Who was to represent Kashmiris? The APHC? Its leaders were hopelessly divided on important issues like independence or accession to Pakistan and on negotiations with India.
IN mid-2011, the political situation in Kashmir has undergone a change as fundamental as the one which overtook it in 1989, when militancy erupted.
Now militancy is on a steep decline and the leaders of the factions of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference are devising a new strategy in this new situation. Set up in 1993, the APHC, even before it split in 2003, was clueless about an appropriate strategy and tactics.
Hartals and shutdowns only harmed the people. Appeals for triangular parleys were worse than futile. Who was to represent Kashmiris? The APHC? Its leaders were hopelessly divided on important issues like independence or accession to Pakistan and on negotiations with India.
It is the people's alienation from India, which propelled them. They did not galvanise the people. Nor, to be fair, were they allowed to do so by the state and central governments. Crucially, the politi cians had no control over the militants and no power to establish peace and revive the real political process.
This impasse has been broken by two factors. One is the sharp decline in the militancy which was attested by two of the most senior officials concerned. On May 23, the general officer commanding 15 Corps, Lt Gen Syed Atta Hasnain told the Srinagar daily Greater Kashmir, "There was no incident of infiltration and neither was there any gunfight on the Line of Control. These reports are concocted and baseless. This kind of baseless stuff appears in the media in May and June every year".
This did not suit Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who immediately said that 40 militants had crossed over this year. Peace foils his repressive policies. He was rebutted the very next day by the army spokesman Lt Col J.S. Brar: "Our stand on the issue of infiltration is clear. Two days back our corps commander Lt Gen Syed Atta Hasnain had made a statement on infiltration. We stand by our commander's comments on the issue." Nor was this all. The daily also report ed that on May 24, the inspector general of the Border Security Force Siddharth Chattopadhyay told the press that "there can be a few elements in the Pakistani army who are supporting militants; but for that matter the entire force can't be accused of having links with militant organisations", adding "for 300 odd-militants we can't blame the entire Pakistan or its army". He had received full cooperation from officials of the security forces on the other side of the Line of Control, he said.
Militancy is in decline but not popular alienation, which is why Omar Abdullah has followed a policy of repression of the separatist leaders ever since he was given power two and a half years ago. House arrests, undeclared curfews, arbitrary arrests, breaking up of rallies and curbs on the media are the order of the day. Local TV channels are barred from telecasting news. Mirwaiz Umar Farooq was prevented from holding a rally at the Eidgah on May 21 to commemorate the assassination of his father Maulana Mohammad Farooq on that day in 1990. There are still 124 young alleged stonepelters in prison.
Repression is, of course, not a new feature. Decline in the militancy is and it is coupled with another change of a fundamental nature. Syed Ali Shah Geelani, whom many in New Delhi love to hate, has been issuing one exhortation to peaceful conduct after another.
He said on April 22, 2011 that "our struggle, particularly after 2008, will be peaceful. There will be no use of gun, grenade, tear gas or any other weapon in it". On April 29, he asked the youth to refrain from pelting stones. "It is turning out to be a huge loss for my people, like in 2010." He did not stop there. He urged them not to shout "provocative slogans like 'Indian dogs go back'". While critical of the army's role he said "they are our brothers on a humanitarian basis. Calling them dogs doesn't suit us at all — it is against our religion and morals".
Kashmiri leaders should go further. Keeping their political and personal differences aside, they should unite on a single platform to demand their fundamental right guaranteed by India's constitution which has been systematically denied to them — the right "to assemble peaceably and without arms" (Article 19 [1][b]). This right is guaranteed also by the UN's International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which India ratified in 1979.
In 1990, Kashmiris unrealistically pinned their hopes on accomplishing what the people of Romania and other countries in the region accomplished. In 2011, they can learn from Egypt and from the teachings of the mentor of the agitators in Tahrir Square.
Sheryl Gay Stolberg reported from Boston in the New York Times of Feb 17, 2011: "Halfway around the world from Tahrir Square in Cairo, an aging American intellectual shuffles about his cluttered brick row house in a workingclass neighbourhood here. His name is Gene Sharp. Stoop-shouldered and white-haired at 83, he grows orchids, has yet to master the Internet and hardly seems like a dangerous man. But for the world's despots, his ideas can be fatal. Few Americans have heard Mr Sharp.
But for decades, his practical writings on nonviolent revolution — most notably From Dictatorship to Democracy, a 93page guide to toppling autocrats, available for download in 24 languages — have inspired dissidents around the world, including in Burma, Bosnia, Estonia and Zimbabwe, and now Tunisia and Egypt." This was published by the Albert Einstein Institution in Boston which seeks "to advance the worldwide study and strategic use of non-violent action in conflict". Like Sharp, it advocates peaceful means exclusively. The use of brains to chalk out a strategy is as important in non-violent campaigns as it is in battles of arms. Massive and peaceful rallies can have a telling effect. Omar Abdullah dreads them. ¦ The writer is an author and a lawyer.
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