Posturing for peace missing

Though restraint on borders and fresh initiatives for the resumption of Indo-Pak bilateral talks are the only two options before the governments in New Delhi and Islamabad to restore peace on border and further the process of conflict resolution with focus on the situation in Jammu & Kashmir, but the diplomatic war mongering and the military confrontation on borders continues to be a concern for peace makers in New Delhi and Islamabad. Experiences of last two years of continuing hostility narrate the tale of unending troubles of the people living in border areas on both sides of the divide in Jammu & Kashmir. Neither the drum beating on cordon & search operations (CASO) in Kashmir plains nor the central government’s tall claims on the LoC cross over operations against Pakistan have changed the ground reality in Jammu & Kashmir. Even now the people recall and recount the good days the erstwhile Vajpayee led NDA government has brought with the inking of historical ceasefire agreement in the year 2003. Though the incumbent BJP government controlled and commanded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been invoking Vajpayee doctrine on redefining good neighbourly relations with Pakistan and fresh initiatives of dialogue with the separatist leadership in Jammu & Kashmir, but the tough posturing of the incumbent central government both on bilateral relations with Pakistan and also over talks with the separatist leadership is the contradiction of words and deeds Modi government shows just to prove its superiority over the previous regimes. Bigger issue of concern is the Modi government’s disrespect to the proposals of a popular government run in alliance with the BJP in Jammu & Kashmir state.
During Vajpayee’s reign of power the popular government in Jammu & Kashmir was run by PDP in alliance with Congress but Vajpayee as prime minister of the country supplemented the efforts of the then Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed on both the peace stablisation and developmental facelift initiatives but under the present Modi led BJP dispensation at the centre the government in Jammu & Kashmir is run in alliance with BJP but it does not get the support which the erstwhile Vajpayee government had extended to then PDP-Congress coalition government under the chief ministership of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. Though the incumbent Chief Minister Mehbooba Muft also several hundred times in last two years publicly told prime Minister Narendra Modi that hostility between India and Pakistan has a direct bearing on the people of Jammu & Kashmir and key to peace lies in the normalization of relations between India and Pakistan but unfortunately the Prime Minister did respond well to the demand of an elected chief minister of the state. So the contradiction of the words and deeds the Modi government shows in rebuilding bilateral relations with Pakistan and resuming talks with the separatist leaders speak volumes about the deviation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi from the Vajpayee’s doctrine on talks with Pakistan and peace in Jammu & Kashmir state. Unless and until the Modi government by virtue of its actions does not shun the policy of military confrontation on borders and diplomatic stand off in the bilateral relations with Pakistan, the people in Jammu & Kashmir both on the borders and plains won’t get respite from the military chaos and the diplomatic war mongering between New Delhi and Islambad.