Kashmir far from return to normalcy

The situation in Kashmir valley is though grim and attracts the immediate attention of the government, but the incumbent government is tending to continue the failed experiments of law enforcement to restore calm in the state. Unfortunately the government does not bother to give even a thought to a humanistic approach needed to restore peace in Kashmir valley. Handholding of youth requires a humanistic approach but not guns and lathis used to control violent protests in Kashmir for the last two years. The people protesting near the encounter sites have sympathy for the youth who have joined militant ranks and they are hardly bothered about their participation in elections either for constitution of panchayats or election of Member Parliament for the vacant South Kashmir parliamentary constituency . Even in other states of the country, people many a times in the past staged violent protests against the detention of the people facing charges of involvement in unlawful activities . Massive violent protests were witnessed last year in Haryana state when a fake hindu spiritualist Ram Rahim Khan but the Haryana government did not tend to use the arm twisting methods to restore normalcy in the state. Excessive use of forces aggravates the situation and under all circumstances normalcy can’t be restored in the aftermath of any violent public attacks unless and until the government does not try to get to the bottom of the crisis of public anger. Measures to restore the faith of people in the working of the law enforcement institution institutions is key to resolution of all kinds of conflicts and same hold good for the continuing unrest in Kashmir. Since the people of Kashmir are already facing a hostile environment, the administrative and political wisdom does not demand that dissenting political voices are curbed and rather silenced. It is the constitutional, institutional and administrative responsibility of the government to deal with the current crisis in Kashmit with utmost restraint and a humanistic approach the corner stone of which should be unconditional dialogue.
The government has to understand that the recent killing of civilians in army firing in a village in Shopian district in South Kashmir was bound to raise the emotions of the youth. Had army restrained from firing on civilian protesters in the Shopian village the situation won’t have become an issue of political ego either for the PDP or the BJP. Sadly the incumbent PDP-BJP coalition government is not tending to abandon policy of force to win over the confidence of youth. The incumbent Chief Minister has to accept the reality and make sure that army and paramilitaries and police restrain themselves from firing on protesters even in the extremely difficult situation.