Talking Turkey: J&K - Can PM, RSS find an out-of-box solution?

As the mist begins to clear somewhat on Kashmir, a few salient points are staring the country in the face. The alienation of the people in the Valley is far from over as the state remains under curfew and the death toll continues to mount, however slowly. The police are the new targets of the protesters and many police stations are bereft of their legitimate occupants. There has been much political activity of late, with home minister Rajnath Singh making his second visit to Kashmir in a month and chief minister Mehbooba Mufti meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi. Both in Srinagar and in the capital, she has been voluble without being convincing. Several ideas have been floated: a track two-level of dialogue, an all-party parliamentary delegation’s visit to the troubled state and Delhi accepting the need for talking to all Kashmiris, including separatists. But a fatal flaw in the heightened activity we have witnessed is the impression the Narendra Modi government has given of belatedly being dragged into accepting early sane suggestions when the need of the hour is to make a dramatic bold initiative to give Kashmiris the feeling that New Delhi is at last sitting up and taking notice of the people’s real grievances.

One understands the handicaps of Mr Modi in making such a gesture, with the Bharatiya Janata Party in an uneasy alliance with the People’s Democratic Party and the need to pacify superpatriots in Jammu. Finance minister Arun Jaitley tried to pacify the Jammu crowd by his unwise remarks that protesters in the Valley were acting as Pakistani proxies. Pakistan is understandably exploiting the disturbing situation in the Valley to the hilt and will take its message to world capitals and the United Nations. After all, from Islamabad’s point of view, this is a golden opportunity to reopen the Kashmir dispute much of the world is tired of and has consigned to the archives. Harping on Pakistan does India no credit, rather, the tactic of Mr Modi bringing into play Balochistan and Islamabad’s infamous conduct there is more productive.

It is indeed time to listen to the sane voices of the PDP leadership and the National Conference chief and former chief minister Omar Abdullah, stressing the need to implement the joint plan agreed to by the coalition. Yet, as many Kashmiris have reminded Delhi, the residual powers given to the state have been nibbled away over the years by the United Progressive Alliance as much as the National Democratic Alliance. This is the nub of the problem. Can Mr Modi and his mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh muster the courage to find an out-of-box solution to satisfy the Valley? It might be a simple problem to pose, but a complex one for the Sangh Parivar. For one thing, the moves RSS followers are making for cow protection and otherwise promoting Hindutva can hardly attract the people of the only Muslim-majority state in the country. Second, there is a tale behind Mr Modi’s inability to act despite more than 50 days of curfew-bound Valley. Indeed, the country owes a debt of gratitude to the Indian Army commander in appealing to all parties to put their heads together.

Mr Modi himself has been reared in the lap of the RSS. Until recently, he has been publicly reliving in the fantasy world of ancient India in which planes flew, plastic surgeons practised their craft and human heads were transposed in an instant. He propagated these views at least once after becoming Prime Minister. For Mr Modi, the RSS is an umbilical cord that cannot be severed. If he seeks to be pragmatic by very belatedly condemning fake cow protection bullies, he gets a backlash. The government in Delhi is therefore at a great disadvantage in wooing the Kashmiri youth to the virtues of the still officially secular Indian state. This handicap did not exist for Congress-led governments of the past, although it must answer for its follies on myriad issues. How then is Mr Modi to surmount the problem of his own upbringing in the RSS and even if he passes this hurdle, how can he act against the gut feeling of the RSS?

There is a precedent although he has playing for far lower states as Gujarat’s chief minister. He promoted the state’s economic development even while neglecting social needs by sidelining the Parivar. The sad fact is that what he could do in a state, he cannot repeat at the national level. He needs the RSS for the foot soldiers it provides, come elections, apart from his own deeply held beliefs. In the end, there is no running away from the urgent and pressing questions posed by Kashmir. The sooner Mr Modi realises that the situation brooks no delay, the better for the state and the country. Piecemeal and gradual changes will not work. Instead of suggesting that all Kashmiris can come and talk to New Delhi or its representatives, why not invite separatists by name? Only by reacting to them can an idea be formed of an eventual compromise.

It is a process that will take time, but the important point is to signal the beginning of a new dramatic opening. Let us not forget that Kashmir carries the burden of the tragic history of the subcontinent’s bloody Partition. Those memories are still alive either in the older generation’s longing for lost homes and setting or in loved ones’ lives lost. Regrettably, Pakistan is not in the best of health, with a weak PM beholden to the Army and the creation of the Islamic State in the Middle East giving fillip to jihadis of the local variety. Whoever rules Pakistan, the temptation to fish in troubled Indian waters seems a permanent policy. This is compounded by the coming to power in India of Mr Modi carrying the baggage of the Sangh Parivar.