Contradictions of Modi, Rajnath: Big blows to Mehbooba

The recent utterances of the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on border skirmishes is one more rejection of the position the Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has taken on the security situation in Jammu & Kashmir. As Chief Minister Mehbooba’s Mufti during her address to a passing out parade at a police training school in North Kashmir’s Baramulla district exhorted both India and Pakistan to pursue the path of reconciliation but not confrontation to end the bloodshed on borders in Jammu & Kashmir, the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh barely few hours late the same day said ‘India has shown it can cross border’ and Prime Minister Narendra Modi during an interview to a national news channel said “ talks will be held in Jammu & Kashmir with only those who believe in the constitution of India and are ready to live and die for India”. The contradiction from Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on border skirmishes and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on political engagement in Jammu & Kashmir have obviously come in response to Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti’s call for Indo-Pak reconciliation in view of the continuing civilian killings both on border and in plain in Jammu & Kashmir state. Interestingly the statements of the Union Home Minister and the Prime Minister in total contradiction to the utterances of Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti were followed by the yet another visit of the central government’s special representative on dialogue in Jammu & Kashmir to the state for the purposes of carrying forward the process of engagements in Srinagar and Jammu. The Prime Minister’s statement that talks can be held only with those who believe in Indian constitution and are ready to live and die for India is contradiction of the statement is a severe blow to Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti who on the floor of the state assembly in a veiled reference to the rejection of dialogue offer by the separatists said “a thirty horse unwilling to quench his thirst can’t be forcibly taken to the river to quench his thirst”. Now Mehbooba Mufti can’t blame separatist for rejecting the dialogue offer as Prime Minister Modi has afresh set the conditions for the dialogue which have been already rejected by the separatists.
Another blow to Mehbooba government was the remark of Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh who in a veiled reference to border skirmishes in Jammu & Kashmir said “ India has shown it can cross the border’. By all standards of understandabilities the Prime Minister Modi’s statement that talks can be held with only those who believer in Indian Constitution and are ready to live and die for India is bound to evoke provocative remarks from the separatist leadership in Jammu & Kashmir and equally provocative are the words of Union Home Minister who has said that India has shown it can cross the border.