Outreach via IB route: A dirty political trick

Yet again the Modi government has choosen a wrong route for much awaited political reach out in Jammu & Kashmir. Sending an official of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) to Hyderpora residence of the veteran separatist Syed Ali Shah Geelani in the eyes of political observers in Kashmir is the central government’s yet another attempt to create confusion about the political integrity of the octogenarian leader in the hearts and minds of the people in Kashmir. Knowing that public resistance against the arm twisting methods like cordon and search operation (CASO) is not dying down in any part of Kashmir valley the central government should have at the best taken measures for creating a conducive atmosphere for expanding the horizons of the political process before started the process of political engagement with the separatist leadership in the state. If Geelani’s claim that an official of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) was sent to his residence with an offer for political engagement over Kashmir is to be believed , even naives can understand that sending an intelligence official for the purposes of political engagement to a political leader of wider public acceptability is unbecoming of the popular government of a country which takes pride in being the largest democracy of the world. In a democratic country the methods of political engagement should be open and transparent and intelligence agencies have not to be involved directly or indirectly in such democratic practices at all. The much awaited offer of dialogue to the octogenarian leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani should have come through a political emissary of the central government which has been given a very strong mandate by the people of the country to resolve even the contentious issues pending resolution for last several decades.
Ironically the central government is experimenting the fractured ideas for political outreach without creating a conducive atmosphere for expanding the political process in the state and more so in Kashmir. The BJP-led NDA Government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has once again is lending credence to allegations of the opposition that it has neither the will nor the intents to address the growing public alienation in Kashmir valley. The approach of the Modi government to restore calm through dirty political tricks won’t bring any perceptible change on ground in Kashmir. A highly condemnable approach focused on the involvement of intelligence agencies in undertaking a dialogue process over a sensitive issue like Kashmir is bound to generate more anger among the people than bringing down the rising tempers in Kashmir valley.