Home minister homes in

A new breeze has been blowing across the hills and vales of Jammu and Kashmir and this has become more noticeable after last year’s elections. This has provided new opportunities to deal with the domestic issues facing the state, ranging from the alienation of the people in the state to faster socio-economic development. Both these require reconciliation and reconstruction, especially among those who are willing to engage in legitimate political activities within the democratic framework so valuable to all of us. Fifteen years of militancy and terrorism has left behind deep wounds that need to be healed. Terrorism may not have abated, but the mood in the state has been fundamentally altered in the past few years and this was visible during the elections last year and since then. The challenge for all political leaders and groups, including the Hurriyat, is whether they have the interests of the people of the state uppermost in their mind or not.

It is in this context that we need to view the new decision of the cabinet to ask Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani to talk to the Hurriyat. There can always be questions whether this should have taken place earlier or not. But the fact is that the success of a dialogue at the political level requires that sufficient ground for such a step is first thoroughly prepared. The earlier attempts with K.C. Pant and Ram Jethmalani, as the official interlocutors, did not go far for just this reason. Mercifully, this time Advani would also have the benefit of extensive preparation carried out with great attention by the present interlocutor, N.N. Vohra. The ball is now clearly in the court of the Hurriyat and those who feel alienated from the mainstream. There is both a limit and an opportunity in this attempt to chart a new course for J&K.

The complex nature of the situation in the state tends to cloud the reality that there are at least three broad inter-linked problems that must be addressed, individually as well as collectively. The one that tends to occupy centre stage in most cases is the externally sponsored terrorism in the name of jihad and self-determination. This itself has to be handled at different levels, ranging from dealing with Pakistan, working to strengthen international coalitions against transnational terrorism pursued under whatever label, and fighting the war against terrorism on the ground. The last has so far been pursued essentially in a strategically defensive framework until last year when the prospects of initiation of offensive action became real. But it is crucial to attend to the other dimensions, too, so that we have the people of J&K with us in the struggle against terrorism.