The governments of both India and Pakistan are celebrating the launch of bus service between SriNagar and Muzafarabad on 7th April. Both the governments are busy to develop their image as peace loving . The capitalist political commentators are busy to prove this occasion as history making and they are also very optimistic that Kashmir issue is near to be resolved. Despite all the threats and a bloody attack on the bus terminal in Srinagar by a militant group, which killed 3 and injured 20 potential passengers, bus rolls between divided parts of occupied Kashmir. No doubt this CBM (confidence Building measures) is the most significant among all the CBFM taken by the both Governments. Many divided families met each other after nearly 50 years. It is also the first CBM directly linked with Kashmiris. Despite all that it will be a mistake to draw the conclusion that it will solve the long standing dispute of Kashmir. Both the governments are using peace process to control the situation that they are facing at their homes, as they use the war hysteria for their own interest.
Socialists are not against the bus service or the other steps to lessen the tension, but it is also equally important to expose the limits of these steps or CBMS. There are mixed feelings about the bus service, the ordinary Kashmiris and
Pakistanis are happy, but the religious fanatic militant groups and hard liners are against and very unhappy. Pro-Pakistan Kashmiri militant groups are feeling quite disappointed. There feeling is that India is reaping all the benefits of peace process while Pakistan and Kashmiris are left with nothing but the rhetoric of CBMS. Same views has been expressed by the Islamic Fundamentalists parties in Pakistan. The situation for Pakistani ruling elite is different from the Indian ruling elite. Indian ruling elite wants to continue peace process with very slow pace. They are more interested in economic issues than to resolve the core political issues. Pakistani ruling elite on other hand wants some concessions from Indian side to continue this peace process, but Indians are not keen to make these concessions. It will not be easy for General Musharaf to go too far to make concessions without getting anything positive from Indian government.
The hawks and hardliners are just waiting for an opportunity to halt that whole process. This is not the first time that both ruling elites are engaged in peace talks. After the 1965 War and1971 war they made two agreements at Shimla and Tashkend, but no progress was made after that. It is easy to made an agreement on papers but difficult to implement it. Both the ruling elites controls the levers of war and peace, euphoria and hysteria in the Sub-continent. The nation-states of India and Pakistan, like all other nation-states play the control game with their citizens, both claims that people on both sides want peace may be true. But did they not want peace in 1965 or 1971or during the Kargil standoff, or in 2002 military deployment. If so where were all the public displays of love and amity we see today. Both the governments are using peace and war for their own interest. They want to protect their class interests at any cost. So it will be wrong to draw the conclusion that they will continue to press for peace in the region. All the hawks are still there, the state machinery still thinks in the same old way. They have not change their hearts. The road towards durable peace and mutual trust is not straight one but very bumpy.
No Respite To Kashmiris
The excitement over the launch of bus service has been dampened by the fact that it has coincided with the return of search operations and crackdowns in many parts of the Indian held Kashmir. The Indian army is justifying this military campaign on the basis that there was heavy snowfall in the winter on mountains, which had force the militant to descend to the villages and towns. According to military officials, it is the time to wipe out militancy forever. Interestingly the new mopping up campaign has started even as the government admits that there has been a reduction in the incidents of violence since a ceasefire was enforced along the Line of Control (LOC) a year ago. The Indian minister of state for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal told Rajya Sabha recently that 4038 incidents of violence has been reported in the year 2002, while 3401 were reported in 2003.He said the numbers had declined even further, with the year 2004 witnessing only 2565 such incidents. Despite the decline in violence, there is no reduction in the level of deployment of Indian forces. According to local Kashmiri leaders, Indian forces have actually stepped up operations giving rise to human rights violations, custodial deaths, and disappearances. One Kashmiri leader describe the Situation in these words “The peace offensive launched by India and Pakistan has not traveled to Kashmir, where it is most needed:”
Indian army has also started hunting upper- ground political activists or what it calls “Sympathizers” of militants. According to Weekly Friday Times “ the military has prepared the list of 5000 people to be arrested under the dreaded Public Safety Act (PSA). The list includes the names of political leaders and activists, social activists, and even some journalists. The civil administration might just acted on this list but to its surprise,the list included the names of many ruling party (Peoples Democratic Party) activists and some pro- India National Conference elements. Even the name of a senior minister is also in the list. Now army has issued the instructions to the police officers and deputy commissioners to start the campaign April 10th and set the quarterly targets to neutralize “ Sympathizers”. The army has also directed the administration to “coordinate” reports to the media and to crack down on the print media personnel indulging in “ Anti national activities”. The government in Srinagar has already attached the English daily Greater Kashmir on the allegations of spreading misinformation. Civil administration officials as wells politicians in Kashmir maintain that whenever India and Pakistan have entered into a dialogue before, there has been some kind of relief in term of release of prisoners or lowering of operations in Indian held Jammu and Kashmir. Since the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government came to power in the center, even the routine release of prisoners has stopped. According to one senior military officer “We are upset that these over- ground activists and sympathizers”.
