The BJP top brass both in New Delhi and Jammu are yet to understand that wars are not won on borders but on the negotiating table and had it understood this hard reality it’s leaders would support PDP the ally in Jammu & Kashmir on call for dialogue with Pakistan. Modi government has been harping on the “surgical strikes” which the army claims to have taken on the other side of LoC last year and the Cordon and Search Operations (CASO) carried out jointly by army, police and paramilitaries in Kashmir for last more than one year but neither normalcy is restored in Kashmir nor the border populations are getting respite from continuing shelling on border dividing the two parts of Jammu & Kashmir. A very discouraging response to the Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti’s call for dialogue with Pakistan over Kashmir has come from none else than the country’s Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and the Vice President Vankiah Naidu. Normally President and the Vice President to refrain from making statements on policy issues but Vice President Vankaiah Naidu is breaking all the boundaries of the neutrality of the second highest constitutional office of the country and lately he has delivered very tough sermons on dialogue with Pakistan . The utterances of Vice President Vankaiah Naidu against dialogue with Pakistan have come at a time when Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman after visiting the recently attacked Sunjwan army camp in Jammu has said ‘Pakistan will have to pay for its misadventure’. Before opposing dialogue with Pakistan the Vice President Naidu should have also thought over a counter remark of the Pakistan Defence Minister who has said “Pakistan if attacked will pay back India in the same coin”.
Pakistan Defence Minister’s remark indicates that how dangerous the war mongering of Delhi and Islamabad can prove for future of peace and security in Indian sub continent and Kashmir could become the immediate casualty of any Indo-Pak armed conflict. So concerns of the Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti are genuine and legitimate. Creating war hysteria in the aftermath of an attack on an army camp in Jammu won’t neither end unrest in Kashmir nor restore peace on borders dividing two parts of Jammu & Kashmir administered and controlled by India and Pakistan respectively. When the tempers in Kashmir against the recent civilian killings in army firing in Shopian are running high the Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti being the head of a popular government in Jammu & Kashmir has no other option but to call for dialogue with Pakistan. Chief Minister as the elected representative of the people owes an explanation to the people for all that what happened before and after the civilian deaths in army firing in Shopian district in South Kashmir. The helmsmen in Delhi have to understand that Pakistan bashing won’t take Chief Minister closer to the people at grass but would surely further the gapes of alienation. A head of a popular government has to take care of the whims and wishes of the people and not the leaders in Delhi who have failed to heal the wounds of Kashmir and reach out to the angered populations during last two year’s of unrest in Kashmir.
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