Solution to the festering Kashmir issue is very much “doable” and is not an “impossible” thing since we have come a long way from 1947 but Prime Minister Modi has “wasted the first 18 months in changing the status quo,” observed former RAW chief A.S. Dulat here on Tuesday.
“Great leaders world over try to bring major changes in the first few years after that it does not matter whether it is a five year or a six year term,” exclaimed the author of the best selling book ‘Kashmir – The Vajpayee Years’ during a conversation with author Karri Sriram organised by the ‘Hyd Park’ at Taj Krishna.
Calling Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee as one of the “greatest Prime Ministers”, Mr. Dulat said the former could have got elected “unopposed if he had contested from Srinagar in 2003” and he continues to be popular there. Hence, “Kashmiris were excited when Modiji got elected” and had a “huge opportunity but it got wasted as he has all the qualities that Vajpayee had”.
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“Pakistan’s arrogance has helped us” and even Kashmiris knew India will not let go and that the gun had brought only “death and destruction”. Only workable solution for now will be to recognise the present “Line of Control”. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh too wanted to do a deal “but did not know how to go about it”, he explained, during the course of his conversation and later taking questions from the gathering.
“We have to show empathy, find a way out of the status quo. Talks are a tedious process…we have to carry it forward” he said.
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Although some feel India should be more macho about tackling terrorism, “we have dealt with it exceptionally well”.
“20 secret meetings”
About failure of the Agra summit between the then Pakistan President Gen. Musharaf and Prime Minister Vajpayee, Mr. Dulat, also a former special director in the Intelligence Bureau, felt that it was more because the Pakistanis “put all eggs in Vajpayee basket”.
He also revealed that the then Pakistan Ambassador Jehangir Qazi had held “20 secret meetings” with Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani before the Agra summit was announced by the latter.
But, Gen. Musharaff and Mr. Advani began on a sour note when the latter sought handing over of Mumbai blasts accused and underworld don Dawood Ibrahim during a meeting at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
He has no doubt that Dawood is a “state guest” of the Pakistan Government living in Karachi and moving around. Bin Laden too was a guest of Pakistan and he was quite sure the CIA had informed the Pakistan Government before the Abottabad raid.
The former RAW chief noted Kashmiris followed a liberal Sufi Islam and Muslims were descendents of Saraswat Brahmins. Therefore, it was all the more “unfortunate” that the majority of Pandits had to leave Kashmir because the threat was real.
Mr. Dulat said the Rubaiyya Sayeed kidnapping was “clumsily handled” whereas “indecision” by the powers that be allowed the Kandahar hijacked plane IC 814 to leave the Amritsar airport to Lahore.
“We have to show empathy, find a way out of the status quo. Talks are a tedious process…we have to carry it forward”