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PEOPLE: TALKING POINT

Downhill in Kashmir

A car bomb exploded at Srinagar airport before then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrived to preside over the second roundtable on Kashmir on May 24, 2006.

Downhill in Kashmir


Arun Joshi in Srinagar

A car bomb exploded at Srinagar airport before then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrived to preside over the second roundtable on Kashmir on May 24, 2006. That was a loud and clear message for Delhi as well as the participants of the conference trying peace initiative.

Fast forward to May 23, 2016: militants gunned down three policemen in the heart of the city, indicating nothing has changed apparently in the past 10 years as far the nature of violence is concerned. The graph has been undulating but the spirit of engineering violent events is very much alive. Psychologically, it is a downslide; the measures that were supposed to engage the people, translate their hopes into something tangible have not appeared on the horizon. Not that the promises failed to appear, but a feeling is deepening that what they have in hand is also being taken away. Over the years, many issues have formed the forceful narrative. These are: repeal, or at least review, of the special laws such as the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), and a draw-down of security forces, return of Kashmiri Pandit migrants, an amnesty and return of militants languishing in Pakistan and Pakistan occupied Kashmir to their homes in the state, economic improvement, a sense of empowerment and ownership with the return of the National Hydro-Electric Projects Corporation projects and an end to discrimination with Jammu and Ladakh regions.

This is not a separatist or mainstream narrative. It is the people’s narrative. Though there is a contention on a few issues given the backdrop of the place to which the people belong, the fact is that the state needs a helping hand to be able to get out of the quagmire it finds itself in after militancy erupted in the late 1980s. The terrible past of the ’80s led to an onslaught on the relations among communities, resulting in mass migration of minorities and political leaders and massacres within the Valley and outside. Pakistan played a big role to mess up things in Kashmir. Pakistani establishment could succeed, because as late Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed said: “A fertile ground was created in the Valley.” The stifling of space for the mainstream opposition gave wings to separatist forces: the Hurriyat Conference is a reincarnation of the Muslim United Front. The charges of rigged Assembly elections of 1987 and a ham-handed manner in which minor protests were dubbed as pro-Pakistan demonstrations presented Pakistan something on the platter.

The Round Table Conference (RTC), a colonial-era idea, was sought to be revived because relations with Pakistan were improving. The better climate was visible following cessation of hostilities on borders, opening of the cross-LoC routes and a deepening yearning for peace. Manmohan Singh and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf were moving forward towards normalizing ties through track-II.

The basic idea of the RTCs – which started in February 2006   was to bring together all viewpoints to form some kind of a consensus on the road ahead. The separatists, as expected, boycotted. The Syed Ali Shah Geelani group said: “We had nothing to do with the exercise which doesn’t term Kashmir as a dispute.” The Mirwaiz faction that had held talks with Centre four times said: “It is an exercise for the mainstream Indian parties; we will participate if the RTC is for us (separatists) only.” That was it.

The whole of Srinagar was locked down by the presence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as he announced five working groups aimed at tackling both “internal and external dimensions.” The working groups were to study the Centre-state relations with regard to the self-rule of PDP and address the demand for restoration of autonomy raised by the National Conference. The people hoped that India, by talking of “external” dimension, had accepted the reality that things would move vis-à-vis Pakistan. The PM left a day earlier than scheduled, cutting off his plan to have “shikara ride” on the Dal lake as the word reached him that it was a curfew for tourists and locals alike. He wanted to give a meaning to his words about genuine relief to the people. 

The working groups’ recommendations were lost in the bureaucratic wrangles. The “national interest first” mindset, countered by “Kashmir-on-the-top” and the resistance within the parties to the RTC have at the end of 10 years made them a forgotten chapter. The promises lost in the contesting narratives started a downhill journey for Kashmir. There is no break in sight.

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