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| Chidambaram plays king in interior Srinagar | | | The Union Home Minister,P.Chidambaram,visited the otherwise highly sensitive interior of Srinagar on Tuesday night.It was a nocturnal tour of the type kings in the distant past used to do for securing views of people regarding the king and his governance.In fact the state Government agencies had motivated Chidambaram to visit several areas in interior of Srinagar which have remained a hub of militancy related activities and violence during the last over 21 years.He visited those very areas which had witnessed intense civilian strife during the last summer months to see for himself whether the police version on marked improvement in the situation was correct or not. At the end of the tour Chiambaram felt the police version on normalcy in the interior of the city was correct, irrespective of the fact that the stone pelting youth and militants were fast asleep when the union Home Minister drove through the congested city.Earlier he had talked about peace and normalcy in the entire state. The reason for such assessment was that during the last six months no major militancy related incident or event had taken place in the entire state, especially in the Kashmir valley. Secondly the just ended incident free Panchayat election, which witnessed heavy participation by the people, has convinced Chidambaram about the improvement in the security scenario.
If a person like the Union Home Minister is convinced about the security scenario having registered marked improvement and the senior Army functionaries claiming that there has been no infiltration of militants from across the LOC during the last six months, why then the troops were not being withdrawn from the civilian areas? Why then the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) was not being revoked or withdrawn from the state? It is evident that Chidambaram cannot have any excuse for keeping Army pickets and deployment within some civilian areas intact. He may not find any tenable plea for opposing the demand for the revocation of the AFSPA.Earlier there were reports that the main purpose of Chidambaram's visit to Kashmir was to assess the situation so that in case he was satisfied with the turn of the events he would recommend to the Prime Minister and the Defence Minister the need for withdrawal of troops and the AFSPA.
In reply to a question Chidambaram had disarmed a newsman by telling him that there were no troops in the city of Srinagar but that was not the issue. The issue with political parties, especially with the National Conference and the PDP besides the separatists, is the issue of withdrawal of troops from within the civilian areas and of revocation of the AFSPA.Yes,the security scenario in the Kashmir valley has registered a phenomenal improvement. The separatists did not give a call for hartal in connection with the visit of the Union Home Minister when in the past they would give such calls once some VVIP visited the valley from Delhi. This is one sign. Another is the the bumper tourist season and increase in the number of Kashmiri displaced people having made it to the valley this summer and many among them having remained engaged in reopening of temples and performing prayers. Yet another in the peaceful summer alongwith the incident free Panchayat
elections in which about 80 per cent voters cast their votes. But the current lull cannot be treated as a permanent affair when agencies within the valley and across the border were trying to destabilise peace. Hence the Government should wait for more months and in case the situation continued to remain peaceful there should then be no delay in withdrawal of troops and AFSPA.Once that was done it could result in removing trust deficit between people in Kashmir and the Government
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