Kashmir Affairs - Security & Conflict Analysis of Kashmir

Interview- Wajahat Habibullah
Murtaza Shibli

There is a strong lament in your book about the destruction of Kashmir. Yet you sound so hopeful of a solution. Why?
Because there is a very strong yearning and will for peace and people want to live with dignity and peace. I think most of the people are sick of violence and they want to seek a solution through the constitutional and legal mechanism.
It is now the duty of India, Pakistan and primarily the Kashmiri leadership to afford a sense of dignity and participation to the people of Jammu and Kashmir to ensure a long term solution. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s idea of Round Table Conference was part of extending that hope and translating it into action.

Whenever there is some hope of a solution it is punctured by some untoward incidents. The recent controversy of land transfer to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) is exactly the kind of setback that reverses such hopes.
A. The controversies like SASB is a cause for great pain and apprehension. It is a major setback which has killed a part of me. We can’t shut our eyes to issues like this. Unfortunately, Governor SK Sinha failed to gauge the aspirations of the Kashmiri people. He equated the problems with what he had seen in the rest of the country, but Kashmir is different. Thankfully, the new governor NN Vohra has a great understanding of Kashmir unlike his predecessors and hopefully this will prove beneficial to the people of Kashmir and rest of the country.

You mention about the Indian policy being always guided by its perception of security and national interest. And now it seems to me that this ‘national interest’ is being extended to religion as well. Giving land to SASB is seen as a legitimate function and role of the Indian government for ensuring Indian presence in Kashmir. Is religion now being securitised?
It has been by some, but not by the government. As you know, the land was never actually transferred, and when government became aware of the public resentment, the order was revoked.

Despite progress in the India-Pakistan peace process, the Kashmiris are very sceptical of a solution emerging. What do you think is the reason?
There is frustration because the Kashmiris are feeling left out of the peace building process between India and Pakistan. Their skepticism can be mitigated by their being made part of the process. This can be achieved through different means, but basically it should flow from an effort to build trust.

There is a general belief that India’s slow or non-response to President Musharraf’s proposals killed the initial optimism about the peace process and now the new political challenges in both countries have nearly stalled the process.
The General’s proposals were responded to in positive manner by no less than the Prime Minister of India. It is true however that there are those within our establishment that were averse to them. At any rate, it is my firm belief that democratic governments will be able to come to a more enduring settlement acceptable to their people and therefore such solutions will be stronger.

You make an observation in your book about the Kashmiris’ penchant for cooking up conspiracy theories. But your explanation about the Hazratbal Siege, blaming a Jama’at-i-Islami sympathiser police constable sounds like a conspiracy as well?
Well, that is my suspicion, based on having been hands on in the negotiation. And the constable was the one who had delivered the highly exaggerated misinformation that provoked the siege of the shrine.

You seem to discount the massive human rights violations and its impact on fuelling insurgency and winning new recruits to it. Is there any particular reason you see the main motivation for insurgency as money rather than human rights violations and the anger that it generates?
I do not discount the cost in human rights, and have spoken of my direct experience of such incidents. But I cannot claim to have covered those incidents of which I had no direct experience. And I don’t see money as the reason at all. The outbreak was precipitated by a genuine anger. That became a reason for its persistence into the mid ‘90s. After that however, money has begun to play an ever larger role. I have known several young men who have or whose parents have admitted to me as much. And this very susceptibility to take to violence for money does indeed stem from anger

You mention that freedom is the choice of every Kashmiri but then claim that this freedom is guaranteed by the Indian Constitution. How do you reconcile the two ideas? Surely the majority of Kashmiri separatists don’t want to operate within the ambit of the Indian Constitution?
Freedom in my view is freedom-and freedom is guaranteed by India’s Constitution. My argument is that the Kashmiris be allowed to enjoy that freedom.

What is your position on Article 370 and how do you see certain Indian political groups like BJP who lobby for its abrogation?
Article 370 allows Jammu and Kashmir to be the only state in India to have a constitution of its own, something that is the right of every State in a federal structure like the US. Its abrogation would be regressive. But it should not be used to perpetuate the dominance of a ruling elite within J&K, as it has in the past. It must allow the people of the state as much, if not more freedom than guaranteed to the people of India by India’s constitution.

There is this greater talk about south Asia as a reference point where borders can become irrelevant. Can’t President Musharraf’s ‘Joint management’ plan for Kashmir be the beginning of a post-Westphalian South Asia?
A counter-question. Why should the people of Jammu and Kashmir submit to management by another or worse still by joint management of more than one? Are any of India’s other States “managed” by the Centre?

You discount any link between Kashmiri militants and Al Qaeda, yet in many official Indian accounts a large stress is placed on the claims of International jihadism including links between the Al Qaeda and Kashmiri insurgency.
I have seen no links, and I have seen the insurgency from close quarters.

How would you compare freedom of information regime in south Asia? And could this be useful in ways to promote peace and cooperation in the region?
India in its Right to Information Act 2005 has among the world’s most enlightened legislations of this nature. Certainly I have been working with the Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) State government to adopt this legislation for the State, if not taking advantage of Article 379 to have an even stronger law of this nature. The J&K law passed originally in 2004 is totally without substance, and as a result has hardly been used at all. Bangladesh has in May 2008 adopted a Right to Information Ordnance based in great measure on India’s legislation; Nepal had done so earlier. Pakistan’s Freedom of Information Ordnance 2002 has some weaknesses which will need strengthening.

How do you see the current situation in Pakistan and the struggle for democracy?
I have never been to Pakistan, but I have always been an ardent supporter of democracy. Unfortunately, Pakistan like many Third World countries has been experimenting with short bouts of democracy alongside dictatorship. Dictatorships succeed in the short term, but they bring ruin in the long term without much in the form of infrastructure that could effectively govern a modern state.
The current situation is Pakistan is interesting and I see it as first faltering steps to bring a democracy and I wish them well. But the onus is on the newly elected government to build credible institutions and infrastructure to which people can identify with and feel a part of. It is a difficult road ahead, but I strongly hope the democracy in Pakistan flourishes.