[Reader-list] Full Text of the Joint Memorandum given by the Mirwaiz and Yasin Malik to the APD visiting Kashmir

[Shuddhabrata Sengupta]

  Dear All,

Below is the full text of the memorandum given by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq  
(APHC-M) and Yasin Malik (JKLF) to the representatives of the All  
Party Delegation from New Delhi that came calling on them in  
Srinagar. The memorandum (published in The Hindu) is reasonable,  
beyond doubt. The call for two parallel Kashmir Committees in India  
and Pakistan which can begin a process of resolving the Kashmir  
question in dialogue with Kashmiri people on both sides of the Line  
of Control is a very positive development, and can contribute to  
ending the cycle of violence. Elsewhere, SAS Geelani (APHC-G) has  
also handed in his 5 point formula (for beginning negotiations) to  
the members of the APD to pass on  (again) to the Government of India.

Now it is up to the APD to convince the Government of India to see  
reason. Can they be prevailed upon to do so? And it is also up to the  
Government of India to demonstrate how reasonable it can be in  
response to this.

Readers may also be interested in a detailed report in the Greater  
Kashmir newspaper's website on the meetings that members of the APD  
had with the Mirwaiz, Malik and SAS Geelani. The decision on the part  
of the separatist leadership to meet with the delegates from the APD  
was a very intelligent one, because it ensured total transparency of  
the process.

see - http://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/2010/Sep/21/apd-reaches-out- 
to-separatists-10.asp

best,

Shuddha

----------

Full text of the joint memorandum submitted by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq  
and Yasin Malik

The Hindu, September 20, 2010

http://www.thehindu.com/news/resources/article738521.ece

“Let me say clearly that we accept the basic proposition that the  
future of Kashmir is going to be decided finally by the goodwill and  
pleasure of her people. The goodwill and pleasure of this Parliament  
is of no importance in this matter, not because this Parliament does  
not have the strength to decide the question of Kashmir but because  
any kind of imposition would be against the principles that this  
Parliament holds.

“Kashmir is very close to our minds and hearts and if by some decree  
or adverse fortune, ceases to be a part of India, it will be a wrench  
and a pain and torment for us. If, however, the people of Kashmir do  
not wish to remain with us, let them go by all means. We will not  
keep them against their will, however painful it may be to us…  
However sad we may feel about leaving we are not going to stay  
against the wishes of the people. We are not going to impose  
ourselves on them on the point of the bayonet.” — Jawaharlal Nehru,  
Speech to the Indian Parliament, August 7, 1952

“When a question becomes an international question like the Kashmir  
question, this Parliament can take many steps, of course, but it  
cannot solve the international part of it... the accession of Kashmir  
to India... was in that sense complete, not subject to anything  
except subject to the goodwill of the people of Kashmir... It is a  
very important thing and by that declaration we are going to stand.  
It is left to their decision... Now it is before an international  
forum and how can I or this Parliament take it away?” — Jawaharlal  
Nehru, Speech to the Indian Parliament, March 25, 1952

The All-Party Delegation from Delhi comes to Srinagar on the heels of  
some of the most vexed circumstances that Jammu & Kashmir has faced.  
The assault on the life and dignity of the average Kashmiri has been  
relentless. Daily life in our homes and streets has been turned into  
a nightmare as an entire population is treated as hostages on their  
own soil.

Just a simple act of stepping out of our own houses has been turned  
into an act fraught with danger, threat and menace with unprecedented  
prolongation of the brutal curfew, ruthless persecution, topped up by  
some of the most uncivilized acts by a nation that claims to abide by  
democratic practice and the rule of law.

The blockading of food, fuel and medical supplies with even life- 
saving drugs and ambulances being prevented from reaching their  
destinations, nocturnal raids and illegal detention of children and  
teenagers, clampdown on the local media and thrashing of media  
persons in recent days, is clearly an attempt at bullying and  
humiliating the Kashmiri population with base and inhuman tactics  
employed earlier only by rogue regimes in some notorious instances of  
international shame like in Kampuchea, Bosnia Palestine and Sri Lanka.

