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| Armchair politicians can't restore peace | | | CP Bhambhri
The Jammu region and the Kashmir Valley are experiencing extremely disturbed situation and the local administration of the State Government seems to have been bereaved of the options to deal with the 'sentiment' of the people who have come on the streets in defence of their demands.
The armed forces have also been deployed to handle the situation but it seems that the coercive methods adopted by the State Government and the Union Home Ministry have not borne any fruits to change the ground situation in disturbed Jammu & Kashmir. The Union Government has recognised, though quite late in the day, that the State Government has reached a dead-end and it has not only failed to manage the mess originated from the mass anger, it has become persona non grata with the local population. The all-party delegation led by Union Home Minister to negotiate with the protesting masses was rebuffed by the people of Jammu unless Ms Mahbooba Mufti of the PDP, Mr Farooq Abdullah of the NC and Mr Saifuddin Soz of the Congress were made to withdraw from the negotiating table.
The Home Minister and the representatives of other parties who went to negotiate with the local people on the land for Sri Amarnath Shrine issue should have been aware of the demand of 'boycott' by the protesting people. The situation at the ground level was much more serious than they had assessed it to be while sitting in Delhi.
Even this clear message from the protesting mass fell on deaf ears and the Prime Minister called for an all-party meeting on August 13 in Delhi. It is a very cavalier approach adopted by the Union Government because if drawing room meetings in Delhi could have led to solutions, peace would have been restored when the Home Minister led-delegation went to Jammu & Kashmir.
After the protests in Jammu for over a month now and the agitation on August 11 by the people and leaders of Valley to cross the Line of Control into Muzzafarabad to break the alleged barriers imposed by the Jammu protesters on the movement of goods from Srinagar, the ball is in the Union Government's court. The Centre and other political parties will have to actively negotiate and break the wall of distrust that has come to separate the two regions of the State. The Prime Minister, if he understands the seriousness of the situation, has himself to provide the leadership in finding a compromise solution by bringing the opposite groups around the table. Because the situation has become such grave that it is beyond the capacity of the State Government to apply any healing touch to the aggrieved people of Jammu or Kashmir.
The curfew in Jammu has been relaxed and Srinagar, after firing by the security forces on August 11, has been placed under curfew. The dispute cannot be resolved by sending interlocutors or delegations from Delhi. The Prime Minister himself should visit Jammu and Srinagar immediately and spend time and energy to assuage the bitter feelings among the people of these two regions. Why blame Pakistan or Hurriyat for spoiling the situation and fishing in the troubled waters? If the Indian leadership is incapable of reaching out to its own people in Jammu & Kashmir, mischief-mongers will exploit the situation and further complicate matters. The Prime Minister must realise that there is nothing 'non-negotiable' in a democracy.
Further, the Prime Minister should be in direct contact with the leaders of Jammu and the Valley because at the end of the day, it is the local parties and groups which have to manage public affairs in the State. Not only this, Jammu and the Valley are burning at a time when Pakistan itself is at a crossroads and it is well-known that Pakistan 'exports' violence whenever it is facing difficulties at home.
Hence, without wasting any time, the Prime Minister should understand the gravity of the situation and involve himself directly in finding a acceptable solutions to normalise the ground situation in Jammu & Kashmir. Armchair politicians of New Delhi with no feel of the pulse of the people are bound to fail. |
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