Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party’s rout in Bihar and the premier’s much-hyped state visit to Britain have successfully diverted public attention from the festering mess in Jammu & Kashmir (J&K), where a BJP-People’s Democratic Party (PDP) coalition government came to power 10 months ago.
Modi, one of the prime architects of the BJP-PDP alliance in the country’s lone Muslim-majority province, addressed a public meeting in Srinagar — his first in J&K after the installation of the coalition government — a day before the Bihar election results were announced. And within days of the Bihar debacle he conveniently flew away to London.
Many had hoped that Modi’s visit would infuse a political healing touch and make a qualitative difference on the ground. But while grandly announcing a $12.1 billion economic package for J&K, he refused to utter a single word on the three ‘P’s — Pakistan, politics and peace — Kashmiris were eagerly waiting to hear ever since the prime ministerial visit was announced.
Moreover, Modi publicly snubbed Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed who belongs to the PDP, hurting Kashmiri pride. Speaking before Modi, Sayeed, 80, advocated engagement with Pakistan and Hurriyat separatists for the sake of peace. But Modi contemptuously brushed aside the valid suggestion and told the gathering that he “didn’t need advice on Kashmir from anyone in the world.”
Modi’s trademark arrogance, which sent the PDP into a huddle amid demands by party lawmakers like Tariq Hamid and Muzaffar Hussain Beig to sever all ties with the BJP, has worsened the volatile situation in a region which Bill Clinton not too long ago described as the most dangerous place in the world.
Considering the situation in the troubled state, Modi should have taken a leaf out of another BJP premier, Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s book. Vajpayee had visited Srinagar and won over practically everyone by passionately invoking Kashmiriyat, jamhooriyat and insaniyat. He had extended his hand of friendship to separatists inviting them for peace talks, besides unilaterally announcing a cease-fire with Pakistan. His words and actions made Kashmiris feel that he was genuinely interested in their well-being.
Modi’s flawed policy of harping only on the economic package (“My heart wants 80,000 crore rupees to be spent to build a modern Kashmir. Not only are Delhi’s funds yours, but so is its heart.”) invited former CM Omar Abdullah’s jibe that the premier was weighing the Kashmir issue in rupees! Modi, sadly enough, not only refused to follow in the footsteps of a statesman like Vajpayee, but also flouted the BJP-PDP common program, which lists engaging separatists and Pakistan for a political resolution of the Kashmir issue.
Modi should be particularly attentive to J&K because he knows too well that it’s radically different from other Indian states. Nowhere else are such extraordinarily elaborate security arrangements for Modi, including large-scale preventive arrests and suspension of Internet services, as in Kashmir, where protestors invariably shut down the Valley and security forces go to Modi’s public meetings in plain clothes to make up for the near-total absence of the common man.
Militants’ and separatists’ capability to mobilize people is known to Modi. The huge turnout at funerals of Hizbul Mujahideen or Lashkar-e-Taiba fighters is ample proof of militancy’s enduring appeal, which can’t be neutralized without a caring approach, which Modi simply seems to be incapable of because of his over dependence on funds and security forces. A grave new challenge is educated, affluent Kashmiris being sucked into militancy thanks to social media.
Every sensible Indian knows that there is no alternative to talking to Pakistan. But Modi doesn’t seem to subscribe to that principle. His belief system, in that sense, is diametrically opposed to what Kashmiris want. Modi’s long overdue visit to Srinagar, where he announced a substantial economic package, provided him a historic opportunity to win over hearts and minds in J&K where his own BJP is now a coalition partner. But he stopped in his tracks after loosening the purse strings. Such a materialistic approach, minus the political healing touch by making separatists and Pakistan stakeholders in the transformation of J&K, is doomed to fail.
