There have now been a slew of meetings held to discuss the situation in Kashmir and find solutions there of. After the initial reluctance of acknowledging the problem, it finally reached a stage where a near frank admission was made by none other than the Prime Minister of the country himself, that there was a problem in the land, and that it was chronic. Even before that, Home Minister P Chidambaram’s remark about the uniqueness of Kashmir’s relations with Indian Union was seen as the beginning of the confession. Though there is nothing new with New Delhi talking at multiple wavelengths about Kashmir, and then finally sticking to the line in stock, but this time around doing that would only announce a great disaster. Omar Abdullah’s remarks about New Delhi’s habit of forgetting the promises made when chips are down, is something that must not be papered over. If someone who has become the target of public wrath for he is being looked at as the man supported by New Delhi against his own people, speaks so openly about the wrong politics of New Delhi, it means that the doubt is seated deep in Kashmir about how Delhi would act in the drop scene. If past is any indicator, there is every reason for Kashmir to stand firm on the ground of doubt and suspicion. Never in the sixty three years has once it been tried to allow Kashmir breath freely, and the consequences of that strangulation have surfaced up regularly in one form or the other. If CWC meeting discusses Kashmir, it is not enough to express concern over the killings. Unless the situation that consumes lives in Kashmir is not cracked, people will keep dying.  Any momentary solution may put a halt on violence and goad us for a while into believing that all is well, but it won’t take much time for Kashmir to take another gory turn. The key actually lies in the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s ‘Sixty three year old’ comment. If the chronicity-of-crisis is made the point of departure things can be actuated into easing out the situation. If the spot of trouble is actually circumscribed, solutions can come in the wake of that act. True, it is a daunting task, but delay can only add to its difficulty. In all the meetings held to discuss Kashmir this point needs a thoroughgoing debate. There is no harm in at least discussing the issue with all honesty. When things are brushed under the carpet they don’t actually vanish. They remain there to knock us down some other time. Since Congress party has been intimately associated with the making of crisis in Kashmir, which not only the mainstream politicians in Kashmir have been occasionally expressive about, but even a person like B K Nehru, ex governor of J&K, has put it in most unequivocal description; can it be that Congress Party summons the courage to undo the crisis in Kashmir. This party knows it all where the shoe actually pinches. A consistent approach to address the chronicity of this crisis is needed. Any knee jerk response or a Machiavellian stroke can defer the problem, but only to reappear more furiously. If at the present juncture the persons in authority don’t act honestly, and cautiously, the gathering images are no good auguries. God forbid if Kashmir slips into the kind of violence that we see in some of the intense conflict zones, it will harm all. So prudence demands that a political solution is worked out without making it contingent to the hysterical rhetoric unleashed over the subject of Kashmir for six long decades. Telling the truth about the uniqueness of Kashmir’s relation to Indian Union to the people of India is crucial to finding any solution to Kashmir. It is better if the beginning is made by building a consensus within the parties first. There is no harm in being truthful. Democracies only turn stronger if they are honest to their own people.

Lastupdate on : Tue, 17 Aug 2010 21:30:00 Mecca time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 17 Aug 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Wed, 18 Aug 2010 00:00:00 IST