ARTICLE
Kashmir issue: The story
of a lost opportunity
T
hough it may sound incredible given the latest diplomatic debacle, India and Pakistan had come close
to an agreement on the most contentious issue of
Kashmir a few years ago. It is yet another story of the
lost opportunities that have afflicted this region.Former
foreign minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri, in his recently
published book, reveals how the backchannel negotiations from 2004-07 helped the two sides reach an understanding on a draft formula on the future of Kashmir.Many
in the two countries believe the same framework could
still provide the basis for a sustainable peace process.For
sure, most of the features of the proposed peace formula
are known, but perhaps not the entire framework and the
details of the diplomatic efforts that went into the draft
agreement. These could have changed the entire regional security paradigm. It is arguably the most authentic account of the secret negotiations to which the author was a
witness.What made the secret backchannel negotiations
more useful was that they allowed the two sides to revisit their respective positions away from the media glare
and to explore out-of-the-box solutions for the tricky issue that had been the cause of three wars. It was the
first sustained backchannel negotiations between India
and Pakistan that lasted for three years despite the huge
trust deficit that existed between them. More importantly,
the numerous exchanges of non-papers remained strictly
confidential, something that could not have been possible
in official-level talks.According to Mr Kasuri, the two sides
had fundamentally agreed on a four-point formula that
envisaged demilitarisation and joint control of the disputed territory. While avoiding the redrawing of the border, it
suggested making the Line of Control irrelevant allowing
Kashmiris on both sides to move freely.It was supposed
to be the first step leading up to a permanent solution
to the long-festering problem. Undoubtedly, it could have
been a viable and acceptable proposition had the agreement been formally signed. But, unfortunately, that did
not happen because of the 2007 political crisis in Pakistan and India’s own internal political problems. A great
historical opportunity was lost.Interestingly, that peace
process, perhaps the most substantive ever to take place
between the two South Asian rivals, was initiated by the
very leaders who had almost led their countries to a catastrophic war just two years ago in 2002.Not to forget that
it was the same Gen Musharraf who was the architect of
the Kargil conflict that aborted the earlier peace initiative
taken by Nawaz Sharif and Atal Behari Vajpayee.It was
Mr Vajpayee’s visit to Islamabad in January 2004 for the
Saarc summit conference that le