{"id":1300,"date":"2012-12-17T18:31:02","date_gmt":"2012-12-17T13:01:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/?p=1300"},"modified":"2012-12-17T18:32:16","modified_gmt":"2012-12-17T13:02:16","slug":"confusing-kashmir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/editors-take\/confusing-kashmir\/","title":{"rendered":"Confusing Kashmir-"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/fb:like>

\u201cConfusion\u201d as statecraft<\/strong><\/h1>\n

 <\/p>\n

Z.G. MUHAMMAD<\/h4>\n
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It is none of my concerns. It should not be. Who visits which country and meets whom? It would be intruding into personal affairs of a leader – tall or dwarf, \u201ctheorist or disciple\u201d- if I question his visit to any country-, Pakistan included. It is not my cup of tea to snoop or tab a leader\u2019s visit but for it affecting me or my progeny as an individual, as a member of a society or a nation. If it is not\u00a0\u00a0 aimed at weaving cobwebs around\u00a0 well defined people\u2019s narrative\u2019, and creating confusion for some short-term personal gains.
\nHistory testifies \u201cconfusion\u201d has been used as\u00a0\u00a0 a \u2018diplomatic\u2019 weapon to procrastinate resolution of the Kashmir dispute. Sometime back, in this newspaper I quoted in detail from Prem Bhatia\u2019s book, about Swaran Singh using the \u2018weapon of confusion\u201d to outwit the wittiest Z.A. Bhutto.\u00a0 The weapon of confusion has not\u00a0\u00a0 been used only at the diplomatic level but also at the political level by creating alternative discourses to defeat the people’s narrative and strengthen the \u201cdominant narrative\u201d.\u00a0 A closer study of sixty-five years political history bears witness that how different \u2018alternative discourses\u2019 were conjured at different points of time to subvert the people\u2019s narrative. I do not know if Kashmir leadership was sucked into these \u2018alternative discourses\u2019 weakening the \u2018main narrative\u2019 out of naivety or out of intent – it is a matter of research. The toxic \u2018alternative discourses\u2019 have harmed the peoples’ cause.\u00a0 Moreover, these have also delayed the resolution of the problem. History also testifies that Kashmir leaders have been like\u00a0\u00a0 big rodents that need just a small bait to find themselves in a mousetrap. Nevertheless, it makes no sense getting remorseful after being trapped to death. In 1968, one sentence of J.P. Narayan at the State Peoples Convention organized by Sheikh Abdullah was sufficient to derail the \u2018people\u2019s narrative\u2019.\u00a0 This sentence (also\u00a0\u00a0 epitaph for the Plebiscite Front movement ) caused the 1975 Indira- Sheikh Accord.\u00a0 Sheikh Abdullah \u2018lamenting this accord on his deathbed\u2019 or his nephew stating after thirty-seven years that he had not been signatory to the agreement for power cannot now alter the course of history or repair the damage.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Likewise the Musharraf formula was nothing but as the saying goes, \u201ca clever General in the face of a defeat declares victory and retreats.\u201d It was as good a booby trap as Indira-Sheikh agreement that ensured nothing but status quo. Pakistan former Ambassador Munir Akram in his article \u201cKashmir in Cold\u201d published in The Dawn on 1 April 12, called the 2007 situation in Pakistan as \u2018blissful for Kashmir\u2019. To quote him: \u2018The efforts by Pakistan to evolve a bilateral solution through \u2018back-channel\u2019 diplomacy were equally ill-considered. The \u2018solution\u2019 would have legitimized the status quo and forever forsaken the rights of the Kashmiris. Blissfully, it was spurned by India as Pakistan descended into political chaos after 2007.\u201d Many eminent Pakistan experts saw it as cheating Kashmiris of their rights. Surprisingly minus a few powerful dissenting voices the Musharraf formula was supported by leaders both pledged to \u2018right to self-determination\u2019 and finality of accession with India. Ironically\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 some leaders across the divide including M-5 continue to be under the spell of 4pt- genie and\u00a0\u00a0 are looking for some Aladdin’s lamp to resurrect the ghost.