We cannot help but feel that we Kashmiris have been corralled into a  
concentration camp of concertina wires, jack-booted surveillance and  
vengeful assault by the Indian State, which deliberately chooses to  
deny this part of its ‘claimed’ nation the constitutional guarantee  
of ‘the Right to Life’.

And we have not even begun talking yet about the more than 100  
Kashmiri youngsters senselessly but brutally killed by the Indian  
security forces in just over 100 days. It follows the thousands of  
lives already lost over the past decades due to the unresolved  
Kashmir Dispute.

All this precipitates your visit today.

We had hoped the 21st Century would offer our children a new world of  
opportunities. Indeed, both Prime Ministers Atal Behari Vajpayee and  
Manmohan Singh gave us reason to hope for an honourable and lasting  
solution to the Kashmir Dispute through their multiple public  
declarations on Kashmir. We believe these statements represented not  
only their personal or partisan views but a commitment on behalf of  
the Indian people which your delegation today now represents.

We started this decade with the intention of engaging in a meaningful  
process to resolve the Kashmir Issue and we continue to be committed  
to that objective. However, for the people of Jammu & Kashmir, this  
first decade of the century has only been one of continued human  
misery, unfulfilled promises, false hopes and failed efforts to  
resolve the issue.

Failure has bred cynicism and destroyed hope.

In recent times, the struggle in Kashmir has transformed from a  
violent to a non-violent movement and the new generation has adopted  
the mode of democratic protest rather than the gun to voice its  
aspiration. It leaves us shocked and resentful that rather than  
listening to and engaging with this call from the streets of Kashmir,  
India is responding to it with bullets and violence.

We are at a threshold and it is vital that a new generation of  
Kashmiris should not be pushed to the wall. Dialogue and negotiation  
must come to the front, not a new chapter of violence and  
instability. Nobody will gain and we will all lose, if such a  
situation develops.

The passage of time over the past 63 years has, in fact, made the  
Kashmir Problem more, rather than less, intractable. Allowing this  
dispute to fester will only extract increasing human costs from the  
people of Jammu & Kashmir and, for that matter, the people of India  
and Pakistan.

Frankly, today we hope to make a break from the past.

What we have seen for the last 63 years and what we are seeing in the  
current bloodshed is an aggregation of failed approaches. Above all  
we are seeing a failure to develop and evolve a sustainable,  
purposeful, results-oriented process of dialogue and negotiation  
aimed at tangibly resolving core issues rather than dealing with the  
crisis of the day.

We are concerned that domestic politicking in India has again started  
to create hurdles on the way to developing a meaningful process of  
negotiation. This has been a phenomenon right from the inception of  
the Kashmir Conflict. Due to domestic politics in both India and  
Pakistan, the windows for working towards a solution to Kashmir have  
been narrowed or interrupted and, as a result, the people of Jammu &  
Kashmir have had to suffer dearly.

It is disconcerting that today the BJP has taken a hard line on  
Kashmir. This is the same party whose veteran leader Prime Minister  
Atal Behari Vajpayee went to Lahore and declared from the base of  
Minar-e-Pakistan: "It is my dream and wish to resolve the Kashmir  
Issue." This is the same BJP who initiated peace talks with the then  
united APHC under the chairmanship of Syed Ali Shah Geelani. This is  
the same party that engaged Hizbul Mujahideen in a cease-fire and  
talks process in the Summer of 2000. This is the same BJP that  
declared a unilateral cease-fire in the Month of Ramadhan and then  
offered talks "under the constitution of Insaniyat". This is the same  
BJP whose Prime Minister Vajpayee laid out an inspiring agenda on  
Kashmir from Kumarakom on January 2, 2001: "We shall not traverse  
solely on the beaten track of the past. Rather, we shall be bold and  
innovative designers of a future architecture of peace and prosperity  
for the entire South Asian region".

