Vacuum grows wider in the Valley
Why Yashwant Sinha says he’s crestfallen at official policy and the absence of a meeting of minds on ending hatred in J&K
Why Yashwant Sinha says he’s crestfallen at official policy and the absence of a meeting of minds on ending hatred in J&K. RADHIKA RAMASESHAN & ADITI PHADNIS write
Sometime last month, Yashwant Sinha, previously finance and foreign minister in Bharatiya Janata Party-led governments (so, not exactly an unknown entity to the present ruling dispensation), sought an appointment with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss Jammu and Kashmir. He waited by the phone but no call came. Instead, he was directed to the national security advisor (NSA), A K Doval. He spent almost 90 minutes with Doval, explaining and amplifying the problems in J&K. His message: Whatever the villainy of separatists and Pakistan, we must engage with the people of Kashmir. Must talk to the people.
The NSA’s response: “What is there to talk about?” What to do? Two days later, J&K Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti (in power because of an alliance with the BJP) met Modi and Home Minister Rajnath Singh. And, she reportedly returned emptyhanded because she was told by Modi that an engagement with the stakeholders was not feasible unless normalcy returned.
Amit Shah, the BJP president, tried to nuance the Centre’s position to mollify his alliance partner. In response to a question from the press at the Kolkata Press Club on Thursday, he said, “Mehbooba Mufti has given a statement. Now, our party will discuss the matter and come to me with their views. Then, a decision will be taken.”
Notwithstanding the professed “commitment” on a dialogue, the Modi government’s policy and approach towards J&K is mired in ambiguity. This stems from the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s ideological angularities, an instinct to go for “hot pursuit” and “crush” the militants. Even if that line entails collateral civilian damage and eventually privilege Jammu and Ladakh over the Valley. The thinking In a paper titled ‘Internal Security—Need for Course Correction’, written in February 2011 for the Vivekananda Foundation that he helped establish, Doval had written that jihadi terrorism, allegedly spawned in J&K with Pakistan’s help, had ramifications for the rest of India. “It (Pakistan) wanted to replicate the Afghan model in Kashmir, hoping to make it a theatre of ‘jihad’ for all Muslims and force India to a settlement acceptable to Pakistan. Though it failed to achieve this objective, over the years ‘jihadis’ have become (an) integral part of Pakistan’s warmachine and a low-cost instrument in its hands to bleed India,” the NSA noted.
On the ground, the BJP, anchored in ideological moorings that sharpen against J&K’s ethnic and political context, was compelled to walk a tightrope. Confined largely to the Hindu-majority Jammu region, its ministers and legislators pandered to their local constituencies periodically and made statements that provoked Mufti’s People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and disconcerted the Delhi dispensation. For instance, last week, Chander Parkash Ganga, industries minister in the PDP-BJP coalition government, demanded at a rally that “stones must be answered with bullets”. Stung by PDP protests, BJP general secretary and its J&K minder, Ram Madhav, publicly disapproved Ganga’s exhortation.
Sources in the J&K BJP said state functionaries and MLAs were directed by their Delhi bosses not to say anything that would rile the PDP or give a handle to the Valley’s residents to crank up a campaign against the Centre. Asked how they’d balance Delhi’s imperatives against their own politics, a state party official replied, “The presidential election is on the horizon and obviously the Centre does to wish to rock Mehbooba’s boat because it needs the PDP’s votes. She faces problems from her party and we were told not to aggravate the situation for her.”
Therefore, a cynical view emerging in the state party was that the Centre would sustain the facade of engaging with the stakeholders, to steady Mehbooba’s ship until July when the next President will be elected. And, “then take it from there, depending on how things pan out on the law and order front”. Sinha’s effort Yashwant Sinha is not convinced that the government’s intent would translate into practice and result in tangibles this time. Sinha headed a Concerned Citizens’ Group. This included Wajahat Habibullah, former chief information commissioner and former chairman of the National Minorities Commission, and worked in tandem with the Centre for Dialogue and Reconciliation. After two visits to the Valley and interacting with a range of representatives (separatist leaders, businessmen, traders, opinion moulders), the panel concluded there was “anger” against India. These were often triggered by specific incidents such as the absence of the President and the PM from the last rites and burial of former chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, even as both had “rushed” to Chennai for J Jayalalithaa’s funeral. There was also “despair” and a “lack of fear” among young people of the reprisals they might face from the army and police.
Like several others, Sinha said he had reposed hope in the BJP-PDP alliance, chiefly because their agenda for alliance had enshrined Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s “philosophy”, founded on the elements of “Insaniyat” (humanism), Kashmiriyat (the traditional spirit of Kashmir) and Jamhooriat (popular will). “It was a difficult alliance to begin with because the PDP won in the Valley (in the 2014 Assembly election) and the BJP in Jammu. But, we cannot have a government that does not represent the two parts of the state. Their agenda for alliance emphasised the need for reconciliation, on which I rested hope. I am disappointed because the parties should have acted on the agenda to start with and not allowed the situation to deteriorate to a point when we are compelled to say no dialogue is possible without normalcy. Things have faltered in Srinagar and Delhi because even when the Mufti was alive, the dialogue process didn’t open up,” he rues.
Sinha emphasises two aspects which he believes are “integral” to bringing peace and reconciliation. “We must define the army’s role. If the army is there to safeguard the borders and ensure our territorial integrity, it is unfair to use it for law and order. If the police force has to be replenished, the Central Reserve Police Force can be brought,” he said.
Second, appoint an “empowered” interlocutor, who should be a “political person and not a bureaucrat”. The hard line On the other end of the spectrum of stakeholders is the RSS. Which often espouses its theories and views on J&K through a designated studies centre dedicated to the state. The RSS view on the Valley is as a dot on J&K’s map as compared to the vastly larger Jammu and Ladakh. And, that the conflict is confined to a couple of districts and ought to be put down by allowing a free hand to the security forces.
The BJP might have been tempted to validate this viewpoint, if not for the attention and flak the government drew each time the Valley was racked with an episode that allegedly violated human rights. As recently, when a civilian was tied to the bonnet of a military jeep as a human shield and paraded on the streets of Gundipora in Budgam.
In an interview to the News18 channel, Ram Madhav justified the use of the tactic by a young Major, saying that by doing so, “he saved the lives of people in the police station, the officials and also his own boys, while not allowing any civilian casualties”. Madhav, the BJP’s principal mediator with the PDP, said the officer had the option of allowing the mob to lynch 50 civilians and an almost equal number of security personnel on the spot and let it run amok or fire indiscriminately. “I compliment the major for not allowing both these things to happen,” he said.
The BJP is caught in a trap in Kashmir and doesn’t know how to get out of it. Ostensibly, the ruling establishment in Delhi and advocacy groups seeking ways to straighten matters in the Valley are on the same page
Where from here? It is the Indian Army which has been the most forthright, asking everyone to do their job. Just after a statement by the Chief of Army Staff, Gen Bipin Rawat, that those who throw stones at soldiers and obstruct operations should be considered on a par with terrorists, Northern Army Commander Lt Gen D S Hooda did not mince his words to remind others of their responsibilities. “There is no doubt that Jammu and Kashmir is ours. But, we must also underline that the people of Kashmir are also ours. If there are genuine grievances, we must address them,” he said, a call for politicians to go out there and do their job.
It is equally clear that deploying security forces to crush militancy is the preferred tactic. If that is the case, the chance of normalcy returning to the state seems bleak.