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Jammu and Kashmir

(29) n Shopian (12),” the BJP General Kashmir. It has acted against dissident The political chorus in Kashmir is for
Secretary Ram Madhav said in a trium- groups like Hurriyat. The centre’s only a return to former prime minister Atal
phant tweet soon after the results were response to the situation has been the Bihari Vajpayee’s approach to the trou-
announced. use of more force. After the occasional ble in the state. The PDP is the biggest
But the truth is far from helping im- and half-hearted attempts at a political votary for a throwback to this policy
prove the situation, the massively boy- engagement in the appointment of the with its leader Mehbooba Mufti never
cotted polls have only ended up put- interlocutor Dineshwar Sharma, New tiring of making a strong pitch for it.
ting the grim situation in the Valley in Delhi has given up all pretence of any Looking back, if any policy did make a
a sharp relief. Alienation is total which outreach. No political engagement has redeeming difference, it was a policy
in turn is a comment on the handling of been initiated with the representatives of reconciliation and engagement to-
Kashmir by the Modi government. of the Azadi sentiment. For the BJP, the wards Kashmir and Pakistan pursued
“In more than four years of the NDA priority has been the successive elec- by New Delhi from 2002 onwards to
government there is very little that has tions in different states of India. Simi- 2007. The policy was begun by Vajpayee,

changed in the Valley. The Kashmir re- larly, the engagement with Pakistan is a BJP leader, and taken forward by his
mains in a time warp, struggling to get unlikely to restore anytime soon. successor Manmohan Singh through
rid of the lingering bitter conflict that “This has created a deep vacuum in his first term.
has plagued the state since India and Kashmir,” said political analyst Dr Gull “The policy had greatly reduced
Pakistan won their freedom from the Wani. “And it can’t be addressed by a se- militancy in Valley and helped build
imperial yoke,” said political commen- curity centric approach. A political pro- a momentum towards the resolution
tator Gowhar Geelani. “Ever since while cess and engagement is long overdue”. of Kashmir,” said a PDP leader. “If any-
the two countries have gone on with But such a process, admits Wani, thing is urgently needed to address to-
their respective destinies, Kashmiris is unlikely to start in an election year. day’s Kashmir situation, it is to return
have remained hopelessly mired in the “With the union government already in to the same processes and policies. We
conflict. And the BJP Government has election mode, any rethink on Kashmir urgently need a reversal of current
only added to it”. policy may not happen,” Wani said. “For hardline policy on the state”.
True, the NDA government at the that we will have to wait for the new
centre has refused to politically engage government at the centre”. letters@tehelka.com

Tehelka / 15 november 2018 29 www.Tehelka.com

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