WHILE few official reactions to the Kashmir elections have come in from around the world, many diplomats, especially those from Western countries, privately note that they are pleased that the poll process ended relatively peacefully.
Though the US State Department has not made a statement, German and European Union officials welcomed the polls. India and Pakistan, they said, should now restart political dialogue and normalise the situation. As expected, Pakistan came down harshly on India. But observers see the successful completion of the polls as a setback for Benazir Bhutto, and her sympathisers worry that this might add to her problems.
바카라 웹사이트"These elections are not going to change anything, just as seven previous elections have not changed anything," thundered Benazir at a lecture in London라이브 바카라 International Institute for Strategic Studies en route to New York to attend the UN General Assembly. To that extent, Benazir may have been tilting at the windmills. For, the chairman of the Pakistan Parliament라이브 바카라 Kashmir Committee, Nawabzada Nasarullah Khan, had visited Bonn a fortnight earlier to lobby against the elections but returned disappointed.
Outside Connaught Rooms, where Benazir spoke, about a dozen supporters shouted slogans in support. And none from the estimated 300,000 Mirpuri Kashmiris turned up as disillusionment grows with Pakistan for its refusal to consider independence as an option for Kashmir.
In Washington, a Clinton Administration official said: "The polls cannot in themselves end the conflict there. India and Pakistan must resolve the dispute in a manner that takes into account the wishes of the people of Kashmir. Our policy remains unchanged."
Even so, fact is that the US Ambassador to India, Frank Wisner, had advised Pakistan just a couple of months ago to adopt a realistic posture on Kashmir. Clearly, the mood in Washington is one of caution, given that the Hurriyat and other important political elements in the Valley boycotted the polls.
Said Shaun Gill, deputy director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies: "The winner must recognise that the mandate excludes important segments of the Kashmiri electorate. So, the new government should focus its efforts on the reintroduction of representative mechanisms at empowering Kashmiris."바카라 웹사이트
As in Punjab, the key to transforming civil society out of an era of militancy will mandate the full participation of all of Kashmir라이브 바카라 legitimate political parties, said Gill. "If this new effort at democracy is to take root in Kashmir, the government will have to rise above partisan interests and work wholeheartedly in encouraging all parties to participate rather than obstruct."
바카라 웹사이트To that end, the new government has made it clear where it stands vis-a-vis the Centre with Farooq Abdullah deciding to join the United Front. Said Sumit Ganguly, professor of political science at New York라이브 바카라 City University: "How Farooq handles this mandate and whether he will develop a dialogue with Kashmir라이브 바카라 disaffected people remains to be seen."
바카라 웹사이트For the moment, though, the elections seem to have hit Pakistani lobbyists hard. "Benazir talks about the aspirations of the Kashmiri people and denies them in the same breath," said a JKLF member in London. Members of a dozen or so Pakistan-backed Kashmiri groups are also undecided about their loyalties now.
As a leader of one such group, Tehreek-e-Kashmir, said: "One has to face the facts." These facts, he said, are that Kashmiris in India can now look forward to a "good amount of autonomy under an elected government, whereas in parts of POK, like Gilgit and Baltistan, there have been no elections for the last 50 years."
Although Benazir seems to be losing support among Kashmiris in Britain, the Labour Party, which is widely expected to form a government after the elections due next summer, seems to be in sync with Pakistan. Reason: there are a number of Pakistani and Kashmiri votes at stake in Britain.
A day after the results of the Kashmir polls came in, the Labour spokesman for foreign affairs, Derreck Fatchet, virtually echoed Benazir라이브 바카라 sentiments to an Indian delegation. The polls, he said, had "not changed anything". Fatchet told the delegation how "delighted" he was to back a motion at a Labour Party conference last year that spoke of Kashmir as a place "bounded" by India among other countries and spoke of a UN plebiscite as the way forward. Hoshiarpur-born Labour MP for Southall, Piara Singh Khabra, who was present at the meeting, spoke of the progress on Kashmir through the elections, but Fatchet라이브 바카라 silence was loud and clear.
Exasperated at the Labour stance, a weary Indian diplomat said: "There isn’t a political group in the West that speaks a language nearer to what Pakistan wants than the Labour Party in Britain."바카라 웹사이트
Sunil Narula in Bonn with Sanjay Suri in London and Ludwina A. Joseph in Washington
