US Task Force lends full support to Mufti's 'healing touch' policy

The US Task Force set up by the Council on Foreign Relations and the Asia Society has come out in total support of the Jammu and Kashmir government's "healing touch" policy for the "long suffering Kashmiris."

Presently in Kashmir where they have met Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Saeed, the Task Force members, have urged India to seek an "accomodation with the Kashmiris" by implementing the 1952 agreement between Jawaharlal Nehru and Sheikh Abdullah.

The Task Force in its report has dwelt on India-Pakistan relations. It states, "a successful negotiation with the state government would weaken the basis for an insurgency rooted in Kashmiri unhappiness with New Delhi's manipulation of the state's internal affairs and the erosion of the autonomy promised in the 1952 agreement."

It has noted that such an accord would "mark tangible progress" towards India taking the Kashmiri people's wishes into account.

At the same time the report has expressed some scepticism about the ability of the present government to strike out on this front, as well as criticism of Pakistan and hardliners playing the spoilers in preventing a New Delhi-Srinagar dialogue.

"It remains to be seen how much flexibility India's government will show in dealing with the Kashmiris, especially with the general elections coming up next year," the report has said, adding that the Kashmiri dissidents will have to be associated "in some fashion with any accord." It has further said that all groups should be involved in the talks.

"Hardline militants and Pakistan have been playing the spoilers role, trying to undercut a New Delhi-Srinagar dialogue rather than letting it succeed–or fail–on its own," it has noted. There is also implied criticism of Pakistan's reference to the Mufti government as an "Indian puppet."

Former ambassadors Frank Wisner and Nicholas Platt , chairpersons of the Task Force, currently in Srinagar, made three very interesting points in the section on Kashmir. One that, Kashmir should be one of the issues under discussion and not the issue necessarily.

Emphasising the need for conclusive talks on the nuclear issue, the report has noted that the US should urge India and Pakistan to initiate nuclear discussions without holding these hostage to progress on the Kashmir issue.

It also states that the US should more actively engage itself in resolving the tensions between India and Pakistan.

Thirdly, it states that unofficially Pakistan would be willing to "accept something less than a statewide plebiscite, such as one along district lines. It would also pobably be prepared to agree to an independent status for the Kashmiri speaking areas or some special arrangement for the Kashmir valley.