A deadline for peace

The Indian Army has played an oversized and stellar role in managing the Kashmir insurgency. It learnt the ropes of managing a civilian insurgency the hard way with a lot of blood and sweat while a live border with Pakistan diverted its energies. It has now set for itself the task of wiping out insurgency from the Kashmir Valley by September. The Army’s self-prescribed deadline ought to bring cheer to the citizens in the mainland distressed by the daily show of defiance of the Indian state by Kashmiris. It is also noteworthy that the senior Army officer who has set the marker for an end to insurgency has also added a caveat: the proposed extermination will take place with the full support of political parties.

The tactics is sensible and acknowledges a fact that hyper-nationalists miss by a wide margin: the Army is only among the several tools to stabilise, manage and bring peace to the region. But setting military deadlines for ushering peace is a slippery slope as the Americans found out in Afghanistan. Barack Obama’s deadline for withdrawal steeled the Taliban into holding out. The American troop surge that preceded the pullout deadline temporarily pacified the Pushtun areas. And the byproduct was the emergence of a more brutal militancy quarterbacked by the ISIS. Indian policymakers have also been fascinated by the prospect of a heavy hand quickly smashing militancy. The notorious torture centre Papa II and the thousands of unmarked graves in Kashmir during the 1990s were evidence of that approach.

The advent of the social media has constrained the security forces but they now have better equipment for tracking, interception and elimination of militants. Better military hardware, however, cannot be a substitute for popular support. New Delhi’s predisposition towards the cultural and social straitjacketing of the country is complicating the task of bringing public opinion around in Kashmir. More than the setting of deadlines, Kashmir today needs a massive but quiet, nose-to-the-ground reconstruction effort. The Army has to remain an integral component but it should refrain from setting out markers that are hardly likely to be achieved.