Those who may have looked for
identifiable positives to emerge from Union home minister Rajnath
Singh’s trip to the Kashmir Valley last week are likely to be
disappointed. Which means the Centre is unsure what to do with the
wreckage — social, political, psychological — left behind by the
spontaneous show of public violence following the shooting down of
Kashmir’s “new age” militant, Burhan Wani, on July 8. This seems the
main point to emerge from what the home minister said to the media in
Srinagar.
More, the BJP’s coalition partner in the
state government and for all practical purposes its principal
interlocutor, the PDP, too seems to have lost the way, if CM Mehbooba
Sayeed’s observations are any guide. The CM just blamed the Centre and
the state for not thinking of the Kashmir issue when times are normal,
and (for once) criticised Pakistan — may be to balance what she said
about the Centre — for promoting terrorism in Kashmir while seeking to
flush out (inconvenient) terrorists internally.
So, there is no plan of any kind,
evidently. Asking Pakistan to go stew is not a plan. Also, making it
plain that India will not countenance a third-party or third-country
intervention in Kashmir is old hat. This has been our position since the
Simla summit of 1972 and was endorsed at the Lahore summit when India
was led by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, the first PM from the
BJP’s ranks. The home minister said he desires an “emotional” connect
with Kashmir, and not one based on need. But what does that mean? We, of
course, know what it does not mean.
Mr Singh himself made that quite clear.
He said there would be no talks with anyone until peace was restored.
Probably what he means is that the situation must return to the time
before Wani, an important emerging Hizbul Mujahideen leader, was killed.
It is entirely unclear how long that might be. A tight curfew is on.
We’ll have a better idea when that is officially lifted across the
Valley. But we should note that the home minister has said one more
thing, convoluted though that sounds. He said that when normalcy returns
the government would talk to whoever it needs to talk to.
Does that mean something very different
from a need-based relationship, which Mr Singh indicated he does not
want? The home minister is expected to talk to the security forces and
the CM when he visits Kashmir. Because the situation was complex, he
also engaged the Opposition parties. But the Congress did not meet him.
Leading civil bodies also showed no interest. Clearly, no one thought of
adequately preparing the ground before his visit. That shows a certain
mindset.
Source:-deccanchronicle
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