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04 June 26 to July 2 : Weekly News Magazine messenger

OPINION

strong realisation that peaceful means put up a Kashmiri political face without
alone would help. In 2008 and 2010, upsetting the status quo and without
there were scores of instances where losing direct control of Kashmir. When in
people made human chains around a June 2000, the NC passed the
security bunker or a vehicle of the autonomy resolution in the assembly,
armed forces to avoid a confrontation. the Vajpayee government rejected it
People would throw stones only when summarily. It, however, kept the veneer
the government disallowed peaceful of dialogue intact.
marches. The government’s response While maintaining and controlling the
to the rallies and the marches was the status quo, New Delhi kept sending
same as against the militant movement. emissaries — first politicians, then
The peaceful protests were called bureaucrats — and mostly, the talks
“agitational terrorism” and sought to be were only about the modalities of talks.
crushed. The emergence of both the PDP and the
In 2016, there is no illusion that anything moderate Hurriyat between 1999 and
would convince New Delhi to accept 2004 was an outcome of New Delhi’s
and engage with the evident reality that policies to create a favourable buffer
a vast majority of Kashmiris don’t want between the pro-azadi camp and the
integrationists.
Even Vajpayee’s much-hyped
promise of a dialogue “within the
ambit of humanity” was only a vague
expression to allow the separatists to
avoid the “taint” of surrendering by
agreeing to talk within the framework
I have been a journalist for the last 18 shifted. There are two reasons for it. to be part of India. The fear seems to of the Constitution. For New Delhi, the
years and I feel my curse is to write the First, the complexion of the uprising has have evaporated completely. The young engagement itself became the
same story, again and again. That story changed on the ground and the men, who go out to confront the armed objective. The UPA government set up
is Kashmir. It is in essence a single story movement for azadi has transcended forces, are aware of the costs. working groups but didn’t consider their
where like Sisyphus’s rock, efforts to human rights issues. Unlike previous The hints for dialogue by New Delhi, the recommendations, sent interlocutors
resolve the dispute go through a similar upsurges in 2008, 2009 and 2010, the constituting of parliamentary but disowned their report. There was a
and endless journey each time it is protestors aren’t angry against a civilian committees and civil society groups that tacit understanding on Article 370 too:
pushed up the mountain. killing. Though there are a number of are sent to visit Kashmir after every Erode it gradually to the point where
There is a script, a standard operating reasons for this accumulated anger, the uprising, are seen as nothing more than there is no need to remove it.
procedure is put into play each time trigger for this massive outpouring a façade aimed at soft surrender. Unlike The Modi government has only pulled
Kashmir erupts, seeking “azadi” from explains the shift. in the past, the known structures of the iron fist out of the velvet glove. Its
India. So this time, when after more than These large gatherings aren’t a protest separatist politics too aren’t in control of policy is based on the ideological
a month of total lockdown, killing of 56 against the killing of Kashmiri militant the street. The oligarchs of separatist position of the RSS, which wants
young Kashmiris, and blinding of Burhan Wani. Instead, Kashmir has politics are exhausted. The state hasn’t Kashmir’s “complete assimilation” by
removing constitutional hurdles such as
hundreds of others, state Goverment risen to endorse what Burhan stood for allowed them to do politics, leaving a big
finally decided to hold an all-party and the consensus seems to be around void. This uprising is run by a new Article 370 and the Permanent Resident
meeting, I am not wondering about the one theme: “We don’t want to be part of generation born after 1990 — the Act. The RSS calls the Kashmir dispute
outcome of this effort. It has happened India.” The language of the people has children of the conflict, as they are called a myth, insists that the problem is limited
before. I have seen it. never been so clear. — and they are deeply suspicious of the to Sunni Muslims of the Valley and that
There will be a promise of a “dialogue When Kashmir erupted in 1990, it was a customary peace talk. even if Muslims are a majority, “85 per
cent of the area is Hindu or Buddhist
with all stakeholders”, with the sudden explosion, the heavy cost of The second reason is the policy shift in
compulsory disclaimer that J&K is an such a demand for freedom was New Delhi. The reason why the Centre dominated”. In a speech in Kargil in
integral part of India. on so called unknown. The Kashmiri youth who doesn’t want to even acknowledge the 2014, Modi talked about his
request of state goverment a group of decided to pick up the gun in 1990 were ground reality in Kashmir isn’t an government’s focus on “20 per cent of
J&K’s population”, clubbing together
parliamentarians may go to the Valley to of my generation and as classroom after aberration or a reactionary response by
“the West Pakistan refugees, Kashmiri
“meet and ascertain” the reason for the classroom emptied to join the militancy, a few hawkish officials. It is a
Pandits and victims of militancy”.
uprising as if it is unknown to those in the there were few who understood the manifestation of the Modi government’s
corridors of power in Delhi. By the time scale of the state repression that it would Kashmir policy. The recent speech where Modi refered
the all-party delegation gets permenent draw. Once the state crushed the initial Ever since P.V. Narasimha Rao declared to Vajpayee’s “insaniyat” framework is a
soulution to the problem, Indian phase of the militancy, the azadi that the “sky is the limit” for resolving the repeat of what he said in Srinagar in
intelligence and security agencies movement turned into a lament, Kashmir dispute, New Delhi’s policy had 2014. Arun Jaitley has explicated the
would have gathered the same handful centered on human rights abuses. Each been rooted in the belief that managing regime’s understanding: “The political
of groups for the meeting. time armed forces would conduct the conflict, maintaining status quo and debate on the constitutional framework
Like in 2010 and 2016, wholesale cordon and search operations looking delaying resolution will ultimately tire out of J&K is no longer linked to the
mutton dealers will show up, for militants, the entire male population the majority in Kashmir and end the aspirations of common people.”
shikarawallas will be rowed in and apple would be herded at one place. One by political problem. While New Delhi used As Kashmir erupts again, I look back at
growers will be brought. Voices one, they would be brought before a force to suppress the separatist the two decades of stories I wrote. I
palatable to New Delhi will be told to masked informer. There was so much movement, the “sky is the limit” promise wrote about promises for resolving the
spell out their requirements, while a few fear, hardly anybody would protest. was aimed at convincing the National conflict and the sterile notes of fact-
bureaucrats-turned-civil society In the beginning of the new millennium, Conference to participate in the 1996 finding teams and parliamentary
members and former Ikhwanis-turned- while azadi continued to be the main assembly polls. committees. I wrote of despair as well as
politicians known to New Delhi’s demand, militancy started to take a By getting an NC government to replace hope. It seems that I wrote only one
dialogue circuit will be shooed in. backseat and hopes for a negotiated governor’s rule, New Delhi managed to story that is repeating itself.
This time, though, the ground has settlement arose. By 2008, there was a