Mehbooba in distress

As Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti in one of her recent remarks over the present scenario in Kashmir said that youth in Kashmir are in distress and need to be engaged for jobs, the PDP seems to have written off the self rule document and put to dustbin its core political agenda on furthering the process of the people to people contact between the divided parts of Jammu & Kashmir. Since the Chief Minister’s remark on engagement of youth has come a day after Prime Minister’s call to Kashmiri youth for preferring “tourism” over “terrorism” it conveys a message that PDP has preferred to choose development over resolution of conflicts revolving around Jammu & Kashmir state and with this party has almost lost its relevance in the state politics revolving around the resolution of conflicts which require the involvement of separatist leadership and the government of Pakistan. When Prime Minister asks youth to prefer “tourism” over “terrorism” or Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti say that youth are in distress, it hardly matters for youth who find the blood of teenagers spilling on streets and see pellets blinding people. Both Prime Minister Modi and Chief Minister Mehbooba don’t muster the courage to tell the world that the root cause of the anger generating among youth in Kashmir is the overt and covert denials of the replacement of pellets by less lethal weapons for crowd control policing. Forget about the resolution of conflicts standing at the core of difficulties in resolution of long pending Kashmir issue between India and Pakistan the Modi led BJP government at the centre and Mehbooba led PDP-BJP coalition  government in the state don’t ever muster the courage to take a decision on the rising public demand for replacement of pellets, release of political detunes and withdrawal of cases of serious nature against youth arrested under Public Safety Act (PSA) during last year’s summer unrest in Kashmir valley.

So for the central government has not bothered to own the report of even a delegation of the concerned civil society members headed by senior BJP leader and former foreign minister Yashwant Sinha and Chief Mehbooba Mufti too has not publicly endorsed the report of the Sinha led delegation. Instead of asking the central government to own report of Sinha led delegation Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti is delivering sermons to youth who are angered over the failure of the justice delivery system in the state. So not the youth in Kashmir but Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti herself is in distress.        

Both the Modi government at the centre and the Mehbooba government blindly blame Pakistan for the troubles in Kashmir but don’t dare to take measure to restore the faith of the youth in the working of governing institutions and justice delivery system. Since the disillusioned youth are upset over the working of the government and implementation of the justice delivery system ,so the anger among youth in Kashmir is more due to the mishandling of the situation in Kashmir by the law enforcement institutions than the “alleged intervention of external forces” in the state. To restore peace for uninterrupted continuity in the implementation of the development process the central and the state government have to take a call. So for the central government has not bothered to own the report of even a delegation of the concerned civil society members headed by senior BJP leader and former foreign minister Yashwant Sinha and Chief Mehbooba Mufti too has not publicly endorsed the report of the Sinha led delegation. Instead of asking the central government to own report of Sinha led delegation Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti is delivering sermons to youth who are angered over the failure of the justice delivery system in the state. So not the youth in Kashmir but Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti herself is in distress.