As New Delhi unveiled an eight-point plan to bring about peace in Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday, formulated by the Cabinet Committee on Security to help soothe the troubled state, to key question is whether this formula goes far enough. More important, with the world (mainly Pakistan) watching, whether the Centre and the state government can work in tandem in a long overdue effort to calm the unrest in the Valley to reverse the public relations disaster that Kashmir has become for this country. While the carefully-crafted statement makes no clear mention of what will happen to the proposal to dilute or withdraw the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, advocated by much-maligned chief minister Omar Abdullah as a one-stop solution for all of Kashmir’s ills, the state government must, as a first step, convene a meeting of the Unified Command and review the areas marked as “disturbed”. The call on which parts of the state must see a stepped-up presence of security forces and which must see a thinning is well within the purview of the chief minister.
A soldier’s presence in the state’s cities and towns — and not the borders — can only add to the perception of the Kashmiri that he is under the jackboot of an occupying force. The task of maintaining law and order must, therefore, be entrusted to an apolitical police that does not allow political affiliations to get in the way of keeping peace on the streets. There certainly must be no repeat of the trouble that ensued at Lal Chowk where a flag — not the Indian tricolour — was allowed to be run up the flagpole. As the 39-member all-party parliamentary delegation saw firsthand last week, the state’s elected representatives and chief minister Omar Abdullah no longer enjoy the complete confidence of the people. While losing popularity is par for the course for any inept politician, Mr Abdullah could try regain some credibility by reducing the number of bunkers from the heart of Srinagar. He could follow that up by easing the daytime curfew so that people can go about their normal lives and not be held hostage to the separatists who came out of the woodwork, hijacked the protests and made it their own. Indeed, hunting down the separatists who forced the apolitical Kashmiri to pull down the shutters and egged on an army of stone-pelters, who became the face of the agitation, must also be high on the agenda. Whose drums do they march to? Islamabad? Politicians ranged against Omar Abdullah? In addition, if the majority of the 245 people who have been detained by the authorities for pelting stones are indeed children, then their release is of the utmost urgency. Bringing them home and reopening the schools is therefore a welcome move.
Equally, however, any move to drastically bring down the security footprint is fraught with peril. The onus is on the Centre to work in tandem with the state apparatus to restore a semblance of order on the streets, without allowing a descaling of the armed forces which could be seen as a nod to separatists.
But the biggest challenge for the Manmohan Singh government might lie in picking the right man as its chief interlocutor. Many have tried and failed in the past. As the name of highly-respected former foreign secretary M.K. Rasgotra — himself a Dogra — does the rounds as the man who may head the team entrusted with reaching out to the Valley, the government must already have factored in that both hardliners and moderates have rejected the formula.
More than any other state in the Indian Union, Kashmir is where India’s domestic and foreign policies intersect. As Pakistan attempts as always to fish in Kashmir’s muddied waters, New Delhi’s man in Kashmir must be able to weigh local concerns with India’s wider strategic interests.