The lily-livered political class of this country and especially the politicos from the State of Jammu and Kashmir who, to hide their own mishandling of Islamist terror in Kashmir for decades, talk up alleged ‘normalcy’ in the Valley and encourage tourism to help boost the local economy should have their faces tarred and made to ride about India Gate on a donkey. Metaphorically, if not literally. The murder of 22-year-old R Thirumani, a tourist from Tamil Nadu near Gulmarg at the hands of stone-pelters shows exactly the kind of attacks the Indian security personnel have been dealing with and what the outcome would be if the Indian state listens to the so-called well-meaning politicians from the Valley who want leniency to be showed to these terror sympathisers and murderers.
Instead of pumping in funds and trying to engage with those who would question the monopoly over violence of the state as well as those who dare bear arms against it given that India is a liberal-democratic state for all its follies, the country must resolve to back a military solution to the war being waged on the nation in Jammu and Kashmir. Once complete military domination is established we must, of course, talk to all stakeholders who have abjured violence. Till then, no surrender, no compromise, no monies, no tourism and no let-up in the elimination of terrorists and terror sympathisers. That is the only recompense we, as a nation, can offer Thirumani’s distraught family.