We are now disheartened to see the same party advocating a contrary  
view as the principal Opposition in the Indian Parliament. It is time  
to develop a peace process on Kashmir that is immune to domestic  
politics and power tussles, both in India and Pakistan.

On many occasions, in 2004 and again in 2006 from Amritsar, Prime  
Minister Manmohan Singh talked boldly about engaging in an  
irreversible process of dialogue to reach a political solution on  
Kashmir. We are concerned that the recent statements of the Prime  
Minister suggest that the Kashmir Problem is being seen as a matter  
of unemployment and that conditions are being imposed on the dialogue  
process.

For an entire generation, more than 20 years, we have engaged in  
multiple exercises of dialogue and talks with the Government of  
India. We took risks to do so and some amongst us sacrificed their  
lives to tread the path of peacemaking, while others amongst us paid  
with our credibility. we give some suggestions with a view to  
generating a favourable political climate for a purposeful dialogue  
like (a) revocation of draconian laws, (b) release of political  
prisoners (c) withdrawal of troops and (d) zero tolerance for human  
rights etc but these suggestions were not taken seriously.

We are now wary that your visit today, however well-intentioned,  
represents only an effort at short-term crisis management and that  
there is no clear commitment nor path towards effective resolution of  
the Kashmir Issue and addressing the aspirations and interests of the  
people of Jammu & Kashmir.

We have seen in the past that it is only when a major crisis erupts  
that visible efforts are made to engage and understand our  
aspirations. And as soon as the immediate crisis subsides, the  
demonstrated and inherent political complacency and negligence is  
restored.

Today in light of the concerns expressed above and to voice our  
unequivocal condemnation of the killings of our children and youth,  
we choose not to meet with your delegation

Today, we ask not for unilateral political concessions but rather a  
joint commitment to a meaningful process that guarantees results. We  
believe this is possible only if serious efforts are made to create a  
conducive environment for dialogue by removal of the harsh and  
repressive measures that are in force here, to suppress our  
aspirations and our fundamental democratic rights.

We look forward to entering into a dialogue based on the following  
shared commitments:

To create a beginning and to sustain the process of dialogue we need  
to create a process in which all views and options – most of all  
Kashmiri aspirations will be considered and explored before arriving  
at an acceptable solution.

Let resolving the Kashmir Dispute in accordance with aspirations of  
the people of Jammu & Kashmir become a Common Minimum Programme  
shared by all political parties in India and in Pakistan. Achieving a  
solution to the Kashmir Issue should now rise above vote bank  
politics and be taken up as a national agenda shared by all, worked  
for by all, and risked for by all major political parties of India.

Let the Government of India act on the suggestions given by the  
Kashmiris and facilitate to establish and empower an official body, a  
Kashmir Committee, consisting of senior representatives of all major  
Indian political parties to develop and enter into a process of  
engagement with the representatives of the people of Jammu & Kashmir.  
Let this process be transparent designed to deliver a negotiated  
solution to the Kashmir Issue that is mutually worked towards by and  
acceptable to all parties concerned.

We believe that a similar Kashmir Committee, bringing together all  
political forces, should also be established in Pakistan. We will  
advocate to the political parties in Pakistan that this be done. This  
will ensure that all major political forces in India and Pakistan are  
on board with the peace process and it will help institutionalize and  
sustain the process to resolve the Kashmir Problem. We must render  
the process immune from domestic politics and tendencies to act as  
spoilers

On our part we are ready and willing to engage and sustain a  
meaningful and irreversible process of dialogue designed to avoid the  
failures of the past and to jointly develop and implement a solution  
to the Kashmir Dispute that is acceptable to all sides –  
India,Pakistan and above all the people of J&K

Sincerely,

SD/

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq

All Parties Hurriyat Conference

SD/

Muhammad Yasin Malik

Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front



Shuddhabrata Sengupta
The Sarai Programme at CSDS
Raqs Media Collective
shuddha at sarai.net
www.sarai.net
www.raqsmediacollective.net