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| June 5, 2000 | ||
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| War
and Pieces Trifurcation is no answer to Jammu and Kashmir's terrorism problem
In a sense, trifurcation of the state -- a local body has gone to the extent of recommending four sub-regions -- will amount to abandonment of the Valley by the rest of the country. It will create a permanent war zone and only strengthen those who hold Muslim Kashmir is a logical extension of Pakistan. In any war against insurgents bent upon ethnic cleansing, relocation of targeted people and creation of safe havens is to be expected. There is, however, a world of difference between tactical retreats and permament vivisection. Healing Jammu and Kashmir's scars is not a task that can be achieved in a hurry. The Government seems to have -- and who can blame it? -- no plan other than wearing down its opponents. If it can't do any better, it mustn't think of doing any worse. Those who don't believe India is a melting pot, needn't. They can't reduce it to brittle crockery though. Vintage Power Rally If
power is the ultimate tonic, the office of prime minister must be Vitamin
A. Till a few days ago, Jyoti Basu's friends were talking of the man
retiring as chief minister and not contesting the assembly elections in
2001. Now the communist patriarch Individuals and whimsies aside, the very basis of the current Third Front is questionable. Whether it was the National Front (NF) in 1989 or the United Front (UF) in 1996, a non-BJP, non-Congress coalition in some ways has a headstart over a monolithic party -- more responsive to local sensitivities, led by a presidium rather than an individual, mirroring Indian federalism. In practice, it has been impelled by blind negativism and hunger for authority. That is why the NF and UF went to pieces as soon as they were voted out. The third experiment has all the ingredients of the previous two -- the call to "left and secular" forces to regroup, the rumblings against dynasty, a hyper-active H.S. Surjeet buzzing from one Lutyens' bungalow to another. There is no need for programmes and manifestoes, for a rigorous cadre network. Basu and his golden oldies simply believe they can form the next government tomorrow, if not yesterday. Well, and pigs can fly. |
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Somewhere
in jannat, Mohammed Ali Jinnah must have exchanged his stern visage for an
almighty laugh. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, self-proclaimed bastion
of Indian nationhood, has reportedly proposed the trifurcation of Jammu
and Kashmir. Three territories are envisaged -- Buddhist-majority Ladakh,
Hindu-majority Jammu
and Muslim-majority Kashmir. The idea is that this will make the battle
against militancy easier and facilitate protection of Hindus and Buddhists
from Islamic terrorists. Such an action will also represent a clear, final
and absolute surrender to the two-nation theory, something India as a
civilisational collective has never subscribed to. To reject the
philosophy behind Partition is not to reject Pakistan's right to exist nor
to advocate some starry-eyed grand unification theory. It is only to
cherish and accept the historical reality that different cultures,
different religions and, well, different ways of life make up that
composite whole called India.
has
been anointed leader of the Third Front's nth incarnation. With four
former prime ministers backing him, Basu hopes to take his team straight
from Jurassic Park to Race Course Road -- and become the first servant of
the people. The noble aspiration would have been praiseworthy had Basu's
record in his home state been any edifying. His legacy there is an economy
that has withered away, a work ethic that exists only in the past tense
and a society gripped by a severe crisis of confidence. From West Bengal
to Waste Bengal has taken 23 years; what time frame has Mr Basu set India?