BJP commits ‘constitutional desecration’ while scrapping Article 370
Srinagar Jan 06: Criticizing sharply over the BJP’s Kashmir policy, former Union Home Minister P Chidambaram said “We have practically lost Kashmir”.
Appearing on the National Security Conversations show, the senior Congress leader argued that by carrying out fundamental changes in the (erstwhile) state of Jammu and Kashmir, the BJP government has committed ‘constitutional desecration’.
Chidambaram also decried the manner in which the government of India dealt with people of Kashmir. “No democratic country can keep an entire population under siege”, he said.
He sharply criticizing the BJP’s Kashmir policy, saying that “it looks at the entire 7.5 million people of Kashmir as militants, as anti-national, as pro-Pakistanis”.
He said the claims made by government that after scrapping Article 370 there is calm in the region, is nothing but a ‘deceptive calm’. All that the government has managed to do is to “put a lid on a volcano” by sending further contingents of troops there to Kashmir, Chidambaram said.
When asked how normalcy was achieved after 2010 agitation, the veteran Congress leader revealed that after the 2010 agitation, the GoI undertook a major course correction in terms of dealing with Kashmir situation. The 2010 agitation in the Valley and the killing of over 100 Kashmiris was a major wake up call for the government of India, which realized that it had to change its traditional strategy to ensure stability in the Valley.
He said, “increasing efforts to engage Kashmiris into dialogue and sending deputation of interlocutors were steps taken by the then government”. He said New Delhi also pulled up the J&K government then headed by Omar Abdullah through an unprecedented resolution adopted by the Cabinet Committee on Security to ensure that there were no further civilian casualties.
According to Chidambaram, the BJP remained intact with this policy of engagement till 2015 before becoming more militaristic and less accommodative.
Chidambaram agreed that UPA government should have implemented the various measures suggested by the interlocutors report on J&K, which would have improved the situation in the state. “My only regret is,” he said, “that we didn’t implement the interlocutors report” because “the then government was lacking political will to do so”. The former minister also admitted that all governments have made mistakes in Kashmir including those led by the Congress party.
He recommended that the first step in resolving Kashmir conundrum is to engage the people there in a sustainable dialogue. If other parts of the country can have special provisions, Jammu and Kashmir, which acceded to India on the basis of an autonomy promise, could also have a little bit of autonomy, the former minister said.
Chidambaram also said that while he was still part of the UPA government he had advocated for a more humane law in place of the armed forces special powers act, but there was a lack of consensus within the UPA dispensation over the removal of AFSPA within the territory.
When asked about engagement with Pakistan, Congress leader argued that while Pakistan is a trouble-maker in Kashmir, it is still important to engage in a bilateral dialogue. With regard to the Kashmir backchannel diplomacy that had discreetly negotiated a deal to resolve the contentious issue during 2004-2007, Chidambaram said that he didn’t think it would be possible to have soft borders between India and Pakistan in Kashmir.
Over the habeas corpus petitions related to Kashmiri mainstream leaders who are under detention since August 5, Chidambaram said, “I would have fervently hoped and prayed that the Supreme Court (SC) heard the habeas corpus pleas quickly and gave a verdict on the”. He said these petitions which are pending since middle of August is “unfortunate”. (JKNS)
