Dulat's RAW truth on Kashmir: Peace elusive

Bengaluru: The city’s brightest minds, including historian Ramachandra Guha, political scientist Ashutosh Varshney, Takshashila founder Nitin Pai and urban expert V. Ravichandar and a clutch of former diplomats and intelligence officers arrived to hear Amarjit Singh Dulat, former head of R&AW and one of the leading experts on Jammu and Kashmir, discuss the ongoing conflict in the region.

The talk, titled, Kashmir: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow drew largely from Dulat’s seminal book, Kashmir: The Vajpayee Years.

As Guha rightly remarked, the “title undersells the book,” for Dulat’s talk, which provided a glimpse of his vast knowledge of the area’s contemporary history, was packed to the rafters.

In the end, they concluded that it is India’s divisive policy toward Pakistan — and Kashmir — (in which religion has its part to play, according to Guha), that is the one thing keeping us from the ultimate prize – peace.