Route to peace on borders

During last three years of BJP rule under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi the repeated exchanges of fire along the line of control (LoC) in different sectors of Jammu & Kashmir state end up with the flags meeting between the DGMOs’ (Director Generals of Military Operations) of India and Pakistan, the two neighbouring countries engaged in both military and diplomatic conflict over Jammu & Kashmir for last seventy years. The flag meetings between the DGMOs of two countries end with a consensus that provocations need to be stopped to ensure calm on borders but after brief lulls in border shelling the firing by the one side or the other results in civilian and army casualties on both the sides. Unfortunately the flag meetings between the two countries are conducted in absence of a diplomatic engagement and political harmony between the two countries. The experiences of the past show that in absence of diplomatic engagement and political harmony the flag meetings between the DGMOs of the two country hardly bring any improvement in the situation on borders. So instead of keeping the channels of communication open at the level of DGMOs (Director Generals of Military Operations) the situation demands that diplomatic parleys and political engagements are resumed and the focus of the agenda for talks at all levels is kept on normalization of peace on borders as was done by the erstwhile Attal Bihari Vajpayee led NDA Government in the year 2003. Though the incumbent Modi government repeatedly vows to work on the agenda of dialogue, peace and reconciliation which erstwhile Vajpayee government had experimented but the Modi government has not been true to its commitments so for. Unfortunately the Modi government has shown more interested in working on political agenda of the BJP at the instance of RSS leadership and very less in normalization of relations with Pakistan and restoration of trust in the working of the government in Jammu & Kashmir state. The response of the Modi government to the rising anger of youth against the working of the Mehbooba government in Jammu & Kashmir shows the total negation of the democratic rights to the people of the state by the Modi government. Instead of showing respect to the emotional bonding of the people of Jammu & Kashmir with the people on the other side the Modi government is experimenting army twisting methods to impose the decisions of its own will over the angered population in Jammu & Kashmir state.

The applicability of the 2003 ceasefire agreement and the resumption of political engagements at all levels is the only route to peace on border and normalization of situation in Jammu & Kashmir state.

Holding people hostage to hostility on borders and disengagements with Pakistan won’t bring Modi government closer to peace on borders and restoration of political activity in Jammu & Kashmir state. The trends of hostility can’t be resolved by routine flag meeting between the DGMOs (Director General of Military Operations) of the two country but it requires a strong political will to give a strong push to the process of the resumption of stalled Indo-Pak composite dialogue process and restoration of political activities of all forms and manifestations in Jammu and Kashmir state. The applicability of the 2003 ceasefire agreement and the resumption of political engagements at all levels is the only route to peace on border and normalization of situation in Jammu & Kashmir state.