Will Delhi awake from slumber?

Wednesday’s fidayeen attack in Srinagar after a gap of three years has confirmed fears that the Valley may see an upsurge in violence again.

The main problem is that New Delhi has utterly failed to exploit the lull in the last two years to initiate a meaningful peace process in Kashmir.

After the 2010 popular uprising, the mandarins in Srinagar and Delhi never missed a chance to claim that normalcy is returning to Kashmir. A film crew from Mumbai venturing to Pahalgam or Shah Rukh Khan taking a shikara ride in the Dal Lake was touted as sufficient evidence that peace had returned to the Valley.

The Centre used the lull in militancy as an excuse to do nothing. Now will bureaucrats admit that the facade of normalcy was just an eerie calm?

The Valley is simmering with anger again and our bureaucrats are unable to fathom that this mess is of their making. The readymade excuse is that Pakistan is determined to create trouble for India. One cannot deny Pakistan has always tried to exploit the situation in the Valley and will continue to do so. However, does that absolve Delhi of blame?
Pakistan can only exploit the given situation. Delhi’s closed and arrogant mindset on Kashmir has led to the current situation in Kashmir.

In the aftermath of the fidayeen attack, an editorial in a national daily hit the bull’s eye: “irrespective of what Pakistan can or cannot do, militancy can only be contained and defeated with the support of the people of the State”.

In the choked conditions of Kashmir where a harsh clampdown has been enforced since February 9 and where even the chief minister breaks down on the floor of the House at his inability to stop security forces from killing innocents, it is a bit much to expect the youth not to be attracted to violence.

Kashmir does not need another violent storm but Delhi seems oblivious to the explosive situation in the making.

An innocent person Altaf Hussain Wani was killed in firing on Wednesday barely 5 km from the spot of the fidayeen attack. The ruling National Conference described him as a party worker and condemned his death as a “cold-blooded murder”.

The fact that every Kashmiri, irrespective of any political divide, eventually is a Kashmiri and is liable to be killed arbitrarily is fast getting engraved in the psyche of every Kashmiri. If this is not a fit condition for violence to brew, what more does Delhi want to awake from its deep slumber?