An all-party delegation to Jammu and Kashmir is a chance to refocus Indias political energy
Written by The Indian Express
3 min read
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Everybody has an opinion on how to get started on fixing Kashmir. But what cannot be disagreed with is that the Valley is going through a crisis. Altogether too many have died,too many have been dislocated,and anger,instead of being exhausted in futility,seems only to be gathering in volume. Which is why one important message from the all-party meeting that the Centre organised is crucial: that this is a national concern. Nobody would have expected the meeting to end with a concrete consensus on how to move forward. But what it did end with was welcome: the feeling that,at last,the political energies of Indias parties will be directed towards dealing with one of Indias most intractable problems. The prime minister said,in fact,that several leaders from across the political spectrum had spoken or written to him on issues related to Jammu and Kashmir in recent weeks.
Indeed,it is far too soon to figure out what a concrete set of proposals,that could be moved forward,would be. Thus the one move the meeting did recommend,the sending of a similarly broad-based delegation to Jammu and Kashmir to meet all sections of the people and gather all shades of opinion, is welcome. As has been said before in these columns,part of the reason for the virulence of recent protests in Kashmir has been a perceived distance between the governed and those who govern them. That distance must be bridged,of course,by the incumbent chief minister and the state government.
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The very fact of an all-party delegation provides another method to do so. But that would require it to be something more than the classic visiting fireman routine,more than a mere fact-finding delegation from the centre of power to some far-flung trouble spot. A delegation that represents Indias political will must also focus on reaching out. It cannot be one-way; it must run both ways. The delegation will presumably listen to all shades of angry opinion; but it cannot be a mere fly-on-the-wall. It will have to participate,in its own way,in the healing process. That will need more than point-scoring over differences in approach,or a repetition of standard party-political positions; as the PDPs Mehbooba Mufti said,it should not become a prestige issue between parties. All parties should rise above their political interest, she added,so that Kashmir can see the more human face of the country. After all,its a democracy. Hopefully others in her own party,as well as in others,get it.
