The omens for Jammu & Kashmir in 2007 show promise. Both sides are busy preparing the ground for what could be a breakthrough. The BJP has very unwisely, and for purely narrow electoral gain, nailed the outworn and regressive slogans of ‘Muslim/minority appeasement’ and ‘Hindutva’ to its mast. But nothing can stop an idea whose time has come.

President Musharraf has been speaking incessantly of his four-point solution for J&K — define or “identify” (areas relevant for a solution to) J&K; demilitarise these regions; devolve “self-governance” on them with responsibility for internal but not external security; and finally render the LoC irrelevant by building strong cross-border relationships through free movement of people, commerce, and institutional linkages under some form of “joint supervision” (rather than the earlier phraseology of “control” or “management”). Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has welcomed all fresh ideas and has suggested a Treaty of Peace, Security and Friendship between the two countries when all the elements are in place. If this echoes Ayub’s offer of “joint defence” to Nehru in 1959, it fleshes out Nehru and Sheikh Abdullah’s idea of some kind of confederal solution to J&K mooted in 1964.

To many in India, Musharraf might appear to be speaking in riddles. He is willing to drop Pakistan’s “claim” to J&K and has diluted the ideological content of the two-nation theory in some of the country’s new school textbooks. The concept of “self-determination” is being internalised, with independence firmly ruled out. The key to understanding lies in recognising that after years of sloganeering and myth-making on J&K, General Musharraf is essentially addressing his own people, slowly re-educating them to accept harsh facts and ground realities.

... contd.