Kashmir is a red herring-Growing realisation in the US that Kashmir is not the cause of Indo-Pak problem.-10/10/10

Kashmir is a red herring

Growing realisation in the US that Kashmir is not the cause of Indo-Pak problem.

From an interview by DNA with Lisa Curtis, a South Asia expert at the Heritage Foundation:

To secure greater leverage over Pakistan, will the US offer it concessions on Kashmir?

I don’t think so. The Kashmir issue is more a symptom of the larger problem between India and Pakistan; it’s not as if dealing with Kashmir will make these terrorist groups melt away. The aims of India-focussed groups like the Lashkar-e-Taiba are broader than Kashmir: they’re trying to wreak havoc throughout India and dent the country’s image as an emerging power. They use the situation in Kashmir to justify what they’re doing, but they’re not interested in Kashmir.
The idea that if the US intervenes in Kashmir, it would help focus Pakistan’s attention on dealing with militant groups is a misunderstanding. The focus should be on convincing Pakistan to crack down on these groups for the sake of its own stability. The non-state actors that Pakistan supported to destabilise India are now destabilising Pakistan. The sooner Pakistan accepts that reality, the better.
Does the Obama administration realise that Kashmir is a red herring?
There’s increased understanding on this point. Initially there was some naiveté: a connection was mistakenly made that if the US could resolve Kashmir, the problems of South Asia would go away. That’s typical of new administrations: they come in with an idealistic view that the US can wave its magic wand and resolve problems. Kashmir represents Pakistani paranoia about an emerging India. At the heart of the issue is convincing Pakistan that building up its economy is the best way for it to protect its regional interests, not trying to wreak havoc on its neighbours. I think there’s a growing understanding within the Obama administration on this point, so we won’t see the president trying to seek a high profile role on Kashmir.
He’s learnt the lesson from when as a presidential candidate he promoted the idea of a Kashmir envoy. He may raise the issue in private meetings and seek to get more information to enhance his own understanding of the region. The best way to pursue this may be encouraging New Delhi to deal with Kashmiri grievances, which we’ve seen over this summer. But the other part of it is convincing Pakistan not to take advantage of this situation like it did throughout the 1990s when it supported insurgent groups in the region.[DNA]
This series of tweets from Ms Smita Prakash, Editor News, ANI after attending two conferences on Kashmir in Washington DC — at USIP and The Heritage Foundation — suggests that Ms Curtis’ view has gained wide-spread currency amidst policy-makers in the United States. An extract:
The American experts did not mince words in blaming Pakistan for fishing in troubled waters and even encouraging Kashmiri separatists to violence. One speaker even talked about Harkat ul Ansar. I looked around the audience wondering does anybody here even remembers Harkat; in India, even the IB has probably forgotten about them. And journalists mostly know about the LeT and that’s it. But here were Americans well aware about the complexities of Kashmir problem — the Jammu and Ladakh angles and how it is something that India knows best how to deal with. Obama is best advised not to meddle, mediate, facilitate between India and Pakistan is what ALL speakers said. On India-Pakistan, solve when and how it suits you.
The speakers were former diplomats, journalists, former intelligence officers who have served in India and Pakistan. They were clear that it is India’s democracy that allowed incidents in Kashmir to be reported. They were all very appreciative of the 8-point initiative by the government and said that if separatists did not cooperate and help in bringing development (IT industry, tourism) into state, then they will lose support of the youth who today are picking up stones but tomorrow they will tire of this: azadi is not a workable option if it meant independence. That wont happen — all of them agreed.[link]
Of course, this is precisely what this humble blogger had explicitly stated when Pakistan foreign minister was clucking about Kashmir in the United States last month. May be, just may be, President Obama will also see the irony of these noises over Kashmir by Pakistan in the immortal words of Samuel Johnson.

“How is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty from the drivers of Negroes?”