The Huddle 2020 | Govt. should resume talks with Pakistan, says M.K. Narayanan

The Former former National Security Advisor also urged the govt. to open dialogue with political leadership in J&K

February 22, 2020 10:00 pm | Updated 10:09 pm IST - BENGALURU

(From left) National Security advisor M.K. Narayanan, Assistant Professor at the University of Kashmir Mohammed Ibrahim Wani and Ashoka University Professor Srinath Raghavan in conversation with Amit  Baruah, Resident Editor, Delhi, The Hindu.

(From left) National Security advisor M.K. Narayanan, Assistant Professor at the University of Kashmir Mohammed Ibrahim Wani and Ashoka University Professor Srinath Raghavan in conversation with Amit Baruah, Resident Editor, Delhi, The Hindu.

India needs to reopen a dialogue with Pakistan, former National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan said on Saturday while also advocating the resumption of political engagement by the Modi government with leaders in Jammu and Kashmir.

Speaking at The Hindu ’s thought conclave The Huddle in Bengaluru, Mr. Narayanan said the government is “running out of time diplomatically” to explain its actions on the decision to amend Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, as well as the communication shutdown and mass detentions that have followed.

“The truth is, despite all the misgivings on the subject of Pakistan and its support to terror, we did see a relatively more peaceful time in Kashmir when there were talks in the period between 2003-2008,” said Mr. Narayanan, a former police officer and chief of the Intelligence Bureau who was known to take a hard line during his tenure as NSA under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh from 2005-2010.

“I am known as a hawk, and I am not in favour of Pakistan, but I believe we must move towards a dialogue with Pakistan,” he added.

Mr. Narayanan was speaking as part of a panel moderated by The Hindu ’s Resident Editor, Delhi, Amit Baruah, which included Ashoka University Professor Srinath Raghavan and Assistant Professor at the University of Kashmir Mohammad Ibrahim Wani, that discussed the Article 370 decision and the bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh, entitled “The Kashmir Gambit: Can it pay off?”

According to Mr. Raghavan, the government’s decision was spurred by a desire to change the entire political dispensation in the erstwhile State as had been done by former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru when he dismissed the State government and imprisoned Sheikh Abdullah for a decade in 1953, as well as by subsequent Central governments that installed alternate chief ministers over the past 70 years.

“However, it is important to remember that Indira Gandhi had also acknowledged the error in those actions when she worked towards an accord with Sheikh Abdullah in 1975. It remains to be seen how the present situation in Jammu and Kashmir will be judged in the future,” he said.

Mr. Wani said the difference in the 2019 Kashmir decision was that there is no alternate leadership in place when the government decided to detain former Chief Ministers Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti and other leaders. The government has explained its decision as necessary for law and order in the Union Terriotory, and filed charges under the Public Safety Act against the leaders.

Acknowledging that there was widespread support in the rest of India for the government’s decision, Mr. Narayanan said there is a divide in the country between those who think the government’s decision was unwarranted, and those who support it as overdue.

“This section believes that the root cause of Kashmir issue is an excess of freedom of choice. India is not united in looking at what happened in Jammu and Kashmir,” he said, adding that the continuing detentions and the strictures on communication were leading to misgivings about the situation there.

When asked about whether economic development of Jammu and Kashmir might be accelerated now, given the government’s plans for “investor’s summits” to attract industry to set up there, the panellists felt that it was too early to predict a positive outcome.

According to Mr. Raghavan, people in Jammu are worried about losing land and jobs to “outsiders” and have now demanded a special “domicile law” to restrict ownership of property and government jobs to residents. Mr. Wani felt that investors would not feel “comfortable” at present to invest in the Kashmir valley unless restrictions are lifted. Mr. Narayanan also said it would be a “mistake” to believe that economic development alone would reduce levels of violence, and stressed that a process of “political engagement” was necessary first.

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