Bankruptcy of policy

by A. G. NOORANI

In Srinagar on September 2 at the funeral of Danish Ahmad Haroon, who reportedly drowned in the Jhelum river when he along with other protesters were chased by security forces PHOTO/Mukhtar Khan/AP

Those who conceived and executed the decision to send an all-party delegation to Jammu & Kashmir should not have been surprised at the fiasco that greeted its members in Srinagar on September 4, 2016. It was conceived in evil intent and executed with characteristic clumsiness. The Government of India has no considered, realistic policy to deal with the Kashmir problem, whether in this internal aspect or external aspects; it has no policy to deal with the immediate situation or the long-term problem. Its real aim is to crush the revolt in the Valley by brute force. In this, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has always been complicit. Her remarks on September 6 confirm that.

The parliamentary delegation was a device to conceal bankruptcy of policy and to demonstrate “we did all we could, but they did not respond”. Thereafter, a clampdown could follow, and a smokescreen of metaphors is floated. Hence Mehbooba Mufti’s arrogantly confident assertion to the delegation on September 4 that “the situation would come under control soon” (The Indian Express, September 5). Sure enough, the first steps were announced on September 6 (The Hindu, September 7).

Preparations for a clampdown had proceeded in tandem with those of the MPs’ visit. Mehbooba Mufti was in Delhi on August 8 for a day. Present at her meeting with Home Minister Rajnath Singh, very significantly, were Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval. Her speeches became bolder (“5 per cent of the people”) thereafter. She could ride out the storm, New Delhi assured her.

In Srinagar, on August 25, she showed the “iron fist” in the presence of Rajnath Singh, as a daily reported: “The Centre conveyed to her through Rajnath that she must ‘immediately’ put an end to the anti-Indian slogans… and round up the ‘80 agent provocateurs’ fuelling unrest in the Valley (Muzaffar Raina and Radhika Ramaseshan; The Telegraph; August 26).

That very day, she decided to invoke the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA) to imprison 169 people. The Times of India reported (August 27): “Central agencies have identified some 400 local leaders … and have shared their names with the State Police.” It should be done before Id-ul-Zuha (September 13), “ideally”.

Sankarshan Thakur provided the details: “Mehbooba’s thumbs-up endorsement of Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s steel-fist prescription and her scurry to the capital to demonstrate common cause with Prime Minister Narendra Modi have earned her the Valley’s favoured and dubious title far more swiftly than many of her predecessors: Delhi’s stooge. That she petitioned the Prime Minister for dialogue with Pakistan is viewed widely in Kashmir as a rhetorical admission that she herself is at a loss in the realm she rules.

“A long-time associate of her late father, Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, told The Telegraph: ‘She has placed herself at the commands and mercies of Delhi.’ Proof? When Rajnath Singh visited Srinagar last week, he handed Mehbooba [Mufti] a list of militants (over-ground workers, or OGWs) and black-balled stone-throwers that the Centre wanted arraigned. Mehbooba [Mufti] took it and promised to comply. … the names are believed to have been handed to the Home Minister by BJP’s [Bharatiya Janata Party] influential point person on Jammu and Kashmir.

“South Kashmir is in frightening revolt, a senior Kashmiri police officer said. It is not about a few people as the government keeps saying, it is about a whole people. Who do you act against, a whole populace?. … A classified police document written at the beginning of 2016 under the aegis of the former IGP (CID) of the State Police, Abdul Ghani Mir, noted how south Kashmir had become the Valley’s chief nursery of militancy by far.

“Of the 156 fresh recruits to militancy the study focussed on, 99 belonged to south Kashmir. Burhan was among those flagged in the list. Many others remain part of those that New Delhi now wants pursued and put behind bars. Simply put: Mehbooba [Mufti] has been sternly tasked to go against her own; and from all the sounds she’s made, she’s willing” (The Telegraph, August 29).

A “senior Minister” told Muzamil Jaleel of The Indian Express that Mehbooba Mufti was “on the right track” because “only an iron fist can bring normalcy here” (The Indian Express, August 29). On September 4, the day the MPs landed in Srinagar, the State Police received approval for imprisoning 174 people under the PSA. It has already arrested 1,888 protesters and kept nearly 600 in preventive detention (The Indian Express; September 5). Did Yahya Khan not keep talking to Mujib-ur-Rahman in March 1971 while planning a crackdown?

Invitation farce

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