The Jammu and Kashmir State Assembly in India took the first step towards making history earlier in September when Speaker Mubarak Gul announced he would summon the former Indian Army chief Gen (r) Vijay Kumar Singh to question him about the allegation that all the ministers in the state had been receiving money from Delhi since 1947.
General Singh’s revelation came in response to a report in an Indian English newspaper that said he had given Rs 11.9 million to a minister in the Jammu and Kashmir cabinet to topple the Omar Abdullah government when it was facing public ire in 2010. The former military leader is also believed to have set up a Technical Services Division in the Indian Army headquarters to snoop on several big guns. The report is based on an internal inquiry conducted by India’s current army chief Gen Bikram Singh.
The report, and Gen (r) VK Singh’s response in which he did not spare any of the pro-India politicians in the Indian Kashmir, infuriated the lawmakers, whose credibility it dented.
The ruling National Conference brought a Privilege Motion against him. Other parties were up in arms too. That compelled the speaker to allow a three hour long discussion on the subject. The members were not pacified until the speaker announced he would summon the general if he was not satisfied with his written reply. But at the same time, the speaker reserved his judgment on the motion and did not refer it to the Privileges Committee.
Gen (r) VK Singh revealed that the governments in power in Jammu and Kashmir were “disempowered structures” especially after 1990, when New Delhi’s direct rule remained in force for more than six years. The capital’s influence refused die down in spite of the much touted electoral process in the state.
[quote]The Indian Army has become a stakeholder in the affairs of Kashmir[/quote]
The people are generally skeptical of any action against the general. In a way, the Indian Army has become a stakeholder in the affairs of Kashmir, and giving leverage to any civilian authority to get its former chief on the knees may not be a palatable thing for them. In the past, the Indian Army has put stiff resistance to even allowing amendments in the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) that gives unbridled powers to them to deal with militancy. Under the smokescreen of this law, Indian Army personnel who have been held responsible for human rights abuses have been able to go scot free.
Former Indian home minister P Chidambaram, who is now the finance minister, admitted that the Indian Army had opposed attempts at making it “a humanitarian law”. “The Army has taken a strong stand against any dilution of the AFSPA… We can’t move forward because there is no consensus. The present and former army chiefs have taken a strong position that the Act should not be amended… They also do not want the government notification [of bringing certain areas under the AFSPA] to be taken back. How does the government move forward… to make the AFSPA a more humanitarian law?” he said in a lecture in Delhi on February 6.
Whether Gen (r) VK Singh is summoned by the state assembly or not, his revelations have hurt the reputation of pro-India political parties of Indian Kashmir. Credibility of elections in the state has been questioned in the past, and especially after 1996 – when the elections were held for the first time since the armed rebellion began in the valley – have been a matter of serious debate. The way the ministers have been branded “paid agents” of Delhi has vindicated the stance of those who oppose Indian rule in Kashmir.
However, the fact is that both Delhi and Islamabad have polluted the politics of Kashmir in the last six decades, and that has choked independent discourse. General Singh’s “disclosures” may not even be proved, but the way politics have been managed in Kashmir is an open secret.
The author is a journalist based in Srinagar