Manage to create a scene by holding public demonstrations against the army. They spread propaganda and misinformation which badly affects the morale of the forces. The Indian military has also started the crack down against the most radical youth and trade union activists. 9 army men have been punished for raping women. Two months ago one soldier was charged on the allegations of raping a mother and her 13 years old daughter. Brutal use of force and torture has failed to stop the resistance. There is one soldier for every 10 Kashmiris in IOK.
The situation is also not very good in the Pakistani Occupied Kashmir. There are no trade union rights and labour laws exist in this part of Kashmir. No body can contest election, until he declares that he accept POK as part of Pakistan. The so called elected government of POK is nothing more than the puppet of Pakistani ruling elite. One Major General sitting in Murree( The famous hill station near Islamabad) runs the affair of Muzafarabad. He decides the prime minister and main posts in POK. The ISI decides who will form the government even before the elections. It is an open secret that majority of people in POK want independence, they don’t want to Live with both Pakistan and India. The Kashmiris are suffering on both sides of Line Of Control ( LOC). The bus service will not end their sufferings but will provide them opportunity to share their misries. Both the governments are very selective to grant permissions for traveling on this bus.
Thousands of people have applied for traveling documents, which want to meet their relatives, but they will have to wait for years to travel to the other side, because bus will only run on fortnightly basis. Different political forces want different solutions to the Kashmir issue. Fundamentalists want to merge it with Pakistan to make it an Islamic State. India wants to keep atleast her part of Kasmmir, Pakistan also want to get its share, Nationalist leadership want to make it independent country but on the basis of capitalism. On capitalist basis it is almost impossible to resolve this issue , which can satisfy Kashmiris, India and Pakistan.
Both the ruling elites want the solution that can serve their interests, and most likely that means the division of Kashmir, which suits to both India and Pakistan. But Kashmiris will not accept this solution, any arrangement or solution against the aspirations of Kashmiri people will led to a more bloodshed and unstability in the region.
If they both have failed to solve the Siachen conflict, which is fare less complicated than Kashmir, how they are going to solve this very complex issue. More than 80000 Kashmiris have lost their lives for the liberation of their homeland. Almost every family has lost at least one family member in the struggle against occupation. More than 3500 women has been raped, hundreds youth have become disabled as the result of torture, they faced in torture cells, hundreds are still missing.
The Islamic Militant groups which was trained by the Pakistani secret service to fight against Indian occupation have played a very destructive role in this resistance movement. They were not only involved in the killing of many radical young fighters and political activists, but also gave Islamic color to the National liberation struggle and divided it on religious basis. They also used violence against the other militant but more secular and liberal organizations. Now some of these groups have turned against their masters. They feel betrayed by the Pakistani Government , which forced to stop open assistance to these organizations after the 9/ 11.The Pro-Pakistan faction of Hurriat conference (APHC) has also same feelings. They first time boycotted the Pakistan Day event in Pakistani Embassy in Dehli. They refused to attend the function.
There is no viable solution possible under capitalism. The independent Socialist Kashmir is the only solution which can bring durable peace, stability and prosperity to the Kashmiris. If both India and Pakistan want to resolve this issue, they should immediately pulled their military forces from the both sides of LOC. Declare Kashmir non military zone. Trade unions and working class organizations should form their elected committees to took the control in their own hands. The elected body consist of representatives of different sections of society should held constituent assembly election in the both parts of Kashmir, which should decide the future. The planned economy under the democratic control of workers can solve the economic and social problems faced by the masses, in few years. But overthought of capitalism is essential to achieve this goal. The socialist transformation of the society will transform the lives of millions of impoverished people.