14 May 2014, 07:38 PM IST
The Line of Control should become a border between India and Pakistan, said Satinder Lambah, PM's special envoy for Af-Pak, who has conducted back-channel negotiations with Pakistan for the past decade. The bald assertion junks the parliament resolution of 1994 which appropriated the entire territory of the old J&K as Indian territory. Moreover, it firmly plants the Indian position on the LOC-as-border viewpoint, finally removing the cobwebs Indian diplomat-speak had placed on it.
At least after this, India, in any negotiation with Pakistan, will not have to jump through hoops to arrive at this conclusion. The downside of Lambah's assertion is it robs India of the starting point for Kashmir negotiations, which is traditionally that we want all of it.
But when you think about it, we would be insulting everybody's intelligence if that is the starting point of our negotiations. The real question is how should Pakistan reconcile itself to this Indian position.
At the end of a decade of trying to improve relations with Pakistan, the UPA government in its final hours, laid out the most comprehensive peace proposal so far to resolve the Kashmir dispute. Coming just after the elections and before a new government takes office, the Indian proposals for a solution were expressed by at the Kashmir University, Srinagar, on Tuesday. Lambah's remarks will set out the backdrop for a Modi government if they decide to pick up the baton on Kashmir negotiations.
Lambah said, "After three wars and long periods of disagreements, it is essential that any agreement must ensure that the Line of Control is like a border between any two normal states. There can be no redrawal of borders." The essential "prerequisite" for a possible deal on Kashmir, he said, is an "end to hostility, violence and terrorism." While Lambah said he was speaking in his personal capacity, his remarks were crafted at the highest levels in the government. For many years, Pakistan has attempted to take the initiative on a Kashmir solution. For the first time, India has put out the contours of its own version of a solution.
The other elements of a possible deal on Kashmir include, allowing people of J&K on either side to move freely, progressive removal of tariff and non-tariff barriers for locally produced goods, reduction of military footprint after violence has abated, self-governance for internal management, and respect for human rights.
The Indian proposals, Lambah said, derive from both the Simla Agreement and Lahore Declaration. Laying out the red lines, he said, "the past six decades have clearly shown, the Kashmir issue cannot be settled by war, force or violence. A solution will also remain elusive if we keep harping on positions that have failed to resolve the problem in the past."
Former Pakistan president, Pervez Musharraf was the first to state his famous "four-point solution". Between 2004 and 2007, Lambah and Tariq Aziz, Musharraf's envoy met in different capitals __ Dubai, Bangkok, etc __ to work out the shape of a deal. But by 2007, Musharraf's troubles internally started to overwhelm the process, particularly after he ran up against the activist chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry. For Musharraf, it was downhill from there on. Manmohan Singh, who was personally invested in working out a deal with Pakistan on Kashmir, had soldiered through 2006 and 2007, years when Pakistan-sponsored terrorism against India was rampant. In 2008, after Musharraf was replaced by Ashfaque Kayani as army chief, the Kashmir negotiations ran aground. Kayani may have signed on to the talks as DG-ISI, but he indicated clear disinterest as army chief. However, Zardari pushed through several rounds of talks with Riaz Mohammed Khan as the Pakistani interlocutor.
Lambah was very clear from the beginning that no deal with Pakistan could be concluded by quiet negotiations. These talks were important to set out the context and remove the detritus of misconceptions that dog India-pakistan relations. Pointing out the importance of these talks, Lambah said, they were "conducted quietly and without the knowledge, prompting and involvement of any third party. The process has survived and sustained itself despite brutal and high visibility assaults – from the Parliament attack to the embassy bombing in Kabul and to the Mumbai terror attack - and through political transitions in both countries. This progress was based on two pillars – respecting ceasefire along the Line of Control and a disavowal by Pakistan of the use of terrorism as a state policy allowing the use of its territory by non-state actors."
This message has been consistent from Vajpayee government through the Manmohan years. The clear articulation of Manmoahn Singh's Kashmir policy will also insulate his government from possible attacks by a subsequent government on the "soft line" on Pakistan. In essence, Lambah's remarks also made it clear that this would be the only credible solution to the Kashmir issue.
Taking on some critics who contend that India's growth has not been hampered by the Kashmir problem, Lambah added a touch of reality, saying "a solution of the Kashmir issue will substantially enhance India's security, strengthen the prospects for durable peace and stability in the region and enable India to focus more on the rapidly emerging long term geopolitical challenges." For Pakistan, he said, a solution would "relieve (it) from a debilitating military competition with a much larger neighbour that has drained its economy." It ought to refocus its energies to tackle radical militancy and benefit from the economic opportunities.
Lambah's remarks are in direct contrast to Pakistan's army chief Raheel Sharief who described Kashmir as a "jugular vein", which many interpreted to mean that Pakistan could revert to terrorism again. India has a plan to resolve Kashmir, but its not yet clear whether the next government will sign off on the details.
The Indian Proposals:
- Any agreement must ensure that the Line of Control is like a border between any two normal states. There can be no redrawal of borders;
- It is imperative that the people of J&K on either side of the Line of Control should be able to move freely from one side to the other;
- The process of progressive removal of tariff and non-tariff barriers in specified locally produced goods already underway has to be expedited to ensure meaningful trade between the two sides of the LoC;
- The essential prerequisite is that there has to be an end to Hostility, Violence and Terrorism;
- Once this happens, it would be important that military forces on both sides of the LoC are kept to the minimum, particularly in populated areas;
- It would be important to ensure self-governance for internal management in all areas on the same basis on both sides of the LoC;
- There has to be respect for Human Rights on both sides of the LoC and efforts need to be made to reintegrate into society those sections who had been involved in violent militant activities.
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