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“Based on past experience I would expect to see armed conflict grow,” says ex-Kashmir interlocutor Radha Kumar
August 5, 2020 | By: Umar Manzoor Shah Bangla
After the six month long intense protest demonstrations in Kashmir against the killing of more than 100 boys, the government of India in October 2010, appointed senior journalist Dileep Padgoankar, academician Radha Kumar, and former Information Commissioner M.M Ansari as interlocutors to pacify Kashmiris.
The trio spent a year on the task meeting more than 700 delegations from all 22 districts of Jammu and Kashmir. The committee submitted its report to the then Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, recommending reduction in the number of armed forces in the Valley, end to human rights violations and the review of the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). But these suggestions were ignored by New Delhi.
In an exclusive chat with the South Asian Monitor, one of the interlocutors, Ms Radha Kumar talks on the scenario in Kashmir post-August 5, 2019 when India’s federal government led by Narendra Modi stripped Kashmir of its Special Status.
Excerpts:
South Asian Monitor (SAM): One year has passed since Article 370 which gave a Special Status to the State of Jammu and Kashmir was abrogated. What do you think has changed since August 5 last year in the political landscape of J&K?
Radha Kumar (RK): What has not changed? The decisions of August 5, 2019 - to void all the clauses of Article 370, and divide and demote the State - have fully alienated the people of the Kashmir Valley and parts of Jammu and Ladakh from the people and State of India. Anticipating the reaction from the Valley, the Modi administration put Jammu and Kashmir under a total lockdown. With a few small relaxations, such as restoration of telephones, the lockdown has been in place for the past year. During this period the administration has chipped away most of the rights people there had, from the new domicile rules to the new media policy - which is blatant censorship - to delimitation and the creation of fresh constituencies, all measures taken without consultation with the elected leadership, which was in preventive detention, or the people of the former State.
All we see in Jammu and Kashmir is counter-insurgency and government propaganda. We also see rising civilian insecurity, apart from detentions under the Public Security Act and the failure of the courts to deal with habeas corpus or bail petitions speedily. In the past two months, there have been cordon and search operations in the valley every single day.
SAM: Do you think the post-August 5 situation has internationalized the Kashmir issue like never before? Also, whether you find that the international community has now become more sensitive towards the Kashmir conflict and its resolution?
No, not really. Kashmir was 'internationalized' when Pakistan invaded in 1947 and had remained a hot item on the UN agenda for the next ten years or so. After that, especially when there were India-Pakistan peace talks, it receded from the international agenda. What we can say is that, in comparison to the past 20 years, when Kashmir was very low on the international agenda, it has gained international attention since August 2019. At present COVD 19 and Chinese expansionism occupy the international agenda. I don't see them doing much more than issuing the odd statement in the near future.
SAM: Many have said that changes made on August 5 last year, were a “betrayal of the trust” reposed by the people when the erstwhile State acceded to the Union of India. Do you agree?
(RK): Yes, I do, but I would add that what is being done is worse even than a betrayal of trust. It is a violation of the Instrument of Accession, a violation of the Indian and Jammu and Kashmir constitutions, a violation of citizens' rights, and a violation of democracy. The Modi administration has displayed utter contempt for the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
SAM: Was the way in which abrogation of the Special Status was done legal?
(RK): I am one of a group of people who have challenged the Presidential orders of August 5 and 6, 2019, as well as the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act, in the Supreme Court (SC). So no, I do not think the way in which it was done was legal.
SAM: Are you hopeful that the SC will intervene in the right way and undo the wrongs?
(RK): It is difficult to be hopeful when we have not been heard. Our petition has been pending since October 2019.
SAM: Muzaffar Hussain Beigh, a mainstream veteran political leader in one of his interviews has said that post August 5, the Indian government has succeeded in changing the discourse of Kashmir from Azadi to Autonomy. Your take on this?
(RK): I wish that was true. Every peace negotiation, between India and the separatist leaders as well as India and Pakistan, has rested on autonomy, or 'autonomy plus' as I called it, as the base of a solution. My fear is that, after what our government has done from August 2019 till date, autonomy may no longer be a baseline and may have to be replaced with something more radical. This is, however, a more long-term question, because our current administration is opposed to peacemaking.
