Page 6 - Pakistan Link - July 2, 2021

P6 – PAKISTAN LINK – JULY 2, 2021 OPINION
n By A.G. Noorani Kashmir Alive quires a majority in the assembly.

Mumbai, India This is Narendra Modi’s game —
settle the Kashmir dispute once and
he conference of Kash- for all ‘on the ground’, as they use
miri parties convened by the expression. Next confront Paki-
Tthe Indian government stan with a fait accompli — ‘see it
in New Delhi on June 24, 2021, is all over. We have nothing to talk
proves once again about now’.
that Kashmiris can- There is a fatal flaw in this

not be crushed into cynical reasoning. There is a pow-

obedience. Jawaha- erful pro-Pakistan con-stituency
rlal Nehru impris- in Kashmir. Mufti Mo-hammed

oned Sheikh Mo- Sayeed could not resist paying trib-
hammed Abdullah ute to Pakistan the day he took the
for 11 years only to invite him to oath of office as chief minister in

New Delhi as his guest for talks. December 2014 in the presence of
In between, he had sent his Dr P. Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Subbarayan to the Jammu Central He was riled because Mufti Sayeed
Jail to sound out Sheikh sahib. He thanked Pakistan for allowing elec-

discovered that the prisoner had tions to be held in Kashmir. This re-
not changed his convictions. vealed a lot more than he intended.

In 1965-66, Jayaprakash Naray- The question is: what result can
an sent his emissaries to Kodaikanal an open conference of 14 parties

to sound out Sheikh sahib who was Experts say the meeting was meant to ward off mounting criticism at home and abroad after Modi’s Hindu nationalist govern- possibly yield? The center has con-
in internment there with Mirza Mu- ment in August 2019 downgraded the region’s status, split it into two federal territories Ladakh and Jammu-Kashmir and re- sistently kept its stooges in Kashmir
hammad Afzal Beg. Nothing came moved inherited protections on land and jobs for the local population well supplied with funds. Among
out of it. Released in 1968, it took the invitees to the New Delhi con-

prime minister Indira Gandhi seven draft was ready but was rejected by Delhi by how Geelani reportedly to guarantee Kashmiris special au- ference were at least two who are
years to conclude an accord with India at the very last minute. offered him sharp criticism of the tonomous status, is a different issue. notorious as New Delhi’s paid

her former friend Sheikh Abdullah At the domestic level, the All apparel of Pakistan TV’s anchors. Its abrogation had been demanded agents.
whose imprisonment in 1953 she Parties Hurriyat Conference was President Pervez Musharraf repri- by the BJP. The government re- It may be recalled that the cruel

had opposed vehemently. wrecked by its foremost leader Syed manded Geelani when he took up ceived public support in 2019 when blow which New Delhi inflicted on
Those who criticize Sheikh sa- Ali Shah Geelani. His was an impos- Balochistan and North Waziristan. it abrogated Article 370 though its Kashmir had three dimensions —

hib for the 1975 accord with Indira sible formula — all or nothing. Cou- On the wreckage of the Hur- action was shamelessly unconstitu- abrogation of Article 370, wipe out
Gandhi should remember that the pled with this was the personal an- riyat, a diminutive Joint Resistance tional and the reasons for it were of Kashmir’s identity and delimita-
ground had been cut under his feet gle. He wanted to be the leader and League was formed comprising patently dishonest. tion of assembly constituencies.

by the Shimla Pact of 1972. It con- was foolish enough to declare this Geelani, Yaseen Malik and Mirwaiz The Congress chief Sonia Gan- It is the last which lies at the

gealed the status quo but also pro- ambition twice. On each occasion Umer Farooq, the most sensible of dhi has her ears transfixed to the core of New Delhi’s foul deed. On

vided for talks on Kashmir to which sharp reactions by his colleagues the lot. He is under house arrest still ground and her eyes fixed on Hindu June 22, Mehbooba Mufti, presi-
she never agreed. compelled him publicly to withdraw and was not invited to New Delhi. voters. She is desperate about re- dent of the People’s Democratic

Insurgency erupted in 1989. At his demand. In truth, he wrecked Why has New Delhi taken the taining her diminishing flock. It is Party said: “Delimitation is part of

its peak, prime minister P.V. Nara- the Hurriyat. Sadly, he is now a bro- initiative now and what has it to of- difficult to see how any Kashmiri the same process used to break the
simha Rao said that the sky was the ken man in poor health and has all fer to the Kashmiris after it wronged with self-respect can possibly sup- state. This wasn’t reorganization, it

limit if violence was eschewed. On but withdrawn from politics. Two them in 2019? port the abrogation of Article 370. was disorganization. That way it is

the India-Pakistan plane, two major presidents of Pakistan discovered Restoration of statehood had But apart from Article 370, illegal and done with a certain pur-

developments took place. The Agra his limits. Farooq Laghari was taken been offered by India since 2019. New Delhi’s real concern is with pose.”

summit was aborted by L.K. Advani aback at the residence of Pakistan’s Restoration of Article 370 of the fresh determinations of assembly (The writer is an author and

for spurious reasons. An agreed high commissioner to India in New constitution, which was supposed constituencies so that Jammu ac- lawyer based in Mumbai. Dawn)

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