Delhi needn’t swallow but certainly chew on Gen’s food for thought

For that reason alone, Musharraf’s loud public thinking on a new approach to Jammu and Kashmir should be welcome. No one in the world, not even in Pakistan, would expect India to embrace it word for word.

After all, the proposal is aimed at stimulating a wider discussion on Kashmir across the Indo-Pak border. Musharraf has certainly not insisted that his proposal is the only way forward.

But he has significantly raised the expectations from the impending negotiations on Kashmir that the two sides have agreed to conduct. Musharraf appears to have made three important departures from Pakistan’s long-standing positions on Jammu and Kashmir.

• One, in putting aside the idea of a plebiscite, Musharraf has signaled that Pakistan’s much-touted idea of self-determination in J&K is not practical.

• Two, he has given up on the idea of Pakistan annexing parts of J&K.

• The third and more important modification lies in putting the so-called Northern Areas back into play. After the Simla Agreement of 1972, Pakistan had administratively separated the Northern Areas (Baltistan and Gilgit) from Pak-Occupied Kashmir.

In referring to the two regions of the state that now lie under Pakistan, Musharraf is apparently talking about the original state of Jammu and Kashmir in its entirety.

While India will not countenance either independence or joint control with Pakistan over parts of J&K, it has enough reasons to look at once for more pragmatism from Musharraf and to engage him productively.

At New York last month, Musharraf and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had agreed that ‘‘possible options for a peaceful, negotiated settlement of the issue should be explored in a sincere spirit and purposeful manner’’.

Musharraf’s remarks now reveal the full meaning of that agreement.

That statement was a political mandate for J N Dixit and Tariq Aziz, the national security advisers of India and Pakistan respectively, to get down to some serious talking on Jammu and Kashmir. These will be the first serious negotiations on Kashmir betwen India and Pakistan in decades.

Dixit and Aziz, who have been meeting frequently in the recent past, must now be expected to vigorously dribble the Kashmir ball.

To be successful, the Kashmir talks have to be held in secret. Musharraf’s public remarks, despite some significant misreading of India’s negotiating positions, could help expand the political space for a popular debate on how to resolve the Kashmir question.

At his New York meeting with Musharraf, Singh had put down some clear markers for the Kashmir negotiations. Singh emphasised that India will not accept a redrawing of borders in the Subcontinent and that there can be no independent Kashmir.

Musharraf’s talk of independence for parts of Jammu and Kashmir is probably aimed at appealing to sections in the Srinagar valley alienated from India.

In the last few weeks, Pakistani leaders have sought to assure its clients across the LoC that Musharraf has no plans to dump them in his rush to settle the Kashmir question.

New Delhi is also making light of Musharraf’s suggestion that India’s opening position will be to convert the LoC as an international border.

While India might eventually accept such a position, it can only start with the argument that the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir is a part of India.

This quibbling does not hide one simple fact—the contours of a serious negotiation between India and Pakistan on Jammu and Kashmir are beginning to emerge.

Borrowing from limited-overs cricket, Musharraf’s talks in January with the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and those in September with Singh were the opening spell.

The game now enters a long middle phase with some serious testing of each other’s negotiating positions. The final slog overs are yet to come. Unexpected bad political weather could still interrupt play.

For now, the great game on Kashmir is on and exciting. Don’t miss it, even for a moment.