Part 19 (2/2)

Rubbis.h.i.+ng Farooq ultimately became counterproductive because Omar's biggest problem became that he was not like his father in the matter of reaching out to his fellow Kashmiris. You cannot reach out to Kashmiris via the smartphone, iPad or Twitter. This made Omar look more like an Englishman than a Kashmiri. On top of which, Omar dealt with everything through the security paradigm. You don't need to be a genius to know that unemployment and development are not dealt with through the security paradigm.

Then came the two big disasters of Omar's tenure: the stone-pelting of 2010, and the failure of his government to provide visible relief during the 2014 floods. Those people who were enthused by Omar's youth and freshness and energy were deeply disappointed.

Yet I would not write off Omar, because of the great legacy he has. He has plus points, and as he has said during the 2014 a.s.sembly election campaign, time is on his side. There's a huge legacy on his side, so long as he doesn't squander it. The way Kashmir is, the way Kashmir functions and the way Kashmir politics is, even in the long run Omar is the most likely to succeed. This is simply because politics in Kashmir is so bogged down. Mehb.o.o.ba will have a head start at the moment because after the 2014 election she will be a key player in the ruling combination. As I was concluding this book the election results in J&K which satisfied no party in particular were announced. The obvious coalition staring one in the face was a PDPBJP alliance. But when I asked a Kashmiri who understands politics what he thought, he felt they would get together but it would always be a rocky relations.h.i.+p'Shaadi to hogi lekin nikaah nahin.'

Omar is honest, he's straight, he's transparent: he's different. But he needs to learn politics a little more, and he needs to become a little more Kashmiri. He's willing to wait it out and he's reconciled to sitting in the opposition; in a way he's looking forward to that because it'll be a different experience. Omar definitely needs another chance.

The Mirwaiz has to make up his mind, as mentioned earlier, whether he wants to be pope for life or whether he wants to be chief minister. I've told the Pakistanis that they're doing him a great disservice by holding him back, because as a politician he remains untested. As a human being he has all the qualities. But you have to be tested in the field; you have to be tested in power and you have to be tested out of power.

Sajad is a wild card. He has many qualities, but he's a little unpredictable. As mentioned he had been offered a senior ministers.h.i.+p by Mufti Sayeed in 2002, so he had by the 2014 a.s.sembly election wasted a dozen years, when he could have used the time to mature into a seasoned politician. During the 2014 election I spoke to him and advised him that when the results came in, despite his having gone and met Modi, he should not jump into anything. 'Maybe you've made some commitments, fine, but see what happens,' I said. 'If you want to be a player, then you have to come on to the board. There's no point in being in the fringe or on the outside.'

Though Sajad was a borderline separatistremember, he learned from his father that this separatism wasn't going to last very longhe was Delhi's favoured separatist. But he has looked for extraordinary favours from Delhi, and because of his temperament, Delhi has not been able to handle him properly. Thus the desperation in November 2014, when he went and met Modi; Sajad was thinking that he had to get on Delhi's right side. Like every other Kashmiri, Sajad believes that what Delhi wants is what will happen. Now that he's arrived on centre court it is up to him to prove that he has the mettle to get to the top.

The Mirwaiz could be a big player if Pakistan gave him freer rein. Mehb.o.o.ba is a bit quirky. But I have felt that a government with these, Omar, Umar and Sajadand they could accommodate Mehb.o.o.ba as well, why notwould be the best combination for Kashmir. It would take care of every shade of opinion: the pro-Pakistan, the pro-Indian, the pro-regional, etc. It would automatically take care of the problems of engagement. As Omar used to say whenever there were talks about the Hurriyat, 'Why are you asking me about talking to Delhi, I'm talking to Delhi all the time. Delhi should be talking to these guys.'

Modi is in a position to do what neither Vajpayee nor Manmohan Singh could do, because he can't blame anyone. The welcome Modi got from Kashmiris when he became prime minister was unprecedented: a BJP-RSS guy was being welcomed by the Mirwaiz. If Modi wants to waste the opportunity, then fine. He has no excuses after this 2014 a.s.sembly election.

Some would say that to find a solution to Kashmir one must understand the Kashmiris' collective psychological personality. Kashmiris are said to have descended from the Nagas but are basically Saraswat Brahmins who were converted. And after suffering at the hands of the Mughals, the Pathans, the Afghans, the Sikhs, the Dogras, and currently, India, they fight with their brains. Their brains make up for whatever they might not have.

Neither Pakistan nor India understands the Kashmiri's remarkable adjustability. An old Kashmiri woman will tell you whom she voted for, but she will not give up on azaadi. The Kashmiri will not accept defeat in a hurry.

