MEN , MATTERS AND MEMORIES
By M L Kotru
Redefine Indo-Pak relationship

I am a Kashmiri Pandit born and educated in Srinagar. My sentimental attachment to the Valley is second to none. I have been a journalist and for over half a century among other preoccupations kept close touch with affairs in Kashmir. There is no dearth of people in my State who would testify that throughout my career I have had the most cordial family relationship with my Muslim brothers in Kashmir. In my long career I have been witness to the unfolding drama and have interacted with Pandit Nehru, Sheikh Abdullah, Indira Gandhi, Bakshi Ghulam Mohammed, and indeed with all the leaders who played a role in the unfolding Kashmir drama. I have seen many ups and down in the fortunes and prospects of my State. But never, not even in its darket moments, have I experienced the despair and gloom that pervades Kashmir today.

It is not the violence or anger that disheartens me. It is the degree of alienation that is truly shattering. If after all these decades the sentiment and personal rapport created through shared experience even among political adversaries disappears altogether - then truly there is something seriously amiss. Forget the fate of the Amarnath Shrine land, of the future electoral prospects, or even of the ensuing dialogue with Pakistan. The crisis is bigger than all these. The boils and rashes on the body politic are mere symptoms of the poison flowing in the nation's life stream. We need a fundamental reappraisal. We must go back to the basics. I am impelled to recall what some of my Punjabi friends claimed and what I had dismissed earlier. In the crisis in Kashmir the problem or is it the mere symptom of a much deeper malaise?

These colleagues from Punjab pointed out that even the undivided state of Jammu and Kashmir emerged from a historic accident. In truth the cultural divide between the several segments of Kashmir has always been sharp. " You keep moaning about the division of Kashmir" , one taunted me. " Do you ever reflect the emotionally far more traumatic division of Punjab and Bengali just months before Kashmir was divided? How even after Independence innumerable illustrious Punjabis, including Inder Gujral's father and Bhimsen Sachar, wanted to stay in Pakistan but were forced to flee because of riots engineered by the British to affect the transfer of populations? How during the phoney 1947 war between India and Pakistan over Kashmir British Generals as British citizens led both the armies of India and Pakistan?"

I could brush aside these taunts earlier. Now it is time to reflect. It is all right to think about the identity of Kashmir. Is it also time to think anew about the identities of India and Pakistan? Can we resolve the contradictions in Kashmir and continue to ignore the contradictions in India and Pakistan? Can we establish peace in Kashmir without creating stable peace between India and Pakistan? Must people continue to act as unwitting tools of cynical politicians on both sides of the Time to reflect on the divide between the Muslims of the Valley and Hindus of Jammu which the raging controversy over the Amarnath land dispute has brought into bold relief. Time also to remember the nearly half million Kashmiri Pandits who had fallen victim to religious bigotry unleashed by Pakistani sponsored terrorists and their local cohorts less than two decades. How about their space in the land of their birth, the valley, now when the pro-Pak, pro-Azadi and even the so-called mainstream parties are talking in terms of a Muslim Valley, a Hindu Jammu and a separate Ladakh.

If the out of the box settlement, which both Manmohan Singh and the former and Pakistani President, Pervez Musharraf, were still talking of when the latter lost hold on Pakistan, has any relevance anymore, shouldn't that box be opened up a little more to resettle the Pandits of the valley in a part of the valley, obviously away from the majority Muslim part of the valley?

The Pandits call it a home land of their own, which it may or may not turn out to be, but in the name of the myth called Kashmiriyat don't they deserve some space in the land which they and their forbears have inhabited long before the Muslims appeared on the scene many centuries back.

And, how come everyone seems to be talking of Kashmir when they should in fact be talking in terms of the entire State of Jammu and Kashmir ? The most raucous voice among the mainstreams, the PDP's Mehbooba Mufti, has said that " We can longer shut up people consensus needs to be built. There is an uprising and you not only have to engage people but unlike in the past, find a solution".

She is evidently speaking of the valley. Do Kashmiri Pandits fit in a anywhere in her scheme of things ? Or, do we have to guided by one of her observations in a TV interview soon after her father became the Chief Minister. Whey are your worried about the Pandits. They can always turn to India of which Jammu and Kashmir they presumed was a part.

To this add the separatist Sajjad Lone I respect Indian public opinion but Kashmiris (read the valley Muslims) would have the final say, " adding that" pro-Azadi rallies of the past few weeks are a referendum on what people want." Omar Abdullah of the National Conference sounds very reasonable in contrast when he blames the media for having brought Azadi to the table but adding that the solution to the problem lies in restoration of pre-1953 autonomy. His part had won the 1996 elections on the autonomy plank but New Delhi had just ignored it.

