Modi’s visit to LoC — grand gesture, short of inclusiveness

Arun Joshi

Tribune News Service

Jammu, October 20

Prime Minister Narendra Modi celebrated Diwali festival with Army jawans in a stunningly beautiful and equally forbidding Gurez valley in north Kashmir on Thursday in a widely recognized and appreciated gesture towards our soldiers.

He made the occasion special for this was the place where soldiers face inhospitable terrain, vagaries of weather and an unpredictable neighbour across the Line of Control that divides Jammu and Kashmir between India and Pakistan. They needed this kind of warmth from the Prime Minister.

Modi tweeted that he gets a “new kind of energy” by spending time with jawans. He had surprised the troops by his visit to the Siachen glacier during his first year as Prime Minister on this festival.

Soldiers here are performing extraordinary duty – not only are they guarding frontiers and fighting almost a minute-to-minute war against the hostile neighbour that pushes armed terrorists to this side of Kashmir but they also deal with highly volatile ranks of terrorists within the Valley. That’s why his visit added special significance this Diwali. He offered sweets to jawans as an Indian grateful to the services and sacrifices of soldiers.

In 2014, Modi had visited Srinagar too, and met some victims of the devastating floods. He had laid the ground rules for delivering relief to the distressed families in their bank accounts.

No visit of Prime Minister is complete ever, for there are higher expectations, but there are also constraints of time. The message was clear that in the PM, the whole nation was with the soldiers in difficult situations and times. The PM represents the nation.

This visit, however, could have been more inclusive had Modi visited the hinterland of the Valley, say Srinagar. Currently, Kashmir is witnessing a host of crises, which have pushed the milestone of his intention of “making Kashmir a model state in the country,” into oblivion.

As Prime Minister, Modi must be aware of that. The situation has moved to the margins and a new sense of insecurity —- genuine or instigated —- has engulfed Kashmir. A course correction is needed.

The military options have fallen well short of the real objective of restoration of peace and order. The present political arrangement manifests itself more as a compulsion of sharing power than as a willing coalition to work for the people. Modi will have to live up to his word of “embracing the people of Kashmir”. He should come out with a hug to the people of the Valley. That would have added a new and brighter halo to his visit.