in contravention to Indian interests unless some more bigger problem arises in the Central Asian region, or if, incidentally Kashmir finds out that it too has rich natural resources like oil or something more important than oil. But in that case too, it will not be the Kashmiris who will benefit but the US who will opt for a control of the resources. The lack of US support to Pakistan, though the former needs the latter in its fight against militant Muslim religious forces for the time being, has put Pakistan in a very precarious position where it has suddenly found out that the West no longer stands by it on the Kashmir question.

Not only does Pakistan stand alone on Kashmir, but also, it has to carry the dictates of the US in all spheres be it economic, political or military. It no longer can act "independently" of its own will. It is being forced to behave as local governor of the worldwide empire of the US. It cringed before US threats in the case of the US war on Afghanistan. Though Kashmir is a different matter than the Talibani Afghanistan but the US and the West are concerned about pleasing the Indian compradors than to take the side of the Pakistani rulers.

Musharraf, who was forced at gunpoint to cooperate with the US war of aggression on Afghanistan and proved indispensable for the US, cannot think of securing its support on Kashmir. Here lies his predicament in the current standoff with India and the Pakistani ‘support’ for the liberation struggle in Kashmir.

After the December 13 happenings around the Indian Parliament the whole regional scene has transformed. Indian and Pakistani armies have come face to face with each other on a high state of alert, ready to plunge into a devastating war. India increased its shrill voice accusing Pakistan of exporting terrorism to India and increasingly asked the "international community" (i.e. the USA) to declare Pakistan a state sponsoring terrorism and threatened to launch a full-fledged war on Pakistan. Vajpayee said, "no weapons will be spared" (a reference to nuclear weapons) to settle the Kashmir question for once and for all. The Indian government even threatened to "retake" the Pakistan occupied Kashmir sounding like Hitler’s fascist onslaughts. First, India has no legal and genuine claim on Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK). Secondly, even if it thinks that it has such a claim it has absolutely no right to rule over a people against their wishes. Thirdly, from a humanitarian point of view, this unjust war on the part of India would trigger a holocaust killing millions of innocent people on both sides of the border thus making it a crime against humanity. Fourthly, the government in Pakistan does not want war with India at this critical juncture of Pakistan’s whole history of existence.

And it is India who is belligerent and not Pakistan despite the numerous claims and clamour by India about terrorism, cross-border terrorism, hand of the ISI and all that because India has no moral right to speak on behalf of the land and the people of the IOK. It has done enough to boot, maltreat, molest, brutalize and terrorize the population in the valley, made a mockery of its own ‘democratic’ credentials, used all nefarious and wicked means to put its own henchmen in power and last, but not the least, has enacted one after the other betrayal over its own promises to the people of Jammu and Kashmir right from the times of Nehru.

The US has found its natural allies in the Indian communalists and chauvinists for the said purpose of continuing and destroying the "Muslim fundamentalist forces" in the region. Whereas the Pakistani President has been forced to "act" as a second ‘Kamal Pasha’, the Saffron Brigade of India has taken on the mantle of the Indian Taliban as the most willing servants of the US led coalition for the so-called defense of "democracy, civilization and religious tolerance."

Right now the US, Indian and Pakistani vultures have descended upon the militant movement in Kashmir in their own antagonistic, yet complimentary, ways to destroy, or utilize, the national liberation struggle in Kashmir. With all the three countries having their own interests to grind, the political scenario in Kashmir has become an open ground for various competing forces trying to out do each other, at times locking horns, at others moving in harmony with each other. The past few months have been full of some intensely serious and highly important developments that have far reaching implications for the future of Jammu and Kashmir.

First, we must look into the new turn in the policy of the Musharraf government vis-à-vis Kashmir. With the US pointing the gun to his head Musharraf’s crackdown on the fundamentalist Jehadi forces in Pakistan is the most significant development. This has changed the whole gameplan of the Pakistani rulers. In the name of liberation of Jammu and Kashmir Pakistan had wanted to tear away the Muslim part of Jammu and Kashmir to make it a part of Pakistan. This was a logical consequence of the two nation theory earnestly pursued by the British imperialists to divide the people of the sub-continent on communal lines, the consequences of which we are bearing even after fifty-five years of the transfer of power. With the rise of the saffron flag in India it is now more than ever true.

