Kashmiris take the road less travelled

If Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf does get invited by the Indian government to the final cricket test in Kolkata and he accepts it will add another spoke to the raft of confidence-building measures that must, in the long run, change the way the two arch-rivals deal with one another.

Pakistan's leader is borrowing a leaf from Zia ul Haq's book. The late military ruler made an unheralded appearance in Jaipur in 1989 and broke new ground. But whether Musharraf's penchant for the big gesture will wipe out the acrimony and one-upmanship that mar India-Pakistan relations, mired in the miasma of Kashmir, is debatable. So much stands in the way.

The ordinary Pakistani's open-hearted welcome of India's men in blue when they toured Pakistan in 2004, mirrored Musharraf's own determination to get faltering relations back on track. It gave cricket the exalted status of track one diplomacy when every other track had run aground.

Indeed, the 2005 series, fast becoming yet another rivet on the bridge that is binding the two countries together is taking place in the backdrop of another remarkable peace gesture.

Come April 7, the first ever passenger bus will travel from the Pakistani city of Muzaffarabad to Indian Kashmir's capital Srinagar and vice versa. It is a distance of a few hundred kilometres but it attempts to span a yawning chasm of doubt and distrust of the other's motives that marks every encounter.

The 65 odd passengers from Srinagar and 65 others who get on from Muzaffarabad are making history of sorts. They symbolise hope, the breaking down of long held barriers. This is a road that has not been travelled for some 57 years. A vital trade link, it was sealed after one war, mined after another. Most importantly, passengers will be using travel documents that acknowledge the authority of the local district official. Not their respective countries.

In doing so they could even change the inherently harsh nomenclature that is used by Delhi and Islamabad. Will India continue calling the Pakistani area POK, short for Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, and Pakistan describe the Indian part as Indian Held Kashmir?

The hawks in the Indian establishment are uneasy. They feel India has given in to Pakistan's objections on counter-signing a document that would have recognised Indian sovereignty over territory that Islamabad considers disputed. India's claim that Kashmir has acceded to it will be weakened. It will set a precedent during any negotiations on the northern state's future status.

In Pakistan, there is worry that the singular lack of development, the huge presence of non-Kashmiris and the oppressive security apparatus in Azad Kashmir will not go down well with the visitors. They will compare it with their home state where dissent is loud and raucous, however authoritarian the military presence there.

Ground reality

Delhi's concession on passports is probably the result of pressure from Washington. It is also an acceptance of ground reality. Despite the maximalist positions taken by the two nations, few will put forth that a change in the boundary will take place any time soon. Neither side can dislodge the other through force.

The political impetus for change, embodied in the 15-year insurgency in the Kashmir valley which continues to have residual support, is also running out of steam.

Even those who back the "jihad" believe that violence led to the valley being left behind, while once backward country cousin, Jammu, raced ahead through settler Pandit enterprise. Separatist leaders and human rights activists insist it's a small price to pay until they achieve their goal of azadi (freedom) from Indian rule.

They seem oblivious to the exodus of thousands of Kashmiris who have chosen to make a living outside their insurgency-wracked state; that the political space is being occupied by young people who want the power to change things, evident by their participation in local elections despite threats of militant violence and calls for a boycott.

This week Jamaat-e-Islami leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who has always played spoilsport whenever India and Pakistan sought dialogue, reached out to the Pandits. In doing so, he could be reflecting the urgent need for a homegrown political voice who sets aside the rancour of the past and speaks the language of peace on both sides of Kashmir.

The bus will no doubt strengthen social linkages as two divided peoples reunite with long lost relatives and friends. If in the next step, trade links are resurrected and Kashmiris are allowed to exercise their long dormant business enterprise, the apples and walnuts of the valley will be sold in the markets of Muzaffarabad like before.

It will usher in the economic integration that could make political differences irrelevant. It also presages change of another sort. India has indicated it would be willing to bury its pre-condition of reciprocal trade access on the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline.

It may be hoping Kabul will help it gain access to Central Asia through the Afghan-Pakistan pipeline. It is a concession. But not as big as the bus, which is a signal to Pakistan that India has yielded ground on Kashmir and expects a level of trust in return.

As the Kashmiris take the road less travelled in April, and Musharraf wings his way to Kolkata, can disputes on water-sharing and Siachen continue to be held hostage to distrust on Kashmir?