At a time when the entire Kashmir is shell shocked over the death of another teenager, the talk of a ‘creative solution’ for Kashmir looks a bit crazy. With the blood of this teenager scarcely dry the talk of making borders irrelevant and addressing the trust deficit between Pakistan and India, particularly over Kashmir, sounds painfully unreal. Kashmir allowed to bleed, how can the two countries come closer and decide over matters that particularly belong to Kashmir! It is the worst kind of political tragedy for sub-continent that a people which is most affected by the problem are least considered when it comes to deciding the matters. Water, Borders, Trade, Regional Cooperation, People-to-People Contact – all this is placed diplomatically over the dialogue board, but the only thing that finds no space is the people of Kashmir. How ironical is this Indo-Pak politics that forgets the centre while making an attempt to draw a circle. Least goes into making out that even if the two countries make any progress on the matters that blight their relationship Kashmir can undo the whole progress on that count. So it’s inescapably important for the two countries to first ensure that the situation in Kashmir is lifted to a level where people of this state feel like being a part of overall progress in bilateral relationships. Even if they are removed from the engagement in the beginning but the pleasant effects reach them it can serve the purpose to a reasonable extent. Unfortunately reverse of it is being witnessed these days. The way things are left unaddressed in Kashmir and the protests are repeatedly dealt with unrestricted use of force, it is bound to vitiate the whole atmosphere. The ill effects of this anger ridden atmosphere are axiomatically going to spiral out and bring other areas of bilateral engagement under adverse effect. After all what is the point talking Water when Blood still spills in the streets if Kashmir. How is the talk over turning borders irrelevant relevant when the people living within those borders are desperately seeking for security of their lives. Even the nicest of talks at bilateral level appear obnoxious when seen through the prism of situation that currently has taken over Kashmir. Past four days have been consumed by undeclared restrictions. And despite that people in certain areas have registered their acute anger by coming out in the streets and pelting stones at the security personnel. One can still feel it in the air that people have turned intensely restive and any time things can skid out of control. The way past some months have given us a dozen more dead teenagers in Kashmir, it has acquired sort of pattern. Till it perpetuates one can predict it with absolute ease that things are not going to get any better in the near future. None of the deaths have been addressed properly by the government. No conclusive probe has gone into any one of them. None has been punished; worse, that no change in policy has been worked out to stop such killings. By only placing the blame at separatist doors, government cannot wriggle out its responsibility to address the problem that is so palpably present in the streets of Kashmir. About the Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao’s statement as a warm up to her talks with Pakistani counterpart later this month, one can only wish that the exercise doesn’t prove detached from the ground situation in Kashmir. What happens at Foreign must not be out of sync with what is unleashed at Home. If the two are differently directed it is destined to be a zero sum game. It doesn’t need a creative genius to work that out. Any K resolution must have its roots in Kashmir. And any bilateral progress must take Kashmir along. As simple as that.

Lastupdate on : Tue, 15 Jun 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 15 Jun 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Wed, 16 Jun 2010 00:00:00 IST