India’s Kashmir status no longer open for negotiations: Expert

INTERNATIONAL DESK: The abrogation of Article 370 in Kashmir in August 2019, made it clear that India’s Kashmir question is not open for negotiation, or that India need not make concessions on Kashmir in order to have peace with Pakistan, an expert, author and columnist on international affairs, Raja Mohan, said on Monday.

He was speaking at a book discussion event on Satinder Kumar Lambadh’s ‘In Pursuit of Peace: India-Pakistan relations under six Prime Ministers’, in the national capital on Monday.

Raja Mohan, an author and columnist on international affairs said, “The Modi government came to power with a clear sense that the terms of negotiations with Pakistan need to be altered. There can’t be a framework, where India would be making concessions, or the idea that the status of Kashmir is open-ended. And there would be no quarter on the idea that India must make concessions on Kashmir in order to have peace with Pakistan.”

He said there were attempts under the Modi government to engage with Pakistan, adding, however, that the old framework doesn’t work anymore.

“I think that was fundamentally unacceptable to India. But within this framework, there was room for engagement. PM Modi went to Nawaz Sharif’s house in Lahore on short notice. So, there was this level of boldness of reaching out at one level. But, at the same time, making it clear that, that the old framework does not work,” he said.

Raja Mohan added that the abrogation of Article 370 made it clear that India’s Kashmir status was no longer open for negotiation.

“Then in August 2019, the change in the constitutional status of Kashmir was a clear sense that ‘Look what we do internally in closed’. The question that India’s Kashmir status is open for negotiation was put to rest,” he added.

Ajay Bisaria, the former High Commissioner to Pakistan, at the same event, pointed out that throughout the history of 75 years, every Prime Minister has tried to normalise relations with Pakistan, but lately, the “tolerance” for terrorism has gone down both at the public as well as the people level.

“All the Prime Minister in the history of India have this instinct of normalising the relations (with Pakistan). If Vajpayee’s instinct was to get on a bus and go to Lahore in 1999. And Dr Manmohan Singh’s instinct was to give the speech in Amritsar, have the breakfast in Amritsar and lunch in Lahore, and dinner at Kabul,” he said.

Bisaria added, “Don’t forget that Prime Minister Modi also went to Lahore. The first 18 months of the dispensation was spent in displaying exactly, what the previous PMs have displayed. Nawaz Sharif’s coming in PM Modi’s swearing-in was one instinct. After that, there was a series of meetings. There was already a decision to start a composite dialogue. Even when the situation deteriorated in 2016, there were some attempts through the channels of creative diplomacy”.

He further added that with the kind of terrorism India faced, especially, the 26/11 attacks in 2008, the tolerance level in the country for such events has gone down.

“What has happened in India, is the tolerance at policy and public level for terrorism has gone down. I would point out the kind of terrorism India faced in the 21st century, and the major inflexion point was in 2008. Since then the tolerance of terrorism has gone down. This government has to have a tougher posture because there was overall a sense of not tolerating terror in India,” Bisaria added.

Since Article 370 was abrogated, Jammu-Kashmir has seen development across sectors. The move has also dealt a numbing blow to terrorism while increasing employment opportunities, especially among the youth.

In further affirmation of the changed scenario in ‘Naya Kashmir’ post the abrogation of Article 370, the Union Territory hosted the G-20 Tourism Working Group meeting in Srinagar from May 22-24 under India’s presidency. (ANI)