Unionists in J&K hail Naga Framework Agreement, demand same for Valley
Three major political formations active in Jammu and Kashmir are aghast why the Centre was not showing the same respect for Jammu and Kashmir’s unique political history and cultural identity as it has done in the case of Nagaland. They argue that Jammu and Kashmir too has a special history and distinctive political and cultural identities which ought to be accommodated and respected.
Jammu and Kashmir National Conference (JKNC), J&K People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and J&K People’s Conference (PC) welcomed the Naga Peace Accord, but quickly drew parallels with J&K and demanded a similar framework to resolve the Kashmir issue.
They said that the “out of the box” approach to long-pending humanitarian and political disputes helps in the conflict resolution process while rigidity complicates matters further.
“The Naga Peace Accord is a welcome step. But it is ironic that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led central government is promising the people of Nagaland the same guarantees that it snatched from the people of Jammu and Kashmir in August last year in an unconstitutional and unilateral manner,” Waheed Parra, president of PDP’s Youth Wing told The Federal.
Invoking former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s principle, Parra argued that, if the Centre is willing “to offer creative and out of the box solutions to a political problem in Nagaland, it needs to adopt the same unconventional approach vis-à-vis Jammu and Kashmir. The government must draw lessons from the late Vajpayee’s doctrine and ferret out resolution to the vexed issue of Kashmir under the ambit of Insaniyat (humanism). Jingoistic terminology, verbal gymnastics and fake bravado has killed the soul of democracy.”
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Only last week, the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah) made public the original copy of the Framework Agreement (FA) signed with the government in the presence of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi.
Drawing parallels
As soon as a copy of the original peace accord was shared and discussed in the public domain, the regional unionist parties in the Kashmir Valley began drawing comparisons of the Nagaland peace treaty with that of Jammu and Kashmir’s earlier constitutional position with the Union of India.
Until August, 2019, the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir had its separate constitution and a separate flag. Besides this, the Assembly elections in J&K would be conducted after every six years while the judicial matters would come under the Ranbir Penal Code (RPC). Until the mid-1960s, J&K had its own prime minister and Sadr-e-Riyasat (equivalent to president). Both constitutional posts were replaced by chief minister and governor respectively. At present, J&K is run by a lieutenant governor and the restive region has been without an elected government since June 2018.
Meanwhile, in the case of Nagaland, the NSCN (I-M) led by its general secretary Th. Muivah is not willing to compromise over its demand for a separate flag and a constitution separate from the Indian Constitution.
“While the Government of India, in expression of the understanding recognized the unique history and position of the Nagas, the NSCN understood and appreciated the intricacies of the Indian system. With such an understanding and with due appreciation of the imperatives of the contemporary realities and regard for future vision, both sides have agreed to reach an agreement that will end the violent confrontation once and for all and will usher in comprehensive progress in consonance with the genius of the Naga people,” reads the original copy of the Framework Agreement between the Centre and the NSCN.
The document adds: “Both sides have understood each other’s respective positions and are cognizant of the universal principle that in a democracy sovereignty lies with the people. Accordingly, the Government of India and the NSCN, respecting people’s wishes for sharing the sovereign power as defined in the competencies, reached an agreement on the 3rd August, 2015 as an honourable solution.”
In the light of the above agreement, the political parties in Kashmir wonder why the same logic does not apply with respect to Jammu and Kashmir.
The region’s oldest political party JKNC, which first came into being as J&K Muslim Conference and was rechristened as JKNC in 1938-39, asked when the Centre was showing respect to the aspirations of the people of Nagaland, what stopped it from recognising Jammu and Kashmir’s distinctive political identity and history.
Party spokesperson Imran Nabi Dar took a dig at the BJP’s alleged “hypocritical approach”. Imran Dar said that “When the Nagas assert their wish to have a separate flag and a separate identity, it is described as their political right. But the rights that Jammu and Kashmir enjoyed in relation to its unique place in history are now being labelled as separatism.”
The PDP argued that the “special constitutional position secured by Jammu and Kashmir at the time of conditional accession (not merger) in 1947 was not a charity given to the State by the Union of India, but it was an outcome of deliberations and discussions between the two parties.” The party’s spokesperson added that the Centre, the Parliament and even the president cannot scrap Article 370 in a unilateral way. “When it was agreed upon by the two parties, it was imperative that both the parties should have agreed to its dilution or scraping. What the Centre did on August 5, 2019, to Jammu and Kashmir was a constitutional fraud,” he said.
The two regional forces, JKNC and PDP, are not the only unionists to make a case in this fashion. Jammu and Kashmir People’s Conference led by Sajad Lone is another regional player that has overtly spoken about the alleged “doublespeak of the BJP”.
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Party spokesperson Adnan Ashraf Mir told The Federal, “In a mature democracy, you don’t live in an echo chamber and want to hear your voice alone. Democracy is all about respecting regional diversity and distinctive cultures and multiple political identities. It is about debate and dissent. Our religious identity should not result in our collective political disempowerment.”
Adnan Ashraf also hailed the Nagaland Framework Agreement and demanded the same treatment to Jammu and Kashmir while urging upon New Delhi to recognise and respect J&K’s unique history, and its political and cultural distinctiveness. He said that centralization creates hurdles in conflict resolution.
