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Jammu and Kashmir Situation: The visit of the APD and beyond | Even as the pundits were debating whether the visit
of the 39-member All Party Delegation (APD) to Jammu and Kashmir broke the ice or was an exercise in futility, the government has moved swiftly to announce an
eight-point 'package'. While the contents of the package can and will be debated,
the fact that this has been done without any delay does generate hope and
expectation
that it would be the first step in a series of steps that would bring Jammu and
Kashmir back from the abyss. The mandate of the APD was limited to gathering all
shades of opinion to provide inputs to the government to address the unending
spiral of protests and violence that have rocked the Kashmir Valley . The mandate
did not include any suggestions for finding a 'solution'. In facilitating the
mandate, clearly both the central and state governments bungled - the former by
a lack of preparation and the latter by trying to sanitise the entire visit, especially
in the Valley. Security concerns, genuine or imagined, provided the excuse to
shield the delegation from getting too much of a first-hand experience. The visit
in Jammu was clumsy in that representatives of Pandits were first kept out, then
clubbed together with other organizations and later given very little time. Critics,
who can see nothing positive in anything that India can do, have pointed out the
following: (1) What was the need for the APD to personally visit to assess the
ground situation since it this was already well known? (2) If opinion was being
sought, why go to Jammu , which was not in turmoil? (3) The All Party Meeting
had in any case brought out the differences among parties that was replicated
during the visit. (4) The split over visiting the separatists neutralised whatever
gains may have been made. (5) Curfew imposed by the state government reinforced
the artificiality of the visit. It is to their credit that the seasoned MPs' demonstrated
initiative and went the extra mile to call on the separatists. It is equally to
the credit of Indian democracy, that being representative of diverse political
out opinions, not everyone agreed with the initiatives. India secularism, too,
had its moments, with both Sushma Swaraj and Sitaram Yechury visiting Hazratbal.
By going to the separatists, despite their boycott, the APD did break the ice
and the move does have the potential of forward movement. Of course, it was only
to be expected that the separatist leaders would not change their long-held positions,
especially on TV. The reality is that today, neither the Government of India nor
the separatists have any space to manoeuvre between 'atoot ang' and 'azadi'. The
positions are irreconcilable. The APD, by meeting the separatists; by signalling
the willingness of the Indian political class to begin the process of drawing
the sting from the alienation and unending cycle of violence that has plagued
the Valley; may just have succeeded in creating a tiny space, a sliver of hope
for both the government and the separatists. This achievement must not belittled.
With the goodwill and opening made by the APD, measures announced now by the
government
would be seen as proof of the seriousness it attaches to addressing the problem
and signalling its willingness to take the initiative to address the long standing
issue of Kashmir. The beginning has been important. It is significant that the
government has followed it up with a series of measures. It now has to ensure
that this initiative, like past ones, is not forgotten once a semblance of normalcy
returns. That would be catastrophic.
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