Chaos in Kashmir

 Chaos in Kashmir.

Hardnews Special

Something sinister is happening in J&K. Who is behind this? And why?

Sanjay Kapoor, Hardnews, Delhi

Indians hate a weak government. And they know one when they see one. Quite evidently, the one that is in power in Delhi is living up to BJP leader LK Advani's claim that it is perhaps the weakest government that the country has ever had. Earlier, evidence to corroborate Advani's allegation would have been hard to compile but, after the shoddy manner in which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his home minister, Shivraj Patil, have handled the Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) blowout, there is no confusion left.

People all over the country seethe with rage when they see television footage of how petty and opportunistic politics- backed with utterly incompetent leadership - was threatening the unity of the country. They wonder whether what is being played out could be handled differently. The biggest question that has not been answered is: why has the central government allowed the agitation in J&K to carry on for so long? Is there a design to it, or has the government's hands been stayed by some extraneous players to achieve a larger geo-political objective?

There may not be ready answers to these questions, but it is possible to perceive a pattern in the turbulence that seems to have gripped south Asia in recent months. By the look of it - it is a far larger and deeper game that is being played out not only in J&K, but also in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Does someone smell sulphur in the region?

The Americans after 9/11 are definitely the big players in the region. There are others - China, for instance -- that want to leave their impress on the region. Indeed, there is an abundance of ‘authoritative' material floating around all over the place about how Islamic terrorists are trying to provoke India, Pakistan and Afghanistan to fight with each other.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh gave credence to this line of thinking when he agreed to a suggestion - made during his trip to Havana to attend the NAM summit - that Pakistan, too, was a victim of terror. Implicit in his admission was the understanding that non State actors like Islamic militants wanted to engulf this region in chaos and attain their larger objectives laid out so many times by the cave-dwelling duo of Osama bin Laden and his Sancho Panza, Ayman al Zawahiri.

Much of the confidence building measures between India and Pakistan were premised on the belief that both the countries were suffering from the scourge and they needed to pool their resources to fight it. Pakistan was also forced by India's coercive diplomacy, backed by the Americans, to stop supporting the Kashmiri ‘freedom movement'. The peace visible in the Valley was an outcome of these exertions. So if violence and chaos returns to the Valley, then what is the inference one can draw from it? Quite clearly, the alchemy that brought peace in the Valley is either not working or has been withdrawn. Is the US looking at Kashmir differently, and no longer perceives it is an "internal matter" of India? 

According to a well informed South Asia observer: "Kashmir looks very bad, the Pakistanis and Indians will regret their inability to reach some kind of overall agreement. This will endanger both of them." This observer is dropping grave hints of what Kashmir can do to both India and Pakistan. It is a serious observation that seems to elude the leadership in Delhi. The longer it takes for peace to return to Kashmir, the easier it would be for Kashmiri separatists to demand intervention from international bodies. And the way it is looking, the solution to the Kashmiri problem is inextricably linked to the conduct of the preponderantly Hindu Jammu region of the state.