By: Arindam Banerji, Ph.D.
Something that is about to come
down on India within the next few weeks or months – the forcing of the Chenab
plan on India, by Pakistan and their friends in the US.
The reason for such an obnoxious plan seeing the light of day - simple! India
has never bothered to propose anything better.
(1) The first mention of this possibility came in the article by Arvind
Lavakare in rediff :
http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/may/31arvind.htm
as "Memories of that nightmare were aroused by a recent report from
The News of May 15
e-mailed by Varsha Bhosle. Based on Geo TV's 'Capital Talk' programme, the
report said Niaz A Naik, former Pak foreign secretary, had, for the first
time, disclosed on television that he had discussed the 'Chenab Formula' with
Prime Minister Vajpayee and R K Mishra in 1999 as a solution to the Kashmir
dispute during his back-channel diplomacy in Delhi. Naik claimed he discussed
the formula with a map of J&K in front and that Vajpayee had shown 'a lot of
interest' in the formula. In a nutshell, the Chenab Formula meant that J&K
state would be divided between Hindu and Muslim majority areas, with the city
of Srinagar and most parts of the Kashmir valley going to Pakistan as the
population of these areas consist of a Muslim majority. Naik also said India
and Pakistan could discuss the formula again.
This latest revelation by Naik about Vajpayee's interest in the Chenab
Formula makes one suspect, nay dread, that there was more than a grain of
truth in the article by senior journalist M D Nalapat, datelined New Delhi,
July 9, 2001 and posted on tehelka.com
With the Agra summit only a few days away, Nalapat wrote of 'getting reports
that individuals close to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had assured
their Pakistani interlocutors that he would, in effect, hand over the Kashmir
valley to the jehadis in exchange for peace elsewhere.'
(2) But, since then the Kashmir Telegraph has been reporting the same,
as in
http://www.kashmirtelegraph.com/0603/one.htm
- "EDITOR'S NOTE: Kashmir TELEGRAPH has reasons to believe -- beyond any
shadow of doubt -- that United States is 'arm-twisting' Pakistan -- more
specifically, India, in accepting the 'Chenab Plan'. A 'sinister plot', which
if America has its way, brings about the division of the Indian state of
Jammu & Kashmir on religious lines -- with Muslim-majority areas accorded a
quasi-sovereign status. BJP -- the ruling party -- it seems, has all along
been clandestinely involved in this sinister plot, which undermines the basis
principle -- rejection of the two-nation theory -- on the basis of which
India was founded. It is in this context that one must examine the remarks of
General Jay Garner, setting December, 2004 as the American deadline for
resolving the Kashmir issue. What are the specifics of the Chenab Plan? Who
are (have been) the chief actors behind the scenes? Excerpts from an essay,
entitled, J & K after 9 /11, published by Kashmir TELEGRAPH in its June, 2002
edition (in arrangement with Institute for Conflict Management, New Delhi)."
(3) On Friday, on Fox News Bill O’ Reilly’s show, Mansoor Ijaz (one
of the prime negotiators of the 2000 ceasefire) claimed that he’s in Paris
negotiating on the Kashmir issue between India and Pakistan – claimed that it
would take him one more week to finish initial negotiations between the
Indians and the Pakistanis.
(4) Saleem Shehzad says in his article
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/EF18Df02.html published in Asia
Times, that "Sources in the Foreign Office familiar with the agenda say that
key decisions likely to be agreed on by Musharraf and Bush at Camp David
include the following:
- A clear road map for resolution of the Kashmir conflict in which the "Chanab"
formula, which envisages the division of Kashmir along religious lines, is
likely to be adopted. Thus, the Muslim-majority areas would be allowed to
join Pakistan, while the areas where Hindus and Buddhists are in the majority
would remain with India…."
(5) Both Vajpayee and Advani in recent weeks have talked about
compromise on Kashmir and/or flexibility on Kashmir.
(6) Finally, Kasuri said that "preparations for the blueprint were
under way" in HT. The problem is as a well-known Indian journalist wrote
to me "those in authority in Delhi are interested in gunning for those who
oppose them, not those who oppose the nation."
Such a move would certainly mean a huge strategic change for India -
unfortunately, not a very good one …
Arindam Banerji, Ph.D.
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