Aditya Sinha: We should all be crying over J&K

Protestors in Srinagar demand the death penalty for special police officer SPO Deepak Khajuria for the rape and murder of an 8yearold file PicAFPIn a meeting with chief executives in Singapore last week Congress President Rahul Gandhi spoke on Kashmir In 2014 when I went to Kashmir I felt like crying he said I saw what a bad decision can do to years and years of policymaking He was referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modis policy on Kashmir that is all jackboot and zero politics It is a contrast to his predecessors attempts to build bridges in the strifetorn border state Rahul had criticised Modi on Kashmir earlier last September at the University of California in Berkeley he said PM Modi massively opened up space for terrorists in KashmirAny Kashmirwatcher could have no disagreement with what Rahul said though there were other comments of his that were problematic For instance he said that in 2004 when the United Progressive Alliance UPA came to power it was given a burning Kashmir Not true Externally a ceasefire came into effect in 2003 negotiated through spy chiefs CD Sahay and Lt Gen Ehsanul Haq It worked pretty well until Modi came to power and last month for the first time since 2003 ceasefire violations spread from Poonch and Rajouri sectors to UriInternally AB Vajpayees government initiated talks with separatists deputy PM LK Advani in his last official meeting with the All Parties Hurriyat Conference leaders had asked for a roadmap Vajpayee remained a popular leader with Kashmiris years after he lost power during the 2014 parliamentary election campaign Kashmir chief priest Mirwaiz Umar Farooq publicly hoped that Modi would resume Vajpayees policy in KashmirThe other problem with Rahuls comments regards bridgebuilding You engage with people you trust people It works he said in Singapore That may have been Dr Manmohan Singhs intent but had it worked then India would have reached an agreement with Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf in 200607 the separatists were on board the Amarnath Yatra land transfer wouldnt have resulted in an agitation in July 2008 and 112 youngsters would not have been killed during the stonepelting protests of June 2010The blame for what some Kashmiris refer to as Dr Singhs lost decade can squarely be laid on his bureaucracy It did not seize the concessions that Musharraf offered it had no focused plan to build bridges resulting in dissipated energy and when Dr Singh had gotten his nuclear deal with the US out of the way and refocused on Pakistan at Sharmel Sheikh in July 2009 it got cold feet The fact that his UPA2 government made nervous by a surging Modi suddenly hanged Parliament attack conspirator Mohd Afzal Guru in February 2013 earned him no goodwill among KashmirisBut Rahul is correct despite the blemishes on the UPA record the temperature in Kashmir did come down After witnessing the past four years no one will dispute this It is not just Modis cavalier attitude to Kashmiris after the hugely damaging floods of 2014 or the threat to erode Kashmirs special status as guaranteed by Article 35A of the Constitution of India it is not just his dismissal of the Hurriyat and Joint Resistance Leadership JRL as Pakistanis it is not just his public snub of former CM Mufti Mohd Sayeeds call for talks with Pakistan considering how much personal prestige the late Mufti staked on forming a coalition with Modi its no surprise he never recovered and it is not just the widening chasm between the Valley and the Jammu plains that Modi has actively encouragedModis policies led to the nightmarish summer of 2016 when a Facebook terrorists killing burst the Kashmiri dam of insecurity anxiety and anger leading to protests and the pellet injuries of hundreds of Kashmiris It has led to a new face of terrorism in KashmirNow when an eightyearold girl is abducted raped and killed Modis people support the accused who confessed because hes a Hindu openly pursuing ethnic cleansing When the army lately committed excesses the BJP took umbrage at the police investigation and had the FIR quashed When last week the army killed six people in Shopian calling them terrorists and it turned out that they werent then the army and the BJP shrug and say the victims were overground supporters of terroristsIn Delhi all this is seen as a subplot to the main event Following the terrorist attack last month on the Sunjuwan military camp in the Jammu region Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman promised that Pakistan would pay for it Some speculate this points to a limited war in October before possible elections in NovemberDecemberEven if that isnt so the point is this no one is building bridges with Kashmiris Therein lies the core truth that Rahul Gandhi spoke in Singapore considering whats been going on in Kashmir since 2014 a true nationalist could only feel like cryingAditya Sinhas crime novel The CEO Who Lost His Head is available now He tweets autumnshade Send your feedback to 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