Confused Kashmir strategy?

Endorsing pro-Indian parties has not gone down well with Kashmiris who have been struggling for freedom

On August 24, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi addressed a news conference to inform the people of Pakistan about what he termed “unprecedented development” with regard to the longstanding Kashmir dispute. Just two days before this, six pro-Indian political parties in the disputed territory gathered at the Abdullah family’s residence in Srinagar. After their meeting, they issued a joint declaration called “Gopkar Declaration 11”. Gopkar is the name of the road where the Abdullah family’s residence is located. The six parties — the National Conference (NC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Indian National Congress, J&K Peoples Conference (PC), Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) and the Awami National Conference (ANC) —unanimously opposed the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35(A) of the Indian constitution that gave the disputed territory a special status. All parties demanded restoration of the pre-August 5, 2019 status of Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir. Remember leaders of these parties, which issued the declaration, remained under detention for a year before they were freed by Indian authorities.

According to Foreign Minister Qureshi, this was an extraordinary development that even pro-Indian political parties in Kashmir now sought the reversal of the Modi government’s August 5, 2019 move. He was of the view that this was a vindication of Pakistan’s stance.

His statement immediately raised eyebrows with some retired diplomats and Kashmiri leaders questioning the Foreign Minister’s jubilation over the Gopkar Declaration. Their concern was that Pakistan’s stance has never been the restoration of the special status of the disputed territory. Qureshi’s statement suggested as if the Kashmir dispute started on August 5, 2019. Interestingly, a day after the Indian government’s move to change the decades-old special status of the disputed territory, a meeting of corps commanders was held. A statement issued after the meeting had said: “Pakistan never recognised the sham Indian efforts to legalise its occupation of Jammu & Kashmir through article 370 or 35(A) decades ago, efforts which have now been revoked by India itself.”

This naturally merits a question as to why Qureshi was then so excited over the Gopkar Declaration. It was important to raise this pertinent question as Pakistan never recognised the pro-Indian political parties as true representatives of the Kashmiris. Also, no matter what these pro-Indian parties publicly say, they will never abandon their stance on Kashmir. And just days after the Gopkar Declaration, Umar Abdullah, the former chief minister of occupied Kashmir, confirmed this. In an interview he made it clear that although his year-long detention made him bitter and angry, he would never change his time-tested stance on Kashmir. He said Kashmir would remain an integral part of India.

This indicates that either the Foreign Minister has no knowledge of these pro-Indian parties and their history or he has not being given a proper brief on the current situation in Kashmir. Even a layman can understand that these pro-Indian Kashmiri leaders were freed as part of an understanding with New Delhi. Therefore, they will never change their stance or loyalty towards India. Few statements here and there by these leaders showing anger and frustration over the abrogation of Article 370 are only meant to appease the Kashmiri public. Endorsing the pro-Indian parties has also not gone down well with the genuine representatives of the Kashmiris who have been struggling for the right to self-determination. More importantly, such statements by the Foreign Minister only adds to the conspiracy theories and make people believe that perhaps Pakistan has abandoned its principled stance on Kashmir!

Published in The Express Tribune, September 7^th, 2020.

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