In a statement earlier this year, the Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti had called for replacement of the idea of Azadi for Kashmir with a better idea. What is that better idea, Mehbooba has stayed of articulating that. But at the recent Ideas Conclave in Goa, Mehbooba may have talked at length about what that better idea might be. In her address at the conclave, Mehbooba pleaded for opening up the state to the outside world and its opportunities. Chief Minister said the geographical positioning of the State makes it gateway to the Central Asia and that position ought to be used for opening up its people to the outside world. The CM also called for making Jammu & Kashmir a model state for SAARC cooperation in the region. True, these are not the new ideas. In fact, Mehboobas party the PDP has always plied them as its formula for Kashmir resolution. The ideas are contained in its self-rule document.
Of all the mainstream settlement formulae for Kashmir solution, the PDPs is the only one with both internal and external contours for the solution. On internal front, the self rule proposal seeks a constitutional restructuring of J&Ks relations with New Delhi, dual currency, roll-back of central laws applicable to the state, an elected governor, even the rechristening of the titles of the Governor and Chief minister as Sadar-i-Riyasat (President) and Wazir-e-Azam (Prime Minister) respectively. And on external front, the PDP seeks opening up the state to outside world through its traditional surface links that could demolish barriers of mistrust between India and Pakistan. This is expected to provide a congenial space for unhindered growth, development and dignity to the people of state. The party regards the 2005 reopening of Srinagar-Muzaffarabad route as the watershed for a state which until then had been condemned to living in a geographical black hole with a highly restricted access to avenues of travel and trade in a world where free interaction was the defining ethos. And therefore the party has sought to further build upon this all-important Confidence Building Measure to end the sense of siege, separation and insecurity that dominated J&K after the partition.
Is this the better idea for a resolution of Kashmir that the CM has been talking about? True, the realization of such a prospect will go a long to uncage Kashmir and undo the economic disadvantages that were the outcome of the state becoming a bone of contention between India and Pakistan in the wake of the partition of India. However, Mehboobas recurrent advocacy of such a solution has made little difference to the prevailing integrationist discourse on the state in India. The current dispensation in New Delhi cant seem to care less. Its approach to Kashmir is one of denial of the existence of a problem, leave alone take even minor political steps to address the festering conflict. Mehboobas role is to not only publicly talk about her formulation of a Kashmir solution but also get her coalition partner to appreciate its feasibility as a roadmap for a durable Kashmir settlement.
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