Though confidence building measures (CBMs) on reopening of more and more travel and trade routes between the divided parts of Jammu & Kashmir were high on the core political agenda of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) but during last year’s unrest Chief Minister instead of demanding resumption of Indo-Pak dialogue with focus on reopening of more travel and trade routes between the divided parts of Jammu & Kashmir blamed Pakistan for the violent streets in Kashmir and publicly supported Modi government on resumption of dialogue with Pakistan. Now when Chief Minister is seeing improvement in the law and order situation she has surprisingly started talking about the opening of trade routes between divided parts of Jammu & Kashmir in the absence of a dialogue between India and Pakistan. Ultimately the opening of the travel and trade routes between the divided parts of Jammu & Kashmir is the domain of the federal governments of India and Pakistan but not between the governments of Jammu & Kashmir and Pak Administered Kashmir (PaK). So unless there is not any forward movement on the resumption of the stalled dialogue process between India and Pakistan it is not advisable for the Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti to start crying for the opening of more travel and trade routes between the divided parts of Jammu & Kashmir. As has been witnessed during last two years of PDP-BJP coalition rule in the state, the travel and trade movements along both Srinagar-Muzaffarabad and Poonch-Rawlakote travel and routes are often suspended due to the shelling and exchange of firing in majority of the sectors on the line of control (LoC) in the state.
The worry for Mehbooba Muft is that Prime Minister Modi is not at all ready listen all that what she wants to convey to Delhi to end the current phase of public uprising in Kashmir. Better for Mehbooba Mufti to promise all that what is within her competence and shun the policy of promising anything which is beyond her reach and competence.
So unless and until the governments of India and Pakistan don’t resume the stalled dialogue process to restore the full implementation of the 2003 ceasefire agreement reached between India and Pakistan during the reign of erstwhile Vajpayee led NDA government, talking about the opening of more travel and trade routes between divided parts of Jammu & Kashmir is just political hoodwinking and particularly when Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti who tries to reconnect her party with the people in Kashmir again on promises beyond her reach and competence. The people of Kashmir are politically conscious enough to understand the intents of the political sloganeering of the untrustworthy mainstream politician and this holds good for every mainstream politician in Kashmir be it Mehooba Mufti or Farooq Abdullah. The worry for Mehbooba Muft is that Prime Minister Modi is not at all ready listen all that what she wants to convey to Delhi to end the current phase of public uprising in Kashmir. Better for Mehbooba Mufti to promise all that what is within her competence and shun the policy of promising anything which is beyond her reach and competence.
