Sensing trouble after the joint resistance leadership (JRL) called for a shut down on the eve of four day visit of Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to Jammu & Kashmir, the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) cancelled its much hyped public rally scheduled to be addressed by Rajnath Singh also and this in itself shows the public resentment against the PDP’s alliance with BJP and is also a message to Delhi that Rajnath Singh is not a welcome guest to the people of Jammu & Kashmir. Though Home Minister Rajnath Singh has said that he has come to Kashmir with an open mind and is ready to talks to everyone in the state and extending offer of dialogue collectively to people of all shades without spelling out the agenda for talks is a crude joke. Not only Home Minister Rajnath Singh but people of all shades of opinion in rest of the country hold the view that joint separatist leadership (JRL) spearheading the current phase of public uprising for last more than one year won’t like to talk to Home Minister or even the Prime Minister in a crowd and that too without a well defined agenda for talks. What makes more laughable the offer of Home Minister Rajnath Singh for dialogue on Kashmir is the continuing crackdown of the National Investigative Agency (NIA) on top separatist leaders and their followers including some top businessmen and lawyers including Mian Qayoom President Kashmir High Court Bar Association.
Political wisdom demands that the incumbent central government start a ground work for serious political engagement with the political forces working against the PDP-BJP alliance over its repeated failures on leaving untouched the contentious issues like article 35 A and article 370 of Indian constitution guaranteeing special status to Jammu & Kashmir state.
The crackdown of National Investigative Agency (NIA) on top separatist leaders has sent out a message that the incumbent central government is focusing its attention more on hostility with the separatist leadership and less on political engagement on resolution of Kashmir issue. The words of the Home Minister Rajnath Singh and actions of National Investigative Agency (NIA) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) working under his command and control paints a dismal picture of the Modi government’s directionless policy on Kashmir. Since last two and a half decades not only the central ministers but also the successive prime ministers of the country have come to Kashmir to generate hopes and sell dreams which never came true. The visits of central ministers and successive prime just to hold meetings with mainstream politicians, traders, students and civil society members and announce some financial packages has not brought any improvement in the situation in Jammu & Kashmir for the last more than two and a half decades and the visit of the Home Minister Rajnath Singh is no more different from his previous visits last year. The cancellation of mega rally to be address by Rajnath Singh Srinagar after the call for shutdown by the joint resistance leadership (JRL) to foil the rally shows the public endorsement to the opposition of PDP’s alliance with BJP and rejection of the arm twisting methods used to silence dissenting voices in Kashmir. Political wisdom demands that the incumbent central government start a ground work for serious political engagement with the political forces working against the PDP-BJP alliance over its repeated failures on leaving untouched the contentious issues like article 35 A and article 370 of Indian constitution guaranteeing special status to Jammu & Kashmir state.
