Curfew has been lifted from the Kashmir Valley after 51 days
except from the areas of Pulwama and old Srinagar.
There has been a gradual slowdown in violent protests after
the government adopted a two-pronged strategy - to get tough with those
inciting the unrest including Pakistan and Kashmiri separatists, and initiating
a comprehensive dialogue with others including the representatives of the
protestors.
The government's determination to find a solution to the
ongoing strife in Kashmir through dialogue is a welcome step and how serious
the government is this time around becomes clear from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's
assertion that the lives lost in the Kashmir unrest were those of Indians and
the whole of India is pained at that.
"Unity and affection were the pivotal words during my
interaction with other political parties on the Kashmir issue. Those who are inciting
the Kashmiri youth for indulging in violent clashes and stone-pelting will have
to answer someday and those who have died in the ongoing phase of unrest in
Kashmir are Indians," Modi said on Sunday (August 28), making his stand on
Kashmir loud and clear once again. He was addressing the nation through his
monthly radio broadcast Mann ki Baat.
It indicated the continuation of his efforts to initiate a
dialogue in order to find a solution to the Kashmir problem, and that has found
acceptance among the stakeholders, who see a point here.
Before this, even during the meeting with the united front
of Jammu and Kashmir opposition parties last week, the prime minister had said
that development alone was not enough to solve the Kashmir problem and dialogue
was a must.
To extend Modi's initiative, Union home minister Rajnath
Singh held meetings with some eminent Indians before his visit to Kashmir last
week (August 24-25) so that he could prepare the groundwork. During his two-day
visit to the Valley, he met all the stakeholders and even indicated that he was
ready to meet the separatists (but the separatists refused to meet him).
He is slated to take an all-party delegation to the Valley
soon and its modalities are being worked out. Also, the government has now
decided that pellet guns will only be used as the last resort and non-lethal
measures like chilli and pepper grenades, water cannons, and acoustic and laser
devices will be employed to control mobs.
To complement these efforts, the Central government is
working on other fronts as well to crackdown on separatists and those who are
fuelling unrest in the Valley. Many separatist leaders including Mirwaiz Umar
Farooq have been arrested and many are under detention and interrogations are
on.
The number of security personnel on the ground has been
beefed up by deploying more Army troops and additional columns of the Border
Security Force (BSF). The National Investigative Agency (NIA) is probing 17
bank accounts from south Kashmir with suspicious transactions amounting to Rs
38 crore that could have been used to fuel the unrest.
But the Kashmir unrest is not a problem that alone the
Central government can resolve. The Jammu and Kashmir government, being the
representative of the people of the state, is the primary interface here
through which the Central government can push any initiative further and
therefore both the governments need to act in unison.
Mehbooba Mufti, the Jammu and Kashmir chief minister heading
a PDP-BJP coalition government has appealed to the protestors to give her a
chance though she has maintained that it is only five per cent of the
population who are creating trouble and unrest in the Valley.
Mehbooba sees in Prime Minister Modi a person who will solve
the Kashmir problem. Yet she has been hesitant to toe the Centre's line. Thus
while India has accused Pakistan of fomenting the Kashmir unrest, Mehbooba
still believes in appealing to Pakistan to help resolve the Kashmir deadlock.
Now, Pakistan's hand behind the Kashmir unrest is not
difficult to detect. While Mehbooba is still trying to court Pakistan, the Modi
government has made it very clear that it will not talk to Pakistan on the
Kashmir issue. Instead, it has asked Pakistan to rein in the anti-India
elements on its soil and stop anti-India propaganda.
Such paradoxical approaches to the Kashmir problem have
always been obstacles to finding any solution. Successive governments in Jammu
and Kashmir and the politicians of the state have always advocated making
Pakistan a party to the Kashmir peace process because they believe it appeases
a section of voters there, whereas the Indian government has made it clear that
Kashmir is an integral part of India and if there is any problem, it is India's
internal matter and will be resolved accordingly.
Kashmir, though, has been the main issue between India and
Pakistan and the Pakistan high commission in Delhi has been treating the
Kashmiri separatists like VVIPs. Now that the Indian government has firmly said
that no talks with Pakistan would be held on the Kashmir issue, the state
government too should try to find a solution to the problem within this
framework.
Pakistan understands that it cannot take Kashmir from India
- either through war or proxy war. But it needs to keep the Kashmir issue alive
in order to divert attention from its domestic problems as well as to nurture
anti-India sentiments that give legitimacy to the role its military
establishment plays.
Pakistan, in fact, is feeling desperate after Modi's open
announcement that India would now raise human rights and atrocity issues in
Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) and Balochistan on international platforms
which got good traction among Baloch activists spread across the world.
Sending its parliamentarians to different countries to
highlight the Kashmir issue, getting an anti-India statement issued from the
Organisation of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC), giving active patronage to
terrorists wanted in India and asking them to spew venom against India and
mentoring and tutoring the Kashmiri separatists indicate how insecure Pakistan
is feeling now. It is, in fact, so perturbed that Kashmir has started dictating
its foreign policy just not with India but with the rest of the world now.
The Jammu and Kashmir politicians and the state government
should see through this. That is a must for any peace process initiated by the
government of India to bear fruit. Dialogue is the only way forward but both
the state and Central government should understand that they should not send
conflicting signals that would be like playing into the hands of anti-India
elements and the Kashmiri separatists who keep on inciting protests in the
Valley.
The Jammu and Kashmir politicians who take part in India's
electoral politics must sing the Indian tune and not the Pakistan's national
anthem. Why it is that some of these politicians find it easy to blast India
while their silence on Pakistan is deafening?
Why it is that they never talk of atrocities in PoK? If
Pakistan is out of the ambit of the talks, both the state and Central
governments should speak the same language. The government of India had given
the separatists a chance when Rajnath had invited them, but the separatists, who
openly endorse Pakistan, can't be expected to be a part of something
constructive.
Kashmir has seen a lot of destruction and heartburn. The 51
days of curfew, which began after Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Burhan Wani was
killed in a police encounter on July 8, has seen a death toll of 71 which
include mainly young protesters.
The unrest has left thousands injured and many have become
crippled. These include security personnel as well. Education institutions and
businesses remain closed. Trade and industry bodies have pegged their loss at
Rs 6,000 crore.
But the actual loss will be manifold as the tourism
industry, the mainstay of the Jammu and Kashmir economy, which had started
witnessing some activity, has been badly hit and the simmering tension tells
you that it will take years of healing before Kashmir will be normal again.
©SantoshChaubey