By Kamlendra Kanwar
THE visit of the all-party delegation was destined to fail right from the word ‘go.' It was inopportune because the Centre was coming to grips with the problem by sending out strong signals to Pakistan and to hardline leaders that it would come down hard on secessionists and disruptors.
What the country did not need at this point was molly-coddling the separatists who have perennially been treated with kid gloves.
If Home Minister Rajnath Singh's hint of excluding the Kashmir separatists from all talks to resolve the current impasse with agitators who have paralysed the state is anything to go by, the Indian state is finally coming round to shedding the tag of being a soft state at least with regard to Jammu and Kashmir. Coupled with India's tough stand against Pakistani support for terror against India, this reflects a toughening of India's stand.
The separatists' strong rebuff to Indian Parliament when some members of a parliamentary delegation sought to meet Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Farooq and Yasin Malik in a conciliatory move to try and bring back normalcy in Jammu and Kashmir has indeed been the proverbial last straw on the camel's back. It has given the Narendra Modi government a handle to beat them with.
The most diehard separatist who has been flirting with Pakistan for long, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, slammed the door of his house on five members of the delegation, refusing to meet them, in a manner that was insulting and reprehensible. His two associates too showed contempt for the Indian delegation. Subsequently, Geelani said in a TV interview that he is a Pakistani.
In the past, India's appeasement of hardline secessionists has been appalling. Right through the decade of Congress rule and the last two years of Modi government, the separatists have had a cushy time and have had a channel open with the country's principle foe Pakistan. They live in opulence with wealth amassed through questionable means and while they cock a snook at India routinely, the Central government has been spending a whopping Rs 100 crore a year (estimate for last five years) to book their air tickets and hotels and provide for their security whenever they choose to venture out of Jammu and Kashmir.
Such treatment of traitors and secessionists is unheard of in the rest of the world because on their foreign visits they badmouth India and Indian leaders with impunity. On rare occasions when they are ‘arrested', they are held under ‘house arrest.'
As it seems now, the bells have begun tolling for the separatists. Their leaders are under ‘house arrest' and there is a plan to marginalise them. Their ‘perks' are on the chopping block. There still are apologists for them like Left leaders like Sitaram Yechury who was part of the parliamentary delegation that went to Kashmir, but the government need not pay heed to such leaders with warped thinking.
On the parliamentary delegation's visit to Kashmir the Hurriyat Conference of which the separatists are a part was for once right when it said “one fails to understand what hopes to attach with a delegation which has neither spelt out its mandate for any engagement nor has a clear agenda.”
Said former chief minister Omar Abdullah: “This delegation enjoys little credibility due to lack of follow-up of similar delegations earlier. Their coming is of no consequence…..” Omar has been no great solution-finder himself but now that he is in the opposition he can afford to sit in judgement.
The parliamentarians came with no blueprint of action to stem the tide of acrimony and violence in the state which was being stoked from across the border.
With the Narendra Modi government mishandling the situation in Jammu and Kashmir in the wake of the Pakistan-inspired agitation following the killing of young radical Burhan Wani, the country's opposition only strengthened the feeling that it too was devoid of any workable ideas to bring peace back to Kashmir.
The State government on its part only briefed the parliamentarians on development initiatives and skirted the problem of Kashmir. The separatists contemptuously turned down the Mehbooba Mufti government's plea to hold a dialogue with the visiting delegation while the Centre did not think it necessary to offer to release separatist leaders for a limited time to hold talks with the high-powered delegation.
All in all, the visit of the all-party delegation was destined to fail right from the word ‘go.' It was inopportune because the Centre was coming to grips with the problem by sending out strong signals to Pakistan and to hardline leaders that it would come down hard on secessionists and disruptors. What the country did not need at this point was molly-coddling the separatists who have perennially been treated with kid gloves.
A dialogue is always a possible way out of the chaos that now prevails in the valley but it must be held with the Centre negotiating from a position of strength, not of weakness. It is not a great idea to go to the separatists with bended knees.
While a spirit of accommodation must be the underlying spirit of any dialogue process, there have to be some non-negotiables in this case. If raising slogans against India and in favour of Pakistan is not to be treated as sedition, if subverting the Indian state is not sedition, what else constitutes sedition?
Not so long ago, peace had prevailed in the valley to a substantial degree and tourists were flocking to the State. People at large were relieved that life was returning to normal. We need a return to those times.
The administration must organise itself better. More means of livelihood must be created and the youth must be weaned away from violence. The secessionists must be unmasked and the law must deal with them with a heavy hand. In other words, both the carrot and the stick must be used to restore normalcy.
Promises of development and of jobs for the unemployed youth have largely gone unfulfilled under the Mehbooba Mufti dispensation. The first priority must therefore be to encourage the private sector to turn its attention to Jammu and Kashmir. At the same time, employment in government schemes deserves to be stepped up.
