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| Hand-in-hand: Sharif-Modi Bromance |
Narendra Modi has taken a bold
decision to visit Pakistan and meet Nawaz Sharif. This spontaneity will
undoubtedly lead to a breakthrough in thawing the relations between the
neighbours; it’s about time for India and Pakistan to make a new beginning.
It’s a calculated risk that the
Indian Prime Minister has taken, one that is fraught with inherent risks, and
one that will certainly draw flak from his own party. But it’s a step that all
sane people in the subcontinent will support, and encourage.
However, beyond the optics, and
the people-to-people bhai-chara, it
will be necessary for both sides to deal with concrete issues. For any
meaningful forward movement, the Kashmir situation should be on the top of the agenda.
The Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP) leadership has given the dark days of Emergency (1975-77) under Indira Gandhi
nearly the same status as the Quit India movement (1942), because its leaders were part of the nationwide struggle to fight and overthrow Mrs. Indira Gandhi’s autocratic misrule; and they have always considered
Jayaprakash Narayan, the socialist leader who led this fight, as one of their political philosopher.
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| Jayaprakash Narayan |
It would do Narendra Modi a
great deal of good to read what Jayaprakash Narayan had to say about the
Kashmir situation (which has changed for worse since JP issues this press
statement more than 50 years ago in December 1964; it’s reproduced here from
Makers of Modern India, Edited by Ramchandra Guha, published by the Belknap
Press of Harvard University Press, 2011; Guha has reproduced it from Balraj
Puri’s JP on Jammu and Kashmir, Gyan Publishing House, 2005):
“The question we
must squarely face is whether constitutional integration of Kashmir with India
is more important in the national interest than friendship with Pakistan and
justice to the people of the Valley of Srinagar. Legal technicalities will not
provide the answer. What is needed is a mature and realistic reckoning. As far
as I can see, the disadvantages of the present policy far outweigh the
advantages.
“Let me take up first the issue
of justice to the people of the Valley. There has been no credible proof yet
that they have freely accepted the legal fact of accession. Constitutional
integration has little meaning in the absence of emotional integration. In this
age and time, it is impossible to hold down by force any sizeable population
permanently. If we continue to do it, we cannot look the world straight in the
face and talk of democracy and justice and peace. Nor, on account of the
historical circumstances, can we take shelter behind the internationally
recognized limitations of the right to self-determination. Perhaps the most
harmful consequence of the policy of forcible integration would be the
death-knell of Indian secularism and enthronement of aggressive Hindu
communalism. That communalism is bound in the end to turn upon the Hindu
community and destroy it.
“As for friendship with
Pakistan, let us calculatedly determine how dearly we need that friendship. No
country can afford to buy friendship at any cost. So let there be a reckoning
of gains and losses. First of all, let us be mature enough to understand that
we persist in our present Kashmir policy, there can be no friendship with
Pakistan. The leaders of that country have not left us in any doubt on that
score. If we disbelieve them, we shall have only ourselves to blame.”
After analyzing the
geopolitical fallout of the differences between India and Pakistan over
Kashmir, JP concludes with a sharp observation on the emotional division the
rift has perpetuated between the people of subcontinent.
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| Modi at JP anniversary celebration program |
He says, “The last and in some
way the most disastrous consequence of the quarrel is its human and moral cost
and the alienation of peoples that it threatens to bring about…These conditions
would be sure to cause mass human degradation on both sides. The political division
of the subcontinent cannot hide the fact that the peoples of India and Pakistan
are really one people. This is not the first time that India has been divided
politically. But there had always been a feeling of oneness and identity among
the people divided between kingdoms and republics. Today, Bengalis of the West
and the East are one people, irrespective of region; so are the Punjabis. In
like manner, the Bengalis and Punjabis and Sindhis and Pathans and Jats and Rajputs
and others of both countries make up one single Indian people, who are distinct
from all other people of the world. States are passing shows, but people are
eternal. Therefore, I would consider this alienation of the people of India and
Pakistan from one another to be the most disastrous consequence of the present
quarrel.”
Images:
http://www.business-standard.com/article/politics/modi-leaves-lahore-for-delhi-after-meeting-sharif-115122500527_1.html
http://www.kamat.com/database/content/pen_ink_portraits/jayaprakash_narayan.jpg
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