The disaster for our country is that if and when we do have an administration which is inclined to peacemaking, they will first have to deal with a legacy of deep hatred in the Valley left by the present administration.
SAM: Scraping of Article 370 was already in BJP’s core agenda. Were you surprised or you were expecting such a change soon after BJP won the national elections with great majority?
(RK): It was on the BJP's core agenda in 2014 too but they didn't try then. In fact they had an alliance with the People’s Democratic Party in 2015, to form a coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir, in which they agreed to consider self-rule, i.e., as much if not more autonomy. Though it was again repeated in their manifesto in 2019, the issue of Art. 370 was not an important plank of their election campaign. In fact, it was Pulwama and Balakote, not Art.370. But it is true that they laid the ground for their August 2019 actions in the order of December 2018, and we should have been alert to the possibility of their doing what they did in August. Kashmiri political parties had flagged their suspicions from July onwards.
SAM: How do you see the China-India face-off at the Line of Actual Control (LAC). Whether it has any Kashmir angle to it?
(RK): The link is an opportunist one. We have unsettled borders with China. And China is not willing to settle the border issues except from a position of advantage. We too were foolish not to seize the few windows we had to settle border issues, when China was weaker economically. As China has grown in economic and military strength, its policies have focused more on containing India. Thus far, the Chinese government has never overlooked an opportunity to fish in our troubled waters.
SAM: In future, how do you think people of Jammu and Kashmir will view the August 5, 2019 development? Will they accept it or resist it. Will it instigate youth to join militancy or pacify them to accept the status quo?
(RK): I think it is too early to say. Based on past experience I would expect to see armed conflict grow.
SAM: What more is the BJP-led union government planning in Kashmir?
(RK): Unfortunately, I do not understand BJP thinking or planning. Viewed from my distant point, I see them as both totalitarian and incompetent, vainglorious in the ascendant and disingenuous when failing.
https://south-asian-monitor.com/en/...grow-says-ex-kashmir-interlocutor-radha-kumar
August 5, 2020 | By: Umar Manzoor Shah Bangla
After the six month long intense protest demonstrations in Kashmir against the killing of more than 100 boys, the government of India in October 2010, appointed senior journalist Dileep Padgoankar, academician Radha Kumar, and former Information Commissioner M.M Ansari as interlocutors to pacify Kashmiris.
The trio spent a year on the task meeting more than 700 delegations from all 22 districts of Jammu and Kashmir. The committee submitted its report to the then Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, recommending reduction in the number of armed forces in the Valley, end to human rights violations and the review of the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). But these suggestions were ignored by New Delhi.
In an exclusive chat with the South Asian Monitor, one of the interlocutors, Ms Radha Kumar talks on the scenario in Kashmir post-August 5, 2019 when India’s federal government led by Narendra Modi stripped Kashmir of its Special Status.
Excerpts:
South Asian Monitor (SAM): One year has passed since Article 370 which gave a Special Status to the State of Jammu and Kashmir was abrogated. What do you think has changed since August 5 last year in the political landscape of J&K?
Radha Kumar (RK): What has not changed? The decisions of August 5, 2019 - to void all the clauses of Article 370, and divide and demote the State - have fully alienated the people of the Kashmir Valley and parts of Jammu and Ladakh from the people and State of India. Anticipating the reaction from the Valley, the Modi administration put Jammu and Kashmir under a total lockdown. With a few small relaxations, such as restoration of telephones, the lockdown has been in place for the past year. During this period the administration has chipped away most of the rights people there had, from the new domicile rules to the new media policy - which is blatant censorship - to delimitation and the creation of fresh constituencies, all measures taken without consultation with the elected leadership, which was in preventive detention, or the people of the former State.
All we see in Jammu and Kashmir is counter-insurgency and government propaganda. We also see rising civilian insecurity, apart from detentions under the Public Security Act and the failure of the courts to deal with habeas corpus or bail petitions speedily. In the past two months, there have been cordon and search operations in the valley every single day.
