Insensitive governments lose hold over the valley

Kashmir is yet again on the boil. Perhaps such a description for the situation in the valley has become clichéd over the years. Yet this is perhaps the only way that we can describe it. But this time around there is a palpable difference.

From all accounts it appears that the present turmoil is homegrown and has nothing to do with intervention of extraneous forces. Of course, there will be forces and institutions which would like to attribute these developments to activities of agencies from across the border. Our own security agencies and the mainstream media largely share this perception. 

But if any Kashmir-watcher has tried to track the sequence of developments, with objectivity, since June 11, they would come to this conclusion. Till now, almost a hundred people have lost their lives. These dead do not include any policemen, save for one who was accidentally run over by a speeding vehicle. All are citizens — and the striking feature of the profile of the dead is that they are almost invariably young people, including young women.

And the other striking feature is that these young people who were confronting the security forces and protesting were unarmed. The confrontation saw these young people pelting stones at the security forces. It was to such stone-pelting that the forces responded with fire power. In some cases those who were shot at were not even part of the protest action.

Even if one does not go into the contending claims and counter-claims over the nature of the incidents, no conscientious citizen can help asking why we need to shoot down people who are just pelting stones. Are there no other means available to tackle the situation? Vivid video footages from the valley ever since the situation has become turbulent have shown a broad mass character of the protesting crowd. One is almost inclined to observe that these were living examples of alienation.

And, of course, they are angry. It is true that the immediate trigger for the current sequence of developments was the manner the security forces acted. But quite discernable was the underlying sense of alienation of a protracted history of estrangement. This alienation has been compounded over the years because of the insensitivity about history and the special manner in which the people in the valley have become part of India in the first place.

Kashmir has a very specific cultural and identity context.  The essence of this is expressed in what is called Kashmiriyat. To try and force them to relinquish this distinct nature of the Kashmiri identity is to ask for trouble. The Constitution recognised this complexity and created the flexible space by enshrining Article 370.

But most regrettably, this Constitutional spirit and consequent autonomy has been undermined time and again over a long period of time. 

In the past, New Delhi had intervened in the democratic electoral process in Kashmir whenever there has been a possibility of the people throwing up a government which did not particularly see eye-to-eye with the powers that be.

And as and when the election process became a little more credible with enhanced percentages of voter turnout, outright interventionism has been replaced by a degree of insensate cynicism. There were pending issues and questions of autonomy which should have been discussed but which lay buried under the carpet.   

Unfortunately, the government in Srinagar appeared paralysed. Neither did the government in New Delhi show any sense of urgency to use its influence to facilitate, if not, to actually urge engagement with the people.  In the monsoon session of the Parliament itself, the suggestion was made for an all-party delegation to be sent to the valley. But this suggestion was taken up too late. 

After the situation has worsened, the government in Delhi has gone on record to state that dialogue is the only way to deal with the situation. It has further added that this dialogue must be directed to address ‘trust deficit’ and ‘governance deficit’. Yet there is hesitation and reported lack of agreement inside the government over the withdrawal of the Disturbed Areas Act which would make the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) operationally irrelevant. It has been widely acknowledged that AFSPA continues to be seen as a thorn in the flesh and its removal could help to initiate dialogue. 

It is against this background that the all-party delegation had visited Kashmir. The composition of the delegation underlined a sense of urgency which every political party attached to the bloodletting in the valley. The members of the delegation have managed to interact with all shades of opinion, including separatists. 

Notwithstanding the discordant tone of the BJP, this is, indeed, a modest beginning. The lead has to be followed. There is no other alternative because Kashmir is the heart and soul of our
secular democratic plural republic.