As an eminent political analyst had put it" a model often proposed at Washington encouraged meetings has been a Kashmir valley delinked from Jammu and Ladakh, over which India might enjoy at best a face-saving, limited sovereignty. Trifurcation is the first step towards an autonomous or quasi-independent Kashmir valley, while Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, unleashed from Article 370, integrate fully with India".

This was the thrust of the Musharraf plan as well, one that was wholeheartedly embraced by Omar Farooq of the Hurriyat. Not one word there, once again, about the fate of the Pandits hounded out of the valley

If India provides an opportunity which it appears willing to do , one feels confident that the quarrelling politicians who have taken over from Musharraf in Pakistan would seize the opportunity to alter the status of Kashmir valley. Hasn't there been talk already of joint Indo-Pak mechanism to overseas the happenings, once the Musharraf plan was adopted.

Given the current divisions within the Indian polity it is hardly likely that the UPA government will dare implement any plan which erodes the State's links with the Indian union. And yet there can be no peace given the deep divide between Jammu and Srinagar and the hard feelings it has aroused among Hindu right in the country. Delhi is unlikely to fall for any compromise on the legal and territorial status quo.

The Pakistani leadership of the day is even less equipped to handle any talk of a compromise. The philosophical view would be can we resolve the contradictions so obvious in Indo-Pak ties. Is it not time, speaking in the same vein, we think anew about the identities of India and Pakistan just as we are asked to find a new identity for the valley. It is not time to ask can we establish peace in Kashmir without creating stable peace between India and Pakistan ? Must people continue to act as unwitting tools of cynical politicians on both sides of the border .

These thoughts and doubts are not original. Do recall that Pandit Nehru's death aborted his efforts to make Jammu and Kashmir the bridge between India and Pakistan. I remember a tearful Sheikh Abdullah at Teen Mufti recalling how close he had come to striking a common chord between Ayub Khan and Nehru. The Sheikh just out of the Indian jails then would love to recall the useful dialogue he had with the then Pakistan ruler. To strike a different note, the time may have come to redefine the basic relationship between India, Pakistan and the State of Jammu and Kashmir. That should be the agenda for meaningful talks that could provide South Asia peace and stability. If the Europeans can unite without sacrificing sovereignty, why can't the South Asians do the same.

Monsoon session after the monsoons!

By Amba Charan Vashishth

By calling the Monsoon Session (after the monsoons are over with winter almost knocking at the door) of Parliament on October 17 to continue till November 21 the UPA leadership in a masterly stroke of its strategy has ruled out the possibility of a mid-term poll to the Lok Sabha coinciding with the elections to five assemblies in Delhi, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Mizoram due in November-December this year

It has served many political purposes for the Union government which, though won the vote of confidence in Lok Sabha on July 22, seems to have lost self-confidence to face Parliament so soon. It was all the time trying to, somehow or the other, to wriggle out of the requirement of following the age-old practice of the Monsoon session in the present political and economic scenario emerging in the country. Inflation is rising to a new high every week. The internal security situation has never been as dismal as it is today. Jammu & Kashmir is in turmoil once again, worst in the last 17 years with Government blindfolded what to do and what not to do. Above all is the anxiety of the present Government to honour its commitment to President George Bush to see that the Indo-US Civil Nuclear deal becomes a reality before both Bush and Manmohan demit office. Some UPA detractors take a dig that Dr. Manmohan Singh and Mrs. Sonia Gandhi seem more worried and anxious about their word to US President than they are to the solemn pledges and promises made to the people of India at the time of Lok Sabha and after formation of this Government.

In spite of this, the government is not expected to have a smooth sailing in Parliament during the session. Going by the present indications, it may hardly get respite on the price and economic front by that time. The Opposition - BJP as also the Left parties and UNPA - are likely to be on their toes to make the going tough for the Government. The important legislations pending consideration of Parliament for long and the new ones UPA may be planning are likely to get a rough weather.

Still more severe may turn the headache to fulfill the promises the UPA made to political parties and the individual MPs in exchange for the support during Vote of Confidence. Samajwadi Party is already yearning to snatch its pound of flesh in power. As reports suggest, Congress leadership is finding increasingly difficult to satisfy the ever increasing thirst for more and more political power, privileges and say in government. The stark reality is that today it is the SP that needs the Congress and the UPA and not the vice versa. Therefore, if Dr. Manmohan Singh and Mrs. Sonia Gandhi fail to come up to SP leader’s expectations, that may spell a danger signal for the coalition and make its continuance untenable.

