The home minister Rajnath Singh has finally said something that he hasnt for the past four years: He has said the centre is open to talks with the Hurriyat and even with Pakistan. Though the framing of the invite apparently seems unconditional but on closer examination, the matter boils down to same old stipulations. Talks can be held if the Hurriyat and Pakistan want them, which again means the latter have to take the initiative for the dialogue. In fact, in case of Pakistan, Singh again said that it has to stop the terrorism. Otherwise, Pakistan has always called for dialogue. In fact, it was New Delhi that summarily suspended the fledgling talks after the then Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit met the separatist leader Shabir Shah. But the second time round it was the militant attack at Pathankot airbase that led to the end of bonhomie which had begun immediately after the Prime Minister Narendra Modis impromptu visit to Lahore to attend the then Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharifs grand-daughter.
Ever since there has been little contact between the two sides. In fact, the two countries have come to a point where any dialogue between them looks a distant possibility. And with both the countries looking forward to their respective national elections in the following two years, it looks unlikely that there will be any efforts to engage each other.Window is fast closing
But in case of Hurriyat, the centre has made no attempt at the political outreach. On the contrary, the union government has used the full might of the state to force its leadership to abandon their political stand. The dialogue with the separatists was one of the major understandings in the Agenda of Alliance between the PDP and the BJP and it had lent a modicum of justification to the coalition. But far from engaging Hurriyat, the BJP has chosen to go after them by using National Investigation Agency, something that the PDP has found hard to reconcile with and explain in Kashmir. Many separatist leaders have since been imprisoned including the veteran leader like Shabir Shah.
As of now, nothing can be said with certainty about centre’s seriousness to the dialogue. What is clear, however, is that the centre is simultaneously working on three tracks with regard to Kashmir: One, tough counter-insurgency measures against militants temporary ceasefire notwithstanding. Second, a concerted action against separatists by drastically limiting their sphere of activity and third the political outreach through the appointment of the interlocutor Dineshwar Sharma. If anything, this kind of approach hardly looks conducive to the dialogue geared to resolve anything in the state. There is thus a need to bring some unanimity in the approach of the different agencies of the country towards J&K. A meaningful dialogue would require all institutions to work in ways that furthers and facilitates it. Much like terror and talks don’t go together, state’s coercive measures and the dialogue too don’t gel.
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