Throughout the anti-Russian war and the internecine war between various groups in Afghanistan the Pakistani military and civil administration had built up these forces and stepped up its intervention in the national liberation struggle of Jammu and Kashmir in the name of taking up the cause of liberation. In the early years of the decade of the nineties it had consciously and systematically worked to destroy the influence and strength of secular and democratic forces of the national liberation movement in J&K and encouraged those who were pronouncedly pro-Pakistan than those who were having nationalist convictions and stood for a United, Independent and Secular State of Jammu and Kashmir that would be free from the influences and intervention of the reactionary and evil rulers of both India and Pakistan. They were raised and fired more with religious fervour as a counter force to the revolutionary nationalist forces of J&K.

But when the HM, having it roots in the J&K, started exhibiting independent tendencies from that of the Pakistani rulers it was coerced and cornered mercilessly. In its place openly fanatic and pro-Pakistan groups were launched to make sure that the national liberation struggle in Kashmir was fully hijacked and made an appendix of Pakistani State policy.

Here it will suffice to quote from a recent article in "Jasarat", the mouthpiece of Jamaat-e-Islami of Pakistan: "[Most of] these militant organisations were formed in the name of so-called national interests to weaken the religious parties and their image." "The intelligence agencies (gave) arms, resources and power to the banned parties…" That this was done despite the fact that there were "strong and large indigenous militant out fits in Kashmir, not only Pakistani groups were raised but their operations were also presented in an exaggerated manner…(there by damaging the) Kashmir Jehad."

Although the above quotes are from a reactionary religious mouthpiece yet it speaks volumes about the fanatic forces that were even standing right to the Jamaat-e-Islami and were having contradictions with it too. It also speaks about the devious designs of the reactionary State of Pakistan. Now this State has disowned and banned its own creations under intense pressure of the biggest and most vicious warlord of the planet, US imperialism. It is to serve the interests of the US imperialists and not the "national interests" of Pakistan as Musharraf would have the world believe, but is bent upon falling flat at the feet of the US imperialist monster. At US’ behest he is not only trying to destroy the Talibani type Pakistani groups but also the genuine Kashmiri freedom fighters.

The US masters say, "It is good that Musharraf is cracking down on the Jehadi Forces" and Musharraf says that he is laying the "foundations of a modern and progressive Pakistan". In reality, the boss has forced the subordinate (the lesser evil) to wind up its operations and the latter has no alternative than to oblige.

When we come back to Kashmir and situate this development there it seems the things are heading for a disastrous climax that had started taking shape in the early nineties with the unleashing of Pakistani sponsored forces in the national liberation movement.

There are certain things that have to be kept in the memory in order not to be caught unprepared in the confusion that has come to stay in Kashmir.

They have their own axes to grind. For India Kashmir is an "inalienable part" that is "at the heart of the Indian nationhood"; "its accession to India is final and non-negotiable"; "the UN resolutions are dead"; "there is no question of either plebiscite of right to self-determination"; the "movement in Kashmir is not indigenous but only cross-border-terrorism" the part of Kashmir that is in the hands of the Pakistani State is "under illegal occupation that has to be vacated". India has used every kind of repression on the people of Kashmir to keep them under tight control. This has been going on for the past fifty-four years.

The readers of this paper are aware of the fact that Kashmir is the only State that bears the brunt of maximum number of Indian armed forces. It has the ignominious record of the maximum number of murders of its inhabitants with state bullets. It is conceivably the only State where the brutal forces of Indian Democracy have been at work to manoeuver, swindle and machinate the election process in a wholesale manner. All this bear witness that the Indian occupation of J&K is illegitimate, illegal, absurd and blatantly inhuman.

The land has remained occupied by its powerful neighbours dividing its people into two halves. While Pakistan always insists that Kashmir is a "dispute" between India and Pakistan the Indian position only talks about Kashmir as its inalienable part. Both the countries deny an Independent entity of J&K. Both countries have played with the religious sentiments of the people with communal insinuation. This "dispute thesis" say that it should be acceded to Pakistan because it is a Muslim majority state and for this purpose only it should be given "the right to self-determination." But the whole of the Pakistani argumental thrust is directed at giving the Kashmiri people the right to self-determination only in the Indian part of the occupied land. When the question comes that the PoK should also have this right to self-determination and secession, it refuses to accept the thesis. It has suppressed repeated attempts of the forces that stand for an independent Kashmir to organise and raise their voice.