SAM: Do you think the post-August 5 situation has internationalized the Kashmir issue like never before? Also, whether you find that the international community has now become more sensitive towards the Kashmir conflict and its resolution?
No, not really. Kashmir was 'internationalized' when Pakistan invaded in 1947 and had remained a hot item on the UN agenda for the next ten years or so. After that, especially when there were India-Pakistan peace talks, it receded from the international agenda. What we can say is that, in comparison to the past 20 years, when Kashmir was very low on the international agenda, it has gained international attention since August 2019. At present COVD 19 and Chinese expansionism occupy the international agenda. I don't see them doing much more than issuing the odd statement in the near future.
SAM: Many have said that changes made on August 5 last year, were a “betrayal of the trust” reposed by the people when the erstwhile State acceded to the Union of India. Do you agree?
(RK): Yes, I do, but I would add that what is being done is worse even than a betrayal of trust. It is a violation of the Instrument of Accession, a violation of the Indian and Jammu and Kashmir constitutions, a violation of citizens' rights, and a violation of democracy. The Modi administration has displayed utter contempt for the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
SAM: Was the way in which abrogation of the Special Status was done legal?
(RK): I am one of a group of people who have challenged the Presidential orders of August 5 and 6, 2019, as well as the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act, in the Supreme Court (SC). So no, I do not think the way in which it was done was legal.
SAM: Are you hopeful that the SC will intervene in the right way and undo the wrongs?
(RK): It is difficult to be hopeful when we have not been heard. Our petition has been pending since October 2019.
SAM: Muzaffar Hussain Beigh, a mainstream veteran political leader in one of his interviews has said that post August 5, the Indian government has succeeded in changing the discourse of Kashmir from Azadi to Autonomy. Your take on this?
(RK): I wish that was true. Every peace negotiation, between India and the separatist leaders as well as India and Pakistan, has rested on autonomy, or 'autonomy plus' as I called it, as the base of a solution. My fear is that, after what our government has done from August 2019 till date, autonomy may no longer be a baseline and may have to be replaced with something more radical. This is, however, a more long-term question, because our current administration is opposed to peacemaking.
The disaster for our country is that if and when we do have an administration which is inclined to peacemaking, they will first have to deal with a legacy of deep hatred in the Valley left by the present administration.
SAM: Scraping of Article 370 was already in BJP’s core agenda. Were you surprised or you were expecting such a change soon after BJP won the national elections with great majority?
(RK): It was on the BJP's core agenda in 2014 too but they didn't try then. In fact they had an alliance with the People’s Democratic Party in 2015, to form a coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir, in which they agreed to consider self-rule, i.e., as much if not more autonomy. Though it was again repeated in their manifesto in 2019, the issue of Art. 370 was not an important plank of their election campaign. In fact, it was Pulwama and Balakote, not Art.370. But it is true that they laid the ground for their August 2019 actions in the order of December 2018, and we should have been alert to the possibility of their doing what they did in August. Kashmiri political parties had flagged their suspicions from July onwards.
SAM: How do you see the China-India face-off at the Line of Actual Control (LAC). Whether it has any Kashmir angle to it?
(RK): The link is an opportunist one. We have unsettled borders with China. And China is not willing to settle the border issues except from a position of advantage. We too were foolish not to seize the few windows we had to settle border issues, when China was weaker economically. As China has grown in economic and military strength, its policies have focused more on containing India. Thus far, the Chinese government has never overlooked an opportunity to fish in our troubled waters.
SAM: In future, how do you think people of Jammu and Kashmir will view the August 5, 2019 development? Will they accept it or resist it. Will it instigate youth to join militancy or pacify them to accept the status quo?
(RK): I think it is too early to say. Based on past experience I would expect to see armed conflict grow.
SAM: What more is the BJP-led union government planning in Kashmir?
(RK): Unfortunately, I do not understand BJP thinking or planning. Viewed from my distant point, I see them as both totalitarian and incompetent, vainglorious in the ascendant and disingenuous when failing.
https://south-asian-monitor.com/en/...grow-says-ex-kashmir-interlocutor-radha-kumar
