Chidambaram’s sage advice

Former union home Minister P Chidambaram has once again called for a solution to Kashmir for a durable peace in the region. Citing the fidayeen attack at a security camp in Pulwama, Chidambaram called for concrete measures to ensure a Kashmir solution. Chidambaram said that the BJP’s militaristic and muscular policy has failed to achieve anything in the state urging to recognize Kashmir as an issue and mind the frequent reminders which indicated it, among them the recent Pulwama fidayeen strike. Over the past two years, Chidambaram has emerged as a major champion for the resolution of Kashmir. He has written several columns to urge the government to take steps in this direction.

In a sense, it is ironical: Chidambaram as the powerful union home minister during UPA regime had failed to implement the report of the three-member group of the Kashmir interlocutors appointed by him. Nevertheless, the importance of his conscious decision to bat for a political resolution cannot be overemphasized. If anymore reminder was needed after the Pulwama attack, it was provided by the Sopore IED blast. It was the first IED blast in Kashmir since early 2000. The use of IEDs in Kashmir was mainly attributed to Hizbul Mujahideen but in 2007 the outfit announced a ban on the use of antipersonnel mines in the state on the urging of the Geneva-based International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL). But now Jaish has brought these back into use and to a deadly effect. And if the use continues, it is likely to add a disturbing new dimension to the deteriorating security situation in the state, a fact underlined by the Additional Director General of Police Muneer Khan too.Another worrying dimension to todays attack is that it happened in Sopore, otherwise, a perennially volatile town which in recent years was supposed to have been freed of militancy. Given the high-profile nature of the attack, the militancy seems to have returned to the town.

So far from setting militancy back in any way, the record number of killings of the militants in 2017, the highest in last seven years, has only strengthened it. Militancy retains its sting and the ability to strike anytime, anywhere. Amid this worsening state of affairs, only a rational course suggested by Chidambaram is the way out. A “muscular and a militaristic” approach, as warned by him, will only lead to more chaos and violence, something that will be dangerous to not only the peace in Kashmir but to the region as a whole.

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