The peace process in J&K has started-but with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s push for ‘ekta and mamata’, the hopes are raising beyond the line. Around the same time, the Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s consistent efforts to involve the Muslim clerics and finding an alternative to pellet guns may equally help to restore peace in the State.
Above all, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti’s call for peace and warn the youths not to get involved in violent activities will surely be helpful. Modi’s constant reminder to those forces which are trying to fan violence and fight against the State that one fine day they will have to respond to the youth will serve as a good lesson for the separatist leaders sooner or later.
Despite making such arduous efforts by both the centre and the State governments, it seems a large section of our so-called liberal intellectuals and experts, are too cynical about the prospect of peace in J&K. To them, the former UPA PM Manmohan Singh was the one who could really engage all the stakeholders including the separatist leaders while talking peace in J&K. For them, the UPA Government was capable of symbolically playing the Kashmiri demands. They want the Modi Government to address the symbols of azadi movement in Kashmir. They want Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) to be withdrawn and see the Indian forces as force of occupation in the State.
At the top of all these, they consider that azadi has a substantive political undertone. They see the current conflict as BJP vs Pakistan. It is time now, these shades of people must view the situation from what is there on the ground. If the security forces are constantly been provoked by the protesters, what they should do must be advised by them only. Pakistan’s clandestine networks aim is to create disturbance in J&K. So to prevent these proxy elements, AFSPA is required and cannot be withdrawn.
As Kashmir is an integral part of India, there is no point of discussing the question of azadi at all. These are the only people who are so sympathetic to Burhan Wani and hundreds of other terrorists than showing a bit of their concern for hundreds of our soldiers who are sacrificing their lives in the long drawn conflict in that State. Whatsoever it may be, they have been always at logger heads with Modi since he was the CM of Gujarat. So he must move on. And find a solution to the crisis in J&K.