Tags:
Journalism of Courage
It is just as well Home Minister Shivraj Patil has clarified that the UPA government is willing to talk to the Hurriyat and other groups in J&K. After two rounds with the NDA government, the dialogue process seems to have run into a cul-de-sac and that is highly undesirable. Anybody who claims to think and act in the interests of the people of Jammu and Kashmir must do his/her level best to find ways and means to further that process. New Delhi has sadly conveyed the impression of vacillation and indecisiveness. And the Hurriyat, as the self-assumed leaders of the people with nothing to validate that claim except the sound of guns, seems to be unwilling to participate in a continuing dialogue.
The point is that violence cannot be a substitute to dialogue. Finding ways and means of resolving differences and disputes is obviously far preferable to murder and mayhem, especially when that violence is actually perpetrated against innocents. In fact, continuing acts of violence and terrorism, including against political leaders, do not help to build the confidence that is necessary for a meaningful and continuing dialogue among all the relevant parties. This is also the reason why the security forces cannot be tied into a unilateral internal “ceasefire”. Those who argue for a one-sided ceasefire need to understand that terrorists do not follow the globally accepted norms and laws of armed conflict. But while working towards building popular trust, it is essential that all parties involved in the issue take great care not to lay down pre-conditions that cannot be regarded as justifiable, leave alone legitimate. Unfortunately this is what the Hurriyat, in its desire to pursue its own course regardless of its wider consequences, has failed to grasp.
Seen and acting more as a separatist group which blesses militancy, it has additional responsibilities to the people of the state that it seeks to represent. These perceptions have come much more to the fore with a popularly elected government in Srinagar reducing the space that the Hurriyat can claim for itself as the representative leadership. As the party currently in power in J&K works towards solving the problems of the people and providing them with new hopes and opportunities for a future far better than what they have experienced in the past decade and a half, it would be inevitable that its legitimacy — along with that of the opposition National Conference party — gets enhanced among the people. The Hurriyat would, therefore, do well to start the dialogue at the earliest, demonstrating that it is serious about helping to take the region out of the trough into which it has fallen.
