Washington: Accusing Indian government of being "inaccessible" and "unresponsive" to
local needs, a study by the has blamed New Delhi for the previous conflict in Punjab
and the current tension in Jammu and Kashmir.
These conflicts are "the result of centralised power operating in a predominantly
heterogeneous society", said a Library of Congress Study, last updated in 1995 but
still present on the US State Department Website.
"Although tensions...have important historical roots, they have been fuelled by
controversy over the policies of India's Central government. Opposition is built up
on the feeling that political power in New Delhi is inaccessible and unresponsive to
local needs," it said.
In each case, the Congress (I) leadership attempted to intervene in the
conflicts "to advance its partisan interests only to have its intervention backfire
and aggravate regional tensions", the Study said.
The Kashmir crisis of the 1990s, the study said, is "reflective of trends occurring
throughout the Indian polity; the increasing intervention of the Central government
in local affairs, the resort to coercion to resolve social conflict and maintain
social order, and the increasing political assertiveness of the Indian
public".
The study concedes that the state acceded to India "when Kashmir was under attack by
a Muslim paramilitary force supported by Pakistan" and that "the conflict assumes
considerable symbolic as well as strategic importance because, as India's only
Muslim majority state, Jammu and Kashmir validates India's national identity as a
religiously and culturally diverse society held together by a common history and
cultural heritage".
PTI