The Election Commission has yet to announce the schedule for election to the five State assemblies. In all probability, it may do so in the second-third week of September if not earlier. Therefore, even the worst comes to worst and the UPA Government either falls or dissolves the Parliament in the latter half of October or first week of November during or after the session, it will become impossible for the Election Commission to club Lok Sabha elections with that of the five State Assemblies. That is what the UPA has all the time been trying to achieve because if a session of Parliament was convened in September and a situation arose when it may not be possible for the Government to continue, EC could have held the elections for Lok Sabha and the assemblies together in December.

UPA expects to fare much better in the coming State assembly elections. Therefore, it hopes to be better placed to take on the opposition challenge in Lok Sabha. That is the crux of the present exercise to skip the Monsoon Session. If the proposed session ends in November, as scheduled, there would be no winter session for the first time in the parliamentary history of the country.

In the event of a show of strength between the UPA and the Opposition, there may, once again, be a repeat of the scene witnessed during Vote of Confidence in July when the UPA and the Opposition had to marshal all their money and muscle power to garner strength. The nation could, then, witness another "note for vote" scenario to the benefit of our honourable public representatives who have to face elections in just another eight months, if not earlier.

Fake currency portends

By J N Raina

Fake currency, amounting to is currently afloat in the Indian banking system. Fake Money Detector Machines (FMDM) have become a common sight at show rooms, multiplex counters, post offices, petrol pumps and even fast food joints across the country. When people come in large numbers, checking each Rs.500 note (most 'nakli' notes are in five hundred denomination) is never easy. So no surprise 'nakli' notes are swelling in number. Official estimates are that Rs 1, 69,000 crore worth of fake currency is in circulation in India.

If one is found in possession of the bogus notes, he/she will be penalized or even jailed, in case he/she fails to identify the source of the fake notes, because this is the law of the land. Instead of tackling the main offenders, it is the general public who are at the receiving end. One is not sure if the money withdrawn from an ATM of any nationalized bank or SBI or RBI is genuine. So we are face- to- face with a near panic situation.

Frankly, there exists a huge gap between the 'seizure' and the actual circulation of the fake notes, being 'imported' into India through the borders along Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal and from the Gulf region. Most if not significant percentage of this 'parallel money' is pumped into the real estate market noticeably in Mumbai, Delhi and Pune.

In recent months Pakistan-trained terrorists have been caught red-handed with huge amount of fake currency. Passengers travelling from Pakistan and Nepal into India have also been found carrying wads of bogus notes. Police brass familiar with the menace say that initially the circulation of the fake currency was limited, and was noticed in the troubled state of Jammu and Kashmir, where it went almost undetected because of the administrative procrastination and corruption. Those responsible for the nation's security and connected with the unearthing of the problem were corrupted to hush up the matter. For years, the racket remained even unreported.

Now the 'naklis' are spread all over the country. In one recent case, fake currency, amounting to nearly Rs three crore was found stashed in chests of the SBI and ICICI bank in Uttar Pradesh. Police have also recovered Rs 7.21 lakh from the residence of a cashier, which included counterfeit notes worth Rs five lakh. The investigating officials believe that the 'recovery' is only a tip of the iceberg. Their conjecture is that banking system is being used by 'insiders' to circulate fake currency. And it is another ISI bid to bleed India profusely.

ISI's game plan is to finance terrorism in India at almost zero cost or to say at India's cost. The main expenditure for the ISI is the printing machine. And this cost is recovered when fake notes are exchanged for a genuine currency at 30 to 40 per cent discount on the face value. Interrogation of suspected people in Mumbai and Delhi has revealed that at least one printing press operates in Pakistan under the ISI, 'exclusively for printing fake Indian currency'. There might be several such machines- some even in India.

Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) has been investing in commodity markets and 'prospecting' in real estate, to fund its operations. This is known to the government long before the US sent its cautionary advisory last year. National Security Advisor M K Narayanan has also gone public with the warning that stock markets were being 'manipulated' by the terrorist outfits to raise funds for their operations. Stock exchanges in Mumbai and Chennai have reported that 'fictitious or notional companies' were engaged in stock market operations. Some of these companies were later traced to terrorist outfits.

If according to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh "Naxalism is the single biggest internal security challenge ever faced by our country…" the counterfeit currency in circulation in abundance is more serious and worrisome. It can lead to a disastrous situation. The question is: can we expect 'deliverance' from a government which has admitted the dire fact that its 'writ' no longer runs in parts of 160 districts affected by the Left-wing extremism, with naxalites converting them into 'liberal zones' and taking upon themselves functions of the state administration and police.

Says P C Alexander, former Maharashtra Governor: "A state is not considered a failed one merely because its record in socio-economic development may be poor. The category of failed states would include countries whose institutions of governance have become incapable of discharging the basic duties expected of a state, such as ensuring peace and security…" Anyone listening on the Raisina Hill…. (Syndicate Features)