As Kashmir drifts, govt blunders on

So bad is the situation that, according to a PTI report from Beijing published on Wednesday, the Chinese have been emboldened to claim a “vested interest” in mediating between India and Pakistan in Kashmir, knowing perfectly well that its ally Islamabad is desperate to internationalise Kashmir while India insists on bilateral conversations in line with the principle sanctified by the Shimla Agreement and the Lahore Declaration.

An article in the Chinese Communist Party-run paper Global Times makes the self-serving argument that while Beijing believes in the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries, its $50 billion investment in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (that passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir against Indian objections) is placed at risk due to the current uncertain situation between India and Pakistan. Beijing, the article says, cannot “turn a deaf ear to the demands of Chinese enterprises in protecting their overseas investments”.

This is the argument of a hegemon, which colonial and imperialist powers have made for over a hundred years. “Socialist” China is doing so now. But it’s necessary to take every necessary step to set it right. In this editorial, it had been argued that India needed to factor in “any possible moves from China’s side in aid of Pakistan” in the current volatile situation.

That moment has arrived sooner than expected. It is, in fact, not unlikely that Islamabad and Beijing have been planning military and political moves against India in tandem.

Kashmir is the perfect place for the mischief-makers to seek to manipulate, and we have provided them the opportunity by ensuring that it become a flashpoint through New Delhi’s ostrich-like insistence on letting the political situation drift and deteriorate — and along with it the security situation — in the belief that this would bring the separatists in Kashmir to their senses as everyday life for the people would become hard and they would turn on the extremists. The civilised way of holding a conversation was seen as a sign of weakness by the high priests of the current establishment.

What a monumental blunder this has been is evident from the fact that ordinary people across the Valley, and politically moderate and liberal elements who welcome Kashmir’s 1947 accession to India, have been pushed on the backfoot by the rising crescendo of pro-Pakistan disturbances. The Lok Sabha byelection in Anantnag that was due to be held on May 25 has been indefinitely postponed by the Election Commission, which quoted state government sources to describe the situation as “scary”. This is the first time since the early 1990s’ insurgency that an election in Kashmir is not being held. To deal with China or Pakistan, we need to bring back near-normality to the Valley on an urgent basis.