Wisdom needed in Kashmir

The Jammu and Kashmir administration did well to not allow Anupam Kher and Ashok Pandit to enter the National Institute of Technology. The campus there is already riven by discord between students from the Valley and from outside the state, all for the trivial reason that some of them celebrated Team India’s defeat in World T20 cricket. These are essentially student issues best left to them to sort out. Calling in the CRPF to bring peace to the campus was itself an excessive reaction by the ruling coalition.

The presence of the Central paramilitary force had left a bad taste in the Valley. The issue should best have been left to the local administration, which may have brought things under control with a gentler touch. If the actors, both Kashmiri Pandits, were allowed to talk to the students, they would probably have ended up only driving the wedge between the groups even deeper.

They may easily have galvanised a section of students into toughening their attitude against their colleagues. Given the prevailing circumstances in the Valley, the ideal approach would be to cool things down by diffusing student anger and tribal loyalties in sport rather than exacerbating the situation in the name of a concept like cricket nationalism.

Shifting the NIT out of Srinagar is one of those abominable ideas not worth spending a thought on. The ruling coalition, just back in power after a hiatus, has far more to do in J&K than to blow up minor campus issues into a full-fledged battle between students and the forces. More than an iota of wisdom is needed to handle the Valley now.