Sir, the Hon. Home Minister has made a Statement before this House on 4th August, 2010. The Statement broadly gives a list of events and some very serious developments which have taken place since the 11th June this year. It does not reflect the enormity of the seriousness of the situation and what roadmap the Government has in mind for resolving the current impasse that is taking place.
Sir, we get an impression that the situation is slowly slipping out of control. And, it is clear from the Home Minister's statement, as also various pieces of information that we are getting from media organisations, as also the citizens of the Valley, that in the last few months, particularly in the last two years, there has been a significant change in the strategy by both, the ISI, various agencies across the border, as also the separatist forces who act at their behest in the Valley itself. Sir, earlier, the strategy used to be to have illegal infiltration into the Valley and other parts of the country to indulge in acts of sabotage, acts of terrorism, blasts, killings, destruction of public property, etc. I think, somewhere, in the strategic thinkers amongst those who are the handlers across the border and their friends within, there seems to be a realisation now that the global acceptability for these kind of events does not exist. Even domestic support, when incidents of this kind take place, starts reducing and vanishing. Also, Sir, in the last 20 years, two decades, our own security forces, our own intelligence network has also been considerably strengthened and we have dealt with large number of these incidents, and, therefore, if I may, without meaning to be arrogant about India's potential, say that the potential of Indian State itself was increasingly becoming more powerful in tackling these incidents of sabotage. The changed strategy, therefore, appears to be that instead of these individual acts of terror and violence, instigate people for the purposes of mob violence and this entire strategy of mob violence, which has taken effect in the Valley since 11th of June, has its beginning earlier when some efforts were also made two years ago when they tried to create a controversy on the issue of pilgrim facilities in the Amarnath Yatra. So, gradually, it has been building up since then in the last two years. From young children to women, youth, elderly people, are all being trained in acts of sabotage by way of stone pelting and mob violence wherein large crowds collect. Sir, women are organised by several separatist groups. The name of Dukhtaran-e-Millat is being regularly mentioned. Regarding school children, there have been incidents which have been reported that when they go to their schools, besides textbooks, their bags are also filled up, by some vested interests, with stones and the target is public property, the target is security forces. The Home Minister, in his statement, has mentioned that more than 1200 security personnel have already been injured. Now, the entire strategy appears to be that somehow indulge in these acts of mob violence and provoke the security forces, damage public property. Now, after all, public property has to be protected, human life has to be protected. And, every time, a defensive action is taken by our security forces, obviously, in a confrontation of this kind, lives will be lost. Even innocent lives will be lost. The Home Minister has rightly said that we sympathise with all those who have lost their lives even if they were a part of the agitating crowd because we do not want even a misled citizen of India to meet his end in this manner. Now, the entire strategy appears to be that through these acts of mob violence, instigate violence, create tension and then use the emotive content of that confrontation in order to spread it further. Sir, today, we are faced with a situation where, as I said earlier, that our security forces, our local police, our CRPF, our other security forces, were actually, for the last two decades, tackling individual acts of terror and violence.
This is a new situation which has emerged today. Unfortunately, and I say this with a sense of deep regret, even when efforts are being made by separatist groups to escalate the situation, and we had evidence of it which was broadcast by national television where handlers across the border are informing the so-called organizers of this mob violence, as to what the start point of the protest would be, as to what actions they are to take, they were even measuring the size of the crowd which was collecting for these particular purposes. Therefore, how do we handle a situation of this kind? What has, unfortunately, happened is that the political parties, which operate in the Valley within the political framework of India's democratic polity, have, unfortunately, taken a back seat. Their ability to reach out to the people in a situation of this kind has somehow suddenly got diluted. Also, Sir, there is a reasonable sense of worry that we have, as to what is the preparedness of both our intelligence agencies and our security agencies to deal with this new situation which is now emerging where mob violence as a substitute to the isolated terrorist attacks is now the strategy of the separatist groups. The biggest worry, Sir, is that today, the State Government within the Valley, and this is the information which we are getting, has increasingly got alienated from the people. In the two other parts of the State, that is, Leh Ladakh and Jammu, there is a huge amount of anger as these two regions have a feeling that they suffer from having been discriminated against historically. And, today, these two are feeling helpless as the entire concentration of the State and the country is on the Valley, and within the Valley, where large parts of our national resources are spent, and this kind of a situation has taken place. I mean no personal disrespect to any individual, but I am given to understand that forget the State, the Home Minister has to ask his own party, the Chief Minister is getting alienated even from his own party and even from his own alliance partners, and that is one of the reasons that the activity of the mainstream political parties within the Valley, I can understand his opponents in the PDP, who at times are making contradictory statements, probably want the State Government to go. But, today, even within the ruling alliance, the activity of all these parties which function within the framework of India's democratic polity in reaching out to the people has somehow got diluted and they are not making conscious efforts to do that. Whereas we have to prepare our intelligence and our security network to face a situation of this kind, we have also to be prepared to get together all the nationalist forces within the Valley for their politics so that they don’t themselves get alienated from the people and are able to reach out to the people directly. When all this was happening, and as I said, this has been gradually building up, there is a deep sense of disappointment also. What have we done, as far as the Government of India is concerned? We experimented with new ideas every time without realizing whether those experiments will bring any return home or not. You had a political alliance with one group for six years. Then you switched over to a political alliance with a rival group. This kind of alliance hopping by a national party itself we thought perhaps is the political situation. But it has paid no dividends. The Prime Minister went there around three years ago. He went recently also, just before the violence started. And, without considering the consequences of what he was going to do -- there is no difficulty if you say that we stand for economic development, we stand for jobs, we stand for human rights -- he thought that a round table conference and some working groups were a solution. Just consider what happened. You constituted a Working Group to again work out a constitutional relationship between India and the State; the rest of the country and the State. The manner it went on was a complete farce. We got a retired judge of the Supreme Court for this. I say it with utmost respect for him. The Group hardly met. For twenty-two months, it did not meet. And suddenly without discussing it with the Group, without discussing it with the mainstream political parties, he produced a report. Who wrote the report nobody knows. Were these farcical experiments to be done with India's most sensitive area? Then we were told that this was a kind of autonomy document.
