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Kashmir Times. Dated: 10/17/2017 5:05:24 PM

Rigidity and lack of political vision are the biggest factors stopping Kashmir issue's resolution

While Hurriyat are viewing union home minister Rajnath Singh's statement that 'no power on earth can stop India from resolving Kashmir issue' as an open admission that the dispute is an international one, the more significant aspect of his remarks is that other than a military intervention, Rajnath has spelt out no concrete steps for resolving or even pacifying Kashmir which is like a burning cauldron. Rajnath's invocation of Patel-Nehru difference over Kashmir question indeed opens his remarks to the interpretation that Kashmir has not been fully integrated into Kashmir. Secondly, his assertion that no power can stop New Delhi from resolving Kashmir is yet another cryptic admission of the internationalization of the issue. What, however, is worrying is that while speaking about resolving Kashmir, Rajnath Singh has not spelt anything other than a military intervention. He spoke about giving army a free hand in Kashmir and also resorted to the usual Pakistan bashing. His remarks were problematic were reasons more than turning a political issue into one of simple military proportions. Talking about the army's successes in encounters with militants and the huge number of kills, Rajnath spoke not like a union home minister but an RSS pracharak. "Sometimes we kill one (militant) in a day or two or four or six. The men of our Army keep greeting them with Jai Sri Ram," he said. The Army is a prestigious institution of a secular country, comprising people from all communities, and is supposed to maintain a secular outlook. It cannot be appropriated by any one religion; nor can any religious slogans define the actions of the Indian Army. Such remarks do not enhance the prestige of the army, rather they only mar the force's image. While the BJP ministers need to resist the temptation of imposing Hindutva motifs on the country's institutions, Rajnath Singh may also need to grapple with the larger question of his intention to resolve Kashmir.
Is there is a road-map for resolving Kashmir other than military actions against Pakistan and those against the militants operating in Kashmir? The union home minister would need to keep himself abreast of historical and present day ground realities. Then he would know that India's hot pursuit policy on the borders, especially during the last one year, has not yielded peace but turned them into perpetual hostile zones where people and soldiers are becoming cannon fodder. While talking about the high number of kills that the army has been managing, he would also need to factor in whether this has discouraged young men from picking up arms or motivated them more to join the ranks of militants. Or, that there is an upsurge in fidayeen attacks and other militant attacks have also had more lethal consequences. When he speaks of the ability of the security forces to have brought down the numbers and intensity of violent street protests, is he also taking into account the venomous psychological impact that the use of brutal methods like pellet guns, killings, torture and random arrests have resulted in. That the deaths of militants are followed by strike calls or protests and that their funerals are still well attended is only one of the indications of the huge trust deficit between New Delhi and Kashmiris. His skirting of statements by some military commanders operating in Kashmir that military actions have been effective but need to be backed up by political action reveals a calculated callousness. A realistic assessment of Kashmir would reveal not just the limitations of a hundred-percent military approach but also the many dangers such an approach enhances. Successive governments in the past including the Vajpayee government made half-hearted measures to resolve Kashmir through a mixed blend of military tactics, some political healing and mostly economic sops. None of them worked because of a lack of sincerity and consistency. If the present government is serious about resolving Kashmir, it needs to go beyond the previously tried recipes. The Centre does not need to flex muscles and dare any other power from stopping it. It needs only to free itself from its own perverse mindset of treating Kashmir like a military battle-field. New Delhi's flawed approach today is the major stumbling block in the resolution of Kashmir and there lies the problem, not in the international horizons.

 

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