A compounded confusion in Kashmir

While the people shocked by the killing of five members of a family in cross LoC shelling in Mendher area of Poonch districts have asked government to “wage war or initiate peace initiatives” to restore calm in border areas, the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh despite demands for initiatives needed for restoration peace on borders raised by Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and leader of the main opposition National Conference in the assembly Omar Abdullah has in yet another war cry said “ India can even cross the border for protection of its territory”. Interestingly Rajnath Singh’s threat of crossing the border for protection of his country’s proved a mere war cry of the incumbent Modi government as only a day after Home Minister’s statement the killing of five civilians in cross border shelling followed the reports that five army men also sustained injuries in cross LoC shelling in Mendher area of Poonch district. Talking of a permanent solution to Kashmir amid continuing hostility with Pakistan on borders and total denial of any political engagement with separatist leaders in Kashmir makes no sense when both the crisis of streets protests in the aftermath of gunfights between the militants and the government forces in Kashmir and continuing shelling on borders are not heading for any dead end for the last two years. It is strange that while watching the situation in Kashmir worsening fast each day like a mute spectator as also alleged by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the Modi government at the centre tends to make people of the country believe that it was working for a permanent solution to resolve Kashmir issue.
So for the incumbent central government’s only strong political initiative during last two years of civil unrest in Kashmir has been the appointment of Dineshwar Sharma the former Director Intelligence Bureau (IB) as the special representative on political dialogue in Jammu & Kashmir but interestingly Sharma is yet to reach out to the separatists who hold key to any peaceful settlement to the current crisis in Kashmir. Instead of clearing the confusion among the people unfortunately the Home Minister Rajnath Singh himself is looking confused as on one hand he says ‘Jammu & Kashmir shall always remain a part of India’ but on the other hand, he talks about a permanent solution to Kashmir and simultaneously threatens to cross the border for protecting the territory of his country. In an attempt to confuse people the home minister is getting himself confused. So for Home Minister Rajnath Singh has not explained as to what he meant by permanent solution to Jammu & Kashmir. Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP national president Amit Shah also made similar statements and caused confusion among the people in Kashmir about the mandate given to special representative on Kashmir Dineshwar Sharma on political engagement in the Jammu & Kashmir.