Even in the worst of times the Kashmiri has never lost his sense of humour. When Rubaiya Sayeed was released from captivity on 13 December 1989, a popular saying was: 'Mufti Saeben gab, panch duh lab,' meaning Mufti's lamb found in five days. And when they began to tire of Mufti's rule in 2004, they said about Farooq: 'Uss fetir (lovable fool) ko wapas lao'. Mirza Afzal Beg was said to be the wittiest of his contemporaries and his jokes are a legion.

But times have changed: as Modi said during the 2014 parliamentary election, India has changed, and the corollary to that is that Kashmir has also changed. Many of today's youth don't know Sheikh Abdullah, and some don't even know Farooq.

Another ill.u.s.tration of the change before my eyes is in two flights that I took to Srinagar from Delhi: one in 1990, the other in 2012.

In 1990, all h.e.l.l had broken loose: central government employees deserted Srinagar, the Pandits made an exodus, our officers were getting b.u.mped off, anti-India crowds were on the streets every day, and you never know whether you would make it home that evening. I was transferred out in March and I left in a hurry, leaving my baggage behind.

I went back for my luggage in May and it was an unforgettable experience because there was so much tension in the aircraft. At that time there were only two flights to Srinagar, both operated by Indian Airlines. n.o.body spoke on the aircraft, not even a whisper. Kashmiris sat grimly throughout the flight. There were only two non-Kashmiris: myself and a Border Security Force (BSF) officer in uniform, who coincidentally sat next to me.

I was in no mood to talk to anybody; the atmosphere was so stifling. But the BSF officer said: 'Are you going to Srinagar on work?'

'No,' I said. 'Not really.'

He paused and then asked: 'Are you going on holiday?'

'Not really.' And the conversation ended there because I didn't want to carry it forward and explain why I was going there and tell the entire story.

When the plane landed, the BSF officer was first off and I followed him on to the tarmac. The IB has a presence at the airport so a couple of guys were there who received me. The BSF fellow was obviously posted in Srinagar and so recognised the two, and figured out who I was or where I was from. He looked back at me and smiled.

The other flight was at the end of April 2012. Now there were 26 to 30 flights to Srinagar, and when I boarded the aircraft I could have sworn it was a charter from Bangalore, because it was filled with south Indians going on holiday. I talked to a couple of fellow pa.s.sengers and they said they were from Bangalore. I sat in the back and there was only one Kashmiri man, with two women.

The Kashmiri was a little inquisitive; he thought I was a Kashmiri. 'Aap kahan se hain, kahan rehte hain?' he asked me. He wanted my Srinagar address.

'Main Delhi rehta hoon,' I said.

But he wouldn't believe I lived in Delhi. He asked me for my Delhi address.

'Nahin sir, aap toh Kashmiri lagte hain,' he said. 'Toh aap Delhi address bataye kyonki main nahin manta hoon ki aap Delhi rehte hain.'

I told him that I lived in Friends Colony and he was finally convinced.

The atmosphere was completely different: lively, a lot of tourists, relaxed. Everything had changed.

If you go to Kashmir now during season, which extends from April to October, Srinagar is full. You can't get a ticket, you can't get a hotel room. Hotels keep mushrooming. There are seven-star hotels now; in Gulmarg, which sees another tourist season in the winter, there's a new place that is said to be better than anything in Srinagar. If you walk down the Boulevard, it's packed with strollers. At the end of the high- security Gupkar Road, where the IB office is as well as Farooq's house, there are dhabas that have opened, some of them Punjabi dhabas. The most frequent visitor is the Gujarati, and during Puja it is the Bengali. But there is a continuous flow of tourists.

Irshad Malik, the Kashmiri militant now in London (who Firdous had wanted me to bring back to India when I was at R&AW), once said to me about PoK: 'Uss taraf kya hai? Pakistan mein kya hai? Aap kyon fiqar karte hain? Inko jaane dijiye, paar dekhne dijiye, udhar kuchh bhi nahin hain.' He said that Srinagar airportand he obviously hadn't been to Srinagar airport in at least twenty-four yearswas better than any Pakistani airport. Hotels in Kashmir are as good as any in the world. 'They have nothing there,' he said. You should publicise these facts, he said to me: 'Aapko toh film banani chahiye.'

Kashmir is as normal as normal can be. The crisis of 1989 90 has long blown over. Separatism has receded, or as one of their own kin put it, their lottery is over.

