JULY 08, 2019 News the Newsbehind 7
indianpoliticalmainstreamumbrella to, as they claim, fi ght for
safeguarding the state’s special status.”
Th e BJP’s ideological approach is
diff erent from that of the Congress.
Unlike the Congress and certain other
political parties, which are comfortable
with treating Jammu and Kashmir
as a special case, the BJP, writes the
Hindustan Times “has always pushed
for a more integrationist approach that
entails treating it as just another state
of the Union. Th is is why it is against
special provisions, which Mr Shah
reiterated were ‘temporary’......”
CONSEQUENCES OF
TAMPERING WITH
AUTONOMY
Th e BJP may have a view on Article
370, but for many observers, including
Gurmeet Kanwal, former director, Cen-
tre for Land Warfare Studies (CLAWS),
New Delhi, saying that Article 370 is
‘temporary’ amounts to ‘loose talk’.
“Except for a very small minority that
has been deeply infl uenced by radical
extremism, the Kashmiri people do not
wish to either join Pakistan or opt for
independence from India, despite the
slogans being shouted by stone-pelters
in recent years. Creeping Talibanisation
in Pakistan goes against the grain of
Kashmiriyat and Sufi culture and it has
not gone unnoticed.
“It is my conviction that after very
hard and acrimonious bargaining, the
Kashmiri people will ultimately settle
for unadulterated autonomy, which will
allow them the right to rule themselves,
within the Indian Union. Th ey will
accept that the central government
continues to deal with defence, foreign
aff airs, currency and communications
while the J&K Assembly is left free to
legislate on everything else. Th is should
not be viewed as an out-of-the-way
concession as federalism forms the basis
of the Indian Constitution. If some
sections of the Indian polity think that
it is too much to concede, they need
to consider the alternatives — each of
which is too horrible to contemplate.”
THE “ASSIMILATION
APPROACH”
But in this acrimonious debate,
there are supporters of a hard line
one of them is Abhinav Kumar, IPS
(Indian police Service) offi cer serving
in Kashmir.
He argues that the time has come
to seriously consider what he calls the
“assimilation approach. It rests on the
belief that the separatist sentiment that
has been a feature of Kashmiri politics
since 1948 and the militancy that has
raged in the state since 1990, both draw
sustenance from the constitutional
arrangements, namely Articles 35 A
(the Article of the Indian Constitution
that allows the Jammu and Kashmir
state’s legislature to defi ne ‘permanent
resident’ of the state) and 370, that
have defined Kashmir’s relationship
with India. Without dismantling this
structure, separatism and militancy
will always strike a chord among a
large section of the population in the
Valley. Together, these Articles have
frozen the demography and politics of
the state and skewed it in favour of the
Muslim majority from the Kashmir
Valley. Some of them favour azadi,
some favour a merger with Pakistan.
And almost all of them have an issue
accepting the idea of India. Unless this
structural dominance of the Valley is
dismantled, no amount of operational
successes can end the raging fi re of
insurgency in Kashmir.”
He agrees though that this could
it lead to a period of extremely violent
public protests. But the Indian nation-
state does have the “economic heft, the
military resources and the international
clout to get a grip on this prolonged
period of unrest.”
Th e massive mandate of the BJP
appears to be giving the government
an alternative “for altering the
fundamentals of Kashmir’s relationship
with India.”Ph: +91 9810622100
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