More recently, on Kashmir Day, Feb 5, the Pakistani ruler general Musharraf, while rebuking the numerous militant groups who were interfering in the Kashmir struggle, said, "leave Kashmir to my Government and me. I assure you that we will not let down the people." He was speaking to the PoK assembly and the Kashmir Council situated in Muzaffrabad. He wants to tell the people that he and his government will look after the Kashmir problem as if he represented the voice of the Kashmiris.

He, like his predecessors, scornfully rejects the idea of an independent Kashmir. Pakistani State’s interverntion in the Kashmir struggle has only been to make Kashmir a part of Pakistan. It was never for the liberation of J&K. And now it has been forced by circumstances to retract its measures to achieve that objective as it has banned the groups nurtured by it. Not long ago Masood Azhar had answered a scribe, "we are not fighting for the liberation of Kashmir. We are sacrificing our lives to make it a part of Pakistan."

Pakistan authorities and the groups that were/are sponsored by it will be most happy if they get the Muslim dominated Srinagar valley and Muslim majority parts of the Jammu region. They may find satisfaction if the LoC is extended Indiawards to include such areas. They have nothing to do with all the people of various nationalities, regions and religious minorities that inhabit the land. And the murders of Hindu families in the Jammu region has much to do with this strategy that needs communal divide to reach a stage of no return. A few months back an LeT spokesman in Pakistan, while commenting upon the fascist activities of the RSS and the VHP had elatedly told a journalist, "we are happy that these organisations are doing the work which we want done." This was months before the heinous Gujarat carnage was enacted by the saffron clad marauding crowds.

The communal divide helps both the Hindu and Muslim communalist forces to carry out their respective reactionary and fascist designs through to the end. They will be the happiest persons on the earth if a 1947 is repeated in J&K and the whole of India where man will turn into a dreadful beast and commit the worst of crimes against fellow human beings as we have recently witnessed by the Hindu fascists in Gujarat. We have witnessed our mini Nineteen Forty Sevens in Surat, Bhiwandi, Lucknow, Ahmedabad and Kanpur.

The crux here is that the Pakistani game has been to hijack the liberation struggle of the oppressed people of J&K in the name of religion and consciously pushing it as a Muslim question rather than the national question. Now, in all probability, it is backing out which shows that it was not a true friend of the liberation struggle. It is a hard fact that has to be taken into account. Kashmir cannot be an India Vs. Pakistan question. It stands by itself in opposition to both of the neighbours who wag their tails before the imperialists and oppose the liberation of Kashmir.

Moreover, the Pakistani rulers have been working on the Kashmir question as per the requirements of the Pakistan State. Musharraf acts in the so-called ‘national interests’ of Pakistan and not in the interests of the people of Kashmir for whose cause he swears by. The Pakistani intervention and later somersaults have only damaged the liberation struggle. The organisations that are under the control of non-Kashmiris, in fact, don’t represent the interests of the Kashmiri people nor are they under the political control of Kashmiri nationalist organisations. They pursue an independent agenda. This situation has been too much exacting for the political groups in J&K, especially the All Party Hurriyet Conference.

The post September 11 incidents are precipitating many simmering and dormant things. The most worrying consequence has been the strengthening of the impression that it is losing political control over various organisations that are carrying on the armed struggle. More than a year ago Hurriyet leaders had expressed disenchantment with the militants who acted of their own accord. They had to even publicly air their difference over the foreign elements operating in Kashmir, as they were quite independent of the J&K based political leadership and had their separate agenda to pursue creating problems for the Hurriyet. An impression has long been created in the political circles and within the Hurriyet itself that the major part of the Kashmir struggle is in the hands of the non Kahmiris who are not accountable to the political leadership in Kashmir.

With Musharraf dissociating his regime from some of the groups the Hurriyet too has started asserting politically in clearer terms. The increased stress on dialogue to resolve the Kashmir problem indicates, in a way, that it does not condone all the actions of the militant organisations that are not under its control or don’t have their origin and roots in the Kashmiri soil.