Kashmir and Kashmiris have moved on. Agha Shahid Ali, the Kashmiri-American poet, has inspired a whole generation of writers from South Asia including Basharat Peer and Mirza Waheed, who have made their mark in the West. S.A.S. Geelani's son-in-law, Iftikhar Geelani, who started as a small-time journalist, is heading the Delhi Bureau of the popular Mumbai- based daily DNA. More promising youngsters are making their mark in the national media. Kashmiris are regularly figuring in the All India Civil Services list. A couple of years ago a Kashmiri topped the list. Kashmiri doctors are travelling for jobs not only to the Gulf and the Middle East but the US as well. Cricket has picked up since Parvez Rasool was included in the national one day squad. For the first time J&K defeated Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy this season.

But sadly radicalism has moved apace and signals from the neighbourhood are ominous. Not only is Pakistan in turmoil and Afghanistan yet to unravel but which way the Taliban is headed and how Islamic jihad will finally play out is difficult to say. Al-Qaeda may no longer be the force it was but is still clearly inspiring. The ISIS is attracting more and more Muslim youth the world over. Kashmir can hardly remain immune from what is happening all over the Islamic world, more so because the violence it has witnessed in the last twenty-five years. Significantly, of late Kashmiri boys involved in militancy are more highly educated and from better stock. Not surprisingly, pro-ISIS graffiti has appeared in Srinagar city and its flags flown in the university. The proclamation of a caliphate is likely to be the most significant development in international jihadism since 9/11 which is beginning to impact worldwide. Nearer home, Taliban's terror factory is on auto pilot and all the more dangerous when there is no communication with Pakistan.

Nothing is constant; least of all Kashmir; it could change overnight. The Kashmiri has suffered for the last twenty-five years and though he largely blames himself, he is not internally at peace with the status quo. The peace with honour he bargained for still eludes him; he made a dignified exit. Why can a Kashmiri not be an Indian? We need to look deep into this question which disturbs us when a shopkeeper in Srinagar enquires, 'Aap India se aaye hain?' The Indian State is big enough to breach this psychological barrier. What Kashmir needs is not magnanimity but hard-nosed commonsense which Vajpayee displayed. Had he been around for a few more years or had Dr Manmohan Singh not missed the window of opportunity in 2006 or 2007, a solution around the Musharraf formula would have disposed of the problem for the foreseeable future. Now we need to engage with Kashmir (not just Mufti Saheb) and with Pakistan as well. The reason that people in Delhi have reservations about talking to separatists and Pakistanis are the very reasons we need to talk to them for. As Mufti says, there is no other way.

In closing, I must say this: if anyone who reads this book has any doubts about the path I tookof talking, talking, talking and how unbeatable dialogue is as both a tactic and a strategy, then I will tell them of what Agha Saheb said to me during a meeting in May 2014: 'You were sent to disrupt the (Kashmir) movement . . . in the friendliest possible manner.'

ABOUT THE AUTHOR.

AMARJIT SINGH DULAT served as the head of the Research and a.n.a.lysis Wing (R&AW), India's spy agency, under Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee. He later joined Vajpayee's Prime Minister's Office (PMO), where his job was to 'monitor, manage and direct' the government of India's peace initiative in Kashmir. Dulat was born in Sialkot, Punjab, in December 1940. With India's Part.i.tion, his father Justice Shamsher Singh Dulat, ICS, was posted to Delhi. Dulat was educated in Bishop Cotton School, s.h.i.+mla and Punjab University, Chandigarh, after which he joined the Indian Police Service (IPS) in 1965, and then the Intelligence Bureau (IB) in 1969, where he served for almost thirty years. At IB he headed the Kashmir Group during the turbulent 1990s till he joined and headed R&AW.

Since leaving the government in 2004, Dulat has been active on the track two circuit, and has visited Pakistan. He has co-auth.o.r.ed a paper with former Pakistani intelligence chief Lt. Gen. Asad Durrani on the benefits of intelligence cooperation between India and Pakistan.

During service, Dulat acc.u.mulated a vast reservoir of goodwill with Kashmiris of all shades. As Jane's Intelligence Digest put it in 2001: 'Well known for his social skills, Dulat prefers dialogue to clandestine manoeuvres. He has built up an impressive network of personal contacts in Kashmir including militants.' A decade after retirement, that goodwill remains intact, with Kashmiris dropping in on him and his wife Paran at their Friends Colony house in Delhi, to share gossip, information, and advice.

ADITYA SINHA is a journalist since February 1987. He has been Editor-in-Chief of The New Indian Express and of Daily News and a.n.a.lysis (DNA). His published work includes the biographies Farooq Abdullah: Kashmir's Prodigal Son (1996) and Death of Dreams: A Terrorist's Tale (2000).

end.

<script>