You then had a situation where the Home Minister has been maintaining what we have 'silent diplomacy,' which is on, for the last few months. What has the 'silent diplomacy' produced? Who are we talking to? I presume the kind of people we are talking to as a part of 'silent diplomacy' or 'quiet diplomacy.' The 'quiet diplomacy' has been going on for over a last few months. Because we are not finding the persons who are partners across the table in the quiet diplomacy. You are even going amongst the people in a situation of this kind which exists today.
Sir, before I come to the immediate issues involved in it, there are a few worrisome things. I would urge the Home Minister that while dealing with a situation of this kind, the Government of India certainly must not have a knee-jerk or panic reaction. We must realise this -- my party has always believed it, and I have no hesitation in reasserting it even if many other parties don't agree -- that our historical vision, or how the State's problems were to be resolved, was at fault. We started with a situation where we felt that, ' let us give them a separate status, it will please the people.' Please, stand up and honestly analyse this. Sixty-three years after independence, is the separate status journey moving towards separatism? Or is it moving towards integration? Has your vision been historically proved right or wrong? Therefore, every time there is a problem of this kind, the solution which is suggested is that let us make a few more concessions; as it is you have authority over security, defence, external affairs, telecommunications, currency, and four or five areas of this kind.
Political parties within the valley may have their own compulsions. They speak in terms of pre-1953 status; they speak in terms of self-rule; and they speak in terms of autonomy. They have the freedom to advocate what they honestly believe in. But at the end of the day, are we going to go back to a situation where the Supreme Court of India has no jurisdiction or where the Election Commission has no jurisdiction? Therefore, when you decide how to deal with this, let there be no knee-jerk reactions, because you have to find a long-term solution. What did the President Musharraf, the former head of Pakistan, say after he went to London? This was a worrisome statement. We want somebody in the Government of India to clarify that this was not correct. In London, he said on Track-II we had almost come to a settlement on Kashmir. Now Track-II can be a step away from Track-I, but it cannot be diametrically opposite to Track-I. Track-I has visible diplomacy. What was the settlement that he was talking about. I only hope what he said was not an accurate version of what transpired.
Therefore, Sir, in a situation of this kind my queries to the hon. Home Minister or clarifications on the statement are: Does the Government of India have specific information that this entire change of strategy is being engineered from across the border and the handlers of this changed strategy of the separatist are across the border?
Secondly, there also seems to be some churning out of leaders within the separatist groups. Therefore, as a part of this churning out within the separatist groups, you have new leaders, who have suddenly emerged, who are leading the current agitation. And, therefore, if some of them, who have been traditionally involved in pro-Pakistan and separatist activities in the Valley, suddenly start giving statements one day which seem to be more conciliatory, is it a case of change of heart? I am particularly referring to Ali Shah Gilani's statement made yesterday. Is it a change of heart or is it part of a concerted strategy that these statements have been made?
Thirdly, Sir, would the Home Minister acquaint us with the extent to which violence has speared across the State and what steps the Government of India and our security forces are going to take to make sure that this mob violence comes to an end?
Finally, Sir, I hope, his answer is in the negative. When the situation is at such a sensitive point, no kind of political packages -- and the kind of things which are mentioned in those political packages -- be envisaged at this stage by the Government of India because packages of this kind will only indicate the weakness of the Indian State. Suggestions which are made are like , dilute the border across the PoK which may become an option of legitimate infiltration; dilute the provisions of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act which will cripple the Armed Forces who are trying to save the sovereignty and integrity of India; take away the land meant for army cantonments. Your former partner, PDP, even goes to the extent of suggesting that allow both the currencies of both the States. And then, of course, there is the famous President Musharraf's suggestion that the Government of India has never accepted, irrespective of the party in power, to lose control of an area and go in for some kind of joint administration and control. Sir, I hope that there is no such proposal to make any concession of this kind because any concession made at this stage will further dilute the sovereignty and further make the separatists realise that their dreams are, at some point of time, realisable. Unless you give a clear strong signal from India that forget this being crystal-gazing or forget this being a distant dream, it's an impossibility. India will never compromise or bargain on its sovereign territory. It's only in that situation that you can go and negotiate from a position of strength rather than from a position of weakness. Thank you.
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