Editorial
Gujral's Trinket
On Kashmir, Indian Prime Minister I K Gujral's attempted bravado of an overture for uncon-ditional peace talks with the Kashmiri militants is proving to be a non-starter. For, it has been deflated by the proviso he added post-haste that the Muslim rebels would have to first surrender their weapons before being entitled to the dialogue at all. This is literally going one step forward and two steps back. Because while an outside chance for a conciliatory spirit to be instilled in the separatist groups sneaked on to the horizon by the offer of talks, the prospect has been botched up by attaching a precondition to these. Moreover, speaking of fundamentals, the negotiations are going to be about their shunning the path of violence by disarming themselves of their own volition. But the revised proposal for talks seems insistent on achieving the ultimate goal ahead of the dialogue itself which must first be held for any peaceful settlement of the problem. As it is, the Indian Prime Minister has made it clear that the framework of talks would be the territorial integrity of India. Gujral could not have deliberately hollowed out his original overture for unconditional negotiations within a matter of hours since it, gives his penchant for having announced political rather than a military solution of the Kashmir question. Only time can say whether he will revert to what he began with, but for the present he looks like a man under pressure ill put to apply some of his bold theories for innovative peace.
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