Regaining Kashmiris’ trust

The only fragile outcome of Friday’s all-party deliberations on Kashmir seems to be that the government is to consider the Opposition suggestion for sending an all-party delegation to Kashmir, possibly after the Independence Day celebrations. For Kashmiris, it is a familiar exercise. They have seen in the past many visits by well-meaning multi-party leaders, parliamentary committee members, civil society groups and interlocutors producing hardly any worthwhile outcome. It is often a calculated response to a flare-up and once normalcy returns, all is forgotten. At the all-party meeting Prime Minister Modi toughened his stand against Pakistan, saying occupied Kashmir was part of J&K with the opposition parties generally being supportive of the government line.

On the pleadings of Mehbooba Mufti, the Prime Minister had earlier broken his silence on Kashmir and Parliament too debated the issue. Modi’s borrowing of Vajpayee’s overused words — Insaniyat, Kashmiriyat and Jamhooriyat — shows he has little new to offer. His laptops vs stones talk indicated he still treats it as a development issue. Omar Abdullah reminded him that azadi the protesters talked about was from India. Delhi's policy is still limited to conflict and status quo management. They hope to tire out the agitators. The Modi government operates within the limits imposed by its core constituency, including the RSS, which seeks integration of Kashmir with the rest of India. 

The latest eruption of the Valley is different. Having grown up amid killings, curfews and gun shots, the protesters today are less tolerant and less conciliatory. They carry out the fight as passionately on the streets as on social media. They are not jihadis, inspired or trained by anti-India elements. But by blaming Pakistan for the trouble in Kashmir, Delhi has handed over the situation to Islamabad to exploit. There are militants, separatists and pro-Pakistan groups and each need to be dealt with separately. The young stone-throwers should not be clubbed with them. Along with Kashmir, the Kashmiris too need to be owned up by Delhi and the rest of India, and the message must reverberate in the Valley.