\nThe state of perplexity of the APHC (M) about remaining relevant is understandable and its urgency of sending team of five to Islamabad does not seem contradictory to its dilemmas.\u00a0 The APHC (M) leaders\u00a0\u00a0 visiting Islamabad is not something new. The hullaballoo has been over the statements relating the visit made by some of vocal members of the conglomerate. These statements when read between the lines seem a deliberate attempt at confusing the people and using the trusted \u2018weapon of confusion\u2019 for rerouting the \u2018main narrative. Taking refuge under phrases like \u201cgeo-political changes\u201d it has been very subtly suggesting the irrelevance of the UN resolution and availability of unidentified options:\u00a0 \u201cwe have many options to explore.\u201d Its main agenda will be to tell \u201cPakistan to legitimize Kashmir as third party,\u201d as \u201cUnited Nations resolutions talk about only of two options.\u201d\u00a0 True, sounds\u00a0 na\u00efve asking Islamabad to amend the international agreements on Kashmir arbitrarily but by all stretch of imagination, there seems a method in this naivety. This naivety borders on the make-believe that people cannot understand the underlying meanings of such statements.
\nEven simple downtown boy understands \u201cin accordance with UNSC \u201cagreements\u201d, Kashmir and Kashmiris are already the central party to the dispute as they alone can decide their future through an impartial plebiscite.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cThe resolution of the UNSC, agreed by and thus a binding upon Pakistan and India.\u201d To alter these agreement the five member APHC(M) team, M-5 as it has come to be known will have to persuade Pakistan or any other country including USA that has been co-sponsor to the 1949 UN resolution on Kashmir to introduce a fresh resolution in the UNSC to amend the international \u201cagreement\u201d on Kashmir.
\nThe mission of M-5, to Pakistan for asking them to recognizing Kashmir as third party is like putting cart before the horse in as much as the Constitution of India does not regard the state of Jammu and Kashmir as a disputed territory. The article one of the Constitution like all other states recognizes Jammu and Kashmir as its territory – \u2018integral part\u2019. True, with Article 370, conferring it\u00a0 a status- a bit different from many other states.\u00a0 This article stands only in name, in his book Article 370, A. G. Noorani in great detail explains the \u201cineffectiveness\u201d of this article. Long before Indian Home Minister Nanda had said\u00a0\u00a0 only \u201cshell\u201d of 370 exists.\u00a0 The Constitution of Pakistan (1973) looks at it differently.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Article 257 of Pakistan constitution says, “When the people of the State of Jammu and Kashmir decide to accede to Pakistan, the relationship between Pakistan and that State shall be determined in accordance with the wishes of the people of that State.” Former Pakistan Foreign Secretary, Shamshad Ahmed commenting on this provision writes, \u201cA careful reading of this Article would confirm that the final arbiters of the future of Kashmir are the Kashmiri people without whose participation in the settlement there will be no solution of this problem.\u201d
\nSeeing the whole exercise of the M-5, as confusion worst confounded, without concluding- I leave the debate open.<\/p>\n<\/fb:like><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cConfusion\u201d as statecraft
\n 
\nZ.G. MUHAMMAD<\/p>\n

 
\nIt is none of my concerns. It should not be. Who visits which country and meets whom? It would be intruding into personal affairs of a leader – tall or dwarf, \u201ctheorist or disciple\u201d- if I question his visit to any country-, Pakistan included. It is not my cup of tea to snoop or tab a leader\u2019s visit but for it affecting me or my progeny as an individual, as a member of a society or a nation. If it is not\u00a0\u00a0 aimed at weaving cobwebs around\u00a0 well defined people\u2019s narrative\u2019, and creating confusion for some short-term personal gains.
\nHistory testifies \u201cconfusion\u201d has been used as\u00a0\u00a0 a \u2018diplomatic\u2019 weapon to procrastinate resolution of the Kashmir dispute. Sometime back, in this newspaper I quoted in detail from Prem Bhatia\u2019s book, about Swaran Singh using the \u2018weapon of confusion\u201d to outwit the wittiest Z.A. Bhutto.\u00a0 The weapon of confusion has …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editors-take"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1300"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1300"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1300\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1303,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1300\/revisions\/1303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}