Treating The Symptom?

The Agra summit is now thankfully over and part of history. The Indiangovernment's comments have been instructive: while some officials have describedthe summit as being a start of a process (and even the start of a "caravanof peace") that needs to be continued, other officials have made it clearto Pakistan that there are no threads to be picked up from the summit and futuretalks would need to revert to the Simla and Lahore agreements. The Indian mediaalso has recognized the futility of the summit and has laid much of the blame onPakistan's single-minded focus on Jammu and Kashmir.

One crucial aspect of the summit has, however, been missed by the Indiangovernment, the opposition parties as well as the media. The summit did indeedsucceed - in establishing the rough bottom lines for each government. For thePakistani side, its vision was clear as it has always been - self determinationin at least the valley in the hope that it will opt for Pakistan orindependence. For the Indian side, the bottom line seems to have beencross-border terrorism. It would like Pakistan to end support for infiltrationof Islamic mercenaries and export of violence into Jammu and Kashmir.

At first glance, it would appear that ending of cross-border terrorism isindeed a valid posture for India. However, we believe that this is where theIndian government failed miserably in identifying the boundaries of thesubcontinental dispute. Cross-border terrorism is after all only a symptom. 

Themalaise is much deeper, and it is the same that forced the 1947 Partition, thepersecution and hounding out of Pandits from the valley, the mistreatment ofHindus in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the eternal fueds of the Muslim populationsof Palestine, Chechnya etc. with non-Muslims of those regions, the Bin Ladenphenomenon and many more.

This malaise is religious fundamentalism. It has already spread to otherparts of India in the form of Islamic extremist forces such as SIMI and DeendarAnjuman. It is the same malaise that prompted Jinnah to declare that "Weshall have India divided or we shall have India destroyed." It is the samemalaise that prompts many Pakistanis to say that "Hans ke liya,Pakistan/  lad ke layenge Hindustan". 

The Pakistan-sponsoredfundamentalist violence that started in Kashmir valley in 1989 also appears tohave set in motion a vicious cycle of Hindu and Muslim communal incidents acrossIndia including the mosque demolition, and the Bombay blasts and riots.

By negotiating on the symptom, not the malaise, the Indian government hasmissed a rare opportunity to paint Pakistan in its true colors while allowingMusharraf to gain legitimacy and stature the rest of the world denies to him.India could have focused on the malaise by pointing out the denial of rights toPakistani Hindus, Christians and other non-Muslim minorities who have a separateelectoral system, the hosting and sustenance of international jehadi forces, andPakistan's support to the Taliban.

The government of India got knocked out by an opponent much more self-assuredin the knowledge of what it was fighting for. The failure is of a far largermagnitude than recognized within India. It has nothing to do with a breakfastmeeting or with an impromptu press conference, or even Pakistani belligerence.Such a tactical failure could have severe repercussions in the future of theintegrity and security of the nation.

Kashmiri Pandits realize the depth of the problem having been the victim of53 years (and several centuries) of Islamic fundamentalism, the rest of Indiamay wake up when it gets balkanized between Islamic and Hindu extremists.

The authors are expatriate Kashmiri Pandits located in the United States andhead the executive board of Kashmir News Network, which manages many Kashmiriwebsites including: www.ikashmir.org, www.kashmiri-pandit.org,www.panunkashmir.org, www.kashmirherald.com,www.kashmirnews.org