120 Whither Kashmir? (Part II) - Islamabad Policy Research Institute

46 IPRI Factfile
otherwise. War, though engaged upon more than once, is the instrument
least likely to induce an acceptable outcome.
Hence the world needs to understand what drives those young boys
lobbing stones in Srinagar when they chant ‘azadi’ or ‘freedom’. After all,
Kashmiri leaders interpret the word differently. To some it means
freedom from India, to others it is freedom from both India and Pakistan;
then there are those who believe that the resistance is to end repression.
One, two or all three could be correct. But whatever these youths want,
they have been wanting it so much and for so long that the hand of fate is
conspiring to help them achieve it.
First, President Obama’s revised Af-Pak strategy and the
subsequent London Conference in late January made it clear that
Pakistan is the only viable exit road from Afghanistan — and naturally,
the road to Islamabad’s fullest cooperation passes through Kashmir. Gen
Ashfaq Kayani’s straight-talking at NATO the other week defined this
paradigm in clearer terms when he informed the world that as long as
Pakistan had issues to settle with India, it simply could not ignore the
Indian threat. NATO tired and roughed-up in the merciless Afghan
terrain, is fully aware that if there is one military out there that has the
mettle to tame the Taliban in the medium and long run, either peacefully
or by other means, it is the Pakistan Army. So they had to be listening to
Gen Kayani’s words carefully and indeed they did: at stake is not just the
beaten track of Central Asia but the prestige of the world’s supposedly
greatest military alliance — NATO. Who would take it seriously any
more if it was seen as being defeated by a primitive and ragtag militia
called the Taliban?
Secondly, the appointment of Shiv Shankar Menon as the national
security adviser to the Indian prime minister could be a good omen for
the peace process. Coming from once troubled southern India, the former
envoy to Islamabad and Beijing served as India’s foreign secretary during
eventful times in the last round of the peace process.
Menon is reviled by the media hawks and a section of the
establishment for his pro-peace inclination; he belongs to a new
generation of diplomats that see the dividends of peace in a broader
context. I met him with a group of former diplomats and PPP and PML
politicians in 2006, on the sidelines of a peace conference in Delhi, and
found him keen to help his government build bridges with Pakistan and
work towards dispute resolution.