An impression is gaining strength that bitten by the indiscipline in the militant ranks it is going away from the armed struggle altogether or wants to retain it only as a pressure tactics to sit across the table of negotiations. Is it an over-reaction to the fundamentalist non-Kashmiri groups? Most likely. But this over-reaction has an inherent danger of abandoning the armed struggle altogether and end up in some undignified settlement with the reactionary state of India. There have been strong statements that the question can be resolved through dialogue only. For this it even decided to prove its representative character through elections under a separate Election Commission that will hold simultaneous elections in the Srinagar Valley, Jammu and Ladakh and the Pakistani part of the State of J&K.

The Indian government interprets it as a "step in the right direction" hoping that it will lead the Hurriyet to participate in elections. Will the Hurriyet sacrifice its correct political position that it had adopted in 1996 (of boycotting the elections)? The doubts have been growing as to this position. It is necessary that the Hurriyet should make known that what kind of a political solution it wants through dialogue. Now after the heinous murder of Abdul Gani Lone, the Hurriyet has again announced that it will stick to its position of not participating in the elections. The over-reaction has to be corrected and an all out attempt be made to exercise political control over the liberation movement so as not to get trapped either in the Indian or Pakistani or the US net or of the religious fundamentalist forces. Right and sane forces on both sides of the LoC need to get united and the democratic forces of other nationalities and regions be incorporated in the political orientation and set-up. Let the opportunity that the Hurriyet has initiated to unite with the democratic voice in Kashmir in the form of setting up of a separate election commission not slip away and get degenerated into the mire of election politics. One may differ on the feasibility of such an effort "to prove the representative character of the Hurriyet" yet efforts are needed to bring in the democratic people in the service of the just cause.

The recent Pakistani position which is put forward by the Kashmir Committee, headed by a former prime Minister of the PoK, Sardar Kayyum Khan, says that "no military solution to the Kashmir problem is possible." Such statements only denigrate the armed struggle and also speak of the mind of Pakistani rulers who want to use the struggle as a bargaining chip in their dealings with India. On behalf of the Pakistani Government the Kashmir Committee is expected to take up an increased political role "representing the will of Kashmiris" though it says that it will work as an independent body. The APHC chapter in the PoK and the Kashmir Committee has decided to act jointly. From them a struggle for an independent Kashmir cannot be expected. In their opinion too the militant organisations (without any distinction) have "damaged" the Kashmir cause. This points out that the government of Pakistan has entirely changed its approach as the Kashmir Committee is saying what the Pakistani government has to say. The US officials had said before the January 12 address of Musharraf that he would announce a new approach on the Kashmir question that "will entirely change the face of Indo-Pak relations". Let us hope that the APHC in Indian occupied Kashmir will not be carried away by this "new approach" and will only act according to the aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir distancing itself from both the so-called "national interests" of the Pakistani ruling classes and also the intrigues of the Indian rulers.

For the Hurriyet, it is not only required to do away with those who don’t promote the cause of Kashmir but also it is necessary to pursue a policy that keeps the interests of the people of J&K as supreme.

The new situation has thrown up a challenge to the people of Kashmir on both sides of the Line of Control that those who stand for an independent, democratic, secular, and united Kashmir should join forces. Let not the things be decided either by India or Pakistan.

Another important aspect that has to be taken into account of is to be aware of the US designs in the region and also its newfound high interest in Central Asia. This only super power of the world is dictating things to both Indian and Pakistani rulers and has its own, even bigger axe to grind. It must not be allowed to assume the role of an arbiter in Kashmir either in the guise of the international community" or a "third party." It is time to take stock of the situation by discerning the reactionary character of all the "major players" in the region unless this is recognised and a whole new approach is chalked out the struggle in Kashmir is set to drag into a morass. It must be kept in mind that the Indian rulers cannot be expected to give away Kashmir only through a "dialogue" at the table. The Pakistani rulers who once seemed "allies" in the Kashmir struggle have enacted betrayal and there should be no more illusion about that. The movement has to be defined anew and make a turn in the right direction. This requires bold decisions that take into account the interests and aspirations of all the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

May 30, 2002

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