Need to go beyond symbolism to find a long-lasting solution
NEW DELHI: The unrest in Kashmir has lasted for more than a month and yet there are no signs of a decline in violence. Though Parliament debated the current unrest on Wednesday, there were no concrete suggestions on how to break this cycle of violence.
According to an unofficial estimate, more than 60 people have died and over 6,000 wounded following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in an encounter on July 8.
J&K chief minister Mehbooba Mufti is facing flak for “allowing the situation to go out of hand” and for her “inability” to reach out to the people. Political analysts recalled that it was Mehbooba who at one point in her career visited the homes of militants to console their families and vociferously raised the issues of alleged atrocities by security forces to gain political capital.
They are also of the view that slogans such as “healing touch” and “peace with dignity” coined by Mehbooba’s late father Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, to win over the people of Kashmir, are no longer the “war cry” of his daughter.
“She has lost much of the public empathy and goodwill. Her rhetoric does not match her words and has washed off the image she and her father had created for themselves,” said Prof Noor Ahmad Baba of Kashmir University.
A cause of concern for the central government is that the separatists are running a parallel administration in the valley where people are “strictly” following their calendar of protests.
“There is a dance of death and destruction in Kashmir. The civil administration has collapsed and that is something which India cannot afford at this moment,” said Professor Gull Mohammad Wani of Kashmir University.
Experts stressed the need for immediate and long-term measures to address the current unrest. They demanded that PM Modi should evolve a concrete political framework with different variables on Kashmir. “Like AB Vajpayee, he should admit that there is a problem and a need to address that,” Wani said.
Besides resuming dialogue with the separatists, the government should also try to implement the recommendations of different working groups and interlocutors.
“Dialogue with separatists will definitely help. They have a separate constituency and can influence people,” Wani said. Baba agrees. “It requires more than symbolism and mere expressions to address the current unrest. Dialogue at various levels is imperative,” he said. “Stopping the use of pellet guns will be a good beginning.”
However, there is another view that the intensity of present protests, which are by and large spontaneous, cannot sustain for long. “Fatigue will eventually set in but that doesn’t mean the issue will go. If not addressed, it will keep recurring in different forms,” said another analyst.