Kashmiri separatists scramble for
relevance By Athar Parvaiz
SRINAGAR - Amid growing skepticism among
Kashmiri people that the separatist leadership has
lost relevance in the region's fast-changing
political landscape, the All Parties Hurriyat
(Freedom) Conference - an alliance of separatist
political parties and religious and social groups
- is making a Herculean effort to reclaim some
relevance in this disputed region.
Kashmir, the northwestern most region of
South Asia, has long been the site of a
territorial dispute between India and Pakistan.
Ever since the partition of India in 1947,
Pakistan has held control over one-third of
Kashmir's territory, while India administers the
remaining two-thirds, including the Kashmir
valley. In the six decades since Indian
independence, the two South Asian neighbors have
fought three wars over Kashmir, but neither one
has ever been able to
claim complete control over the territory or its
people.
Formed as a political front in
1993 with the goal of realising Kashmir's right to
self-determination, guaranteed by United Nations
Security Council Resolution 47, Hurriyat was once
the voice of Kashmir's resistance movement,
encompassing members from the Jammu and Kashmir
Liberation Front (JKLF), Jamaat-e-Islami, the
Awami Action Committee, the People's Conference,
the Jammu and Kashmir People's League (JKPL), the
People's Democratic Front and the Islamic Students
League.
The inability to resolve some of
Kashmir's most basic political questions resulted
in the Conference being edged out of its central
spot in the political sphere, replaced by more
mainstream parties. A delegation
representing the Hurriyat Conference, led by its
chairman, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, was in Islamabad
over the weekend for talks with the Pakistani
government, which has supported Kashmir's freedom
struggle since its inception in 1989. India, in
turn, has accused Pakistan of supplying arms to
Kashmiri freedom fighters.
Throughout
decades of talks and failed negotiations, Pakistan
has pushed to resolve the territorial dispute
according to the wishes of the Kashmiri people,
while India - which currently has 700,000 troops
stationed in the Valley - has fought to maintain
the status quo.
Meanwhile, Kashmiris
themselves want to be included in the dialogue
that has, hitherto, been primarily a bilateral
exchange between India and Pakistan.
"We
want to go to Pakistan to resolve the Kashmir
issue and make the dialogue a vibrant one, with
Kashmir at the top of the agenda for the Indo-Pak
talks, along with active participation of
Kashmiris," Farooq said last week in Srinagar,
before leaving for the Indian capital, New Delhi,
to board a flight bound for Pakistan.
"We
will urge Pakistan to [increase] its support for
Kashmiris so that India will feel pressure to
initiate a meaningful dialogue for the solution of
this issue."
Analysts say that Hurriyat's
visit will not yield much for the coalition, nor
even for the overall political situation in
Kashmir. Commenting on Hurriyat's visit, Reyaz
Wani, a leading Srinagar-based political
commentator, told IPS, "The visit is taking place
at a time when Pakistan is preparing for national
polls next year. And at the same time there has
been little headway in the ongoing talks between
India and Pakistan to warrant consultations with
Kashmiri leadership."
According to Wani,
Hurriyat's demand that it be given "legal
sanctity" for its third-party role in the
resolution efforts is, simultaneously, well past
its time and ahead of its time.
"It is
past its time as Hurriyat has lost its political
centrality in Kashmir, being reduced to a
spectator to the fast-changing political
landscape. And it is ahead of its time because
India and Pakistan seem to have moved away from
tackling their political issues, towards nurturing
a long-term trading relationship."
Recently, Pakistan has shown eagerness to
build trade relations with India and is on the
brink of granting India the long-awaited
most-favored nation (MFN) status by the end of
December.
"Besides," Wani said, "not only
has the separatist leadership itself splintered
into different groups but the two-thirds of the
political space it once dominated has been
appropriated by the mainstream parties." such as
the pro-Indian National Conference and the
People's Democratic Party, who not only have
electoral sway but also occupy a substantial space
in the minds of most Kashmiri people, he said.
Still, the visit will undoubtedly bring
Hurriyat, which has long been stagnating on the
margins of Kashmiri politics, back into the
mainstream discourse.
"The meetings with
Pakistani leaders and those from Pakistan
Administered Kashmir will allow Hurriyat to bask
in some media attention. Hurriyat will also get a
chance to be active on a larger plane, playing the
role of the de facto third party without being
acknowledged as such by New Delhi," Wani said.
According to Shamas Imran, a professor at
Kashmir's Central University, the visit "provides
a good opportunity" for Hurriyat to pluck itself
and the Kashmir issue from obscurity.
"The
recent successful elections for grassroots-level
government [village heads and Panchayat members
for local governance] and the growing influence of
mainstream politics is presently the most worrying
situation for the pro-freedom political parties,"
Imran told IPS, referring to the fact that the
average Kashmiri and most of civil society have
grown sceptical about Hurriyat's role.
Addressing Hurriyat leaders during one of
their seminars last Thursday, Siraj Ahmad, general
secretary of Kashmir's Economic Alliance, said,
"You have to bear in mind that people do come out
in large numbers to cast their votes during polls
held by the Election Commission of India, despite
your boycott calls."
Doctors Association
president Dr Nisar-ul-Hassan told participants at
the same seminar: "The movement for seeking the
resolution of the Kashmir issue should not be
confined to giving sermons and holding
deliberations; actions should speak louder than
words."
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