On the second day of the ongoing Assembly session on Tuesday, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah praised former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee as a visionary, saying that today’s political landscape might have been different if Vajpayee’s approach towards J&K had been followed. He highlighted Vajpayee’s focus on “Insaniyat, Jamhooriyat, and Kashmiriyat” to bridge divides and promote peace, highlighting his efforts for peace in Kashmir and with Pakistan. The CM expressed regret that the former prime minister’s vision was not upheld, especially after the 2019 revocation of Article 370, which reorganized Jammu and Kashmir.
The efforts of Vajpayee towards ushering in peace in South Asia have always been a part of the political discourse in J&K. With regard to Pakistan his motto was that while we can change friends, we can’t do the same with neighbours. This became a rationale for him for instituting one of the most durable dialogue processes with the then Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf that nearly pulled off a solution to the Kashmir issue.
True, in recent years, Kashmir has witnessed some peace. Militancy and recurring unrest have ebbed. But before this, J&K had also witnessed peace during Vajpayee’s time. It was a result of a policy of reconciliation and engagement towards Kashmir and Pakistan pursued by the former prime minister from 2002 onwards to 2007. Ironically, the policy begun by Vajpayee, a BJP leader, was taken forward by the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, a Congress leader, through the latter’s first term. The policy had greatly reduced militancy in the Valley and helped build a momentum towards the resolution of the issues in Kashmir.
However, there is a lot that has happened since then. The dynamics that had made the engagement possible then no longer obtain. After withdrawal of J&K’s special status in August 2019, the complexion of the Kashmir issue has changed beyond recognition. Several new factors are at play in the regional geo-politics and in the relations between the two countries that have made it increasingly difficult to go back to the Vajpayee-Musharraf formula. New Delhi has also taken Kashmir off the table in future discussions with Pakistan, considering the issue settled once and for all. The only issues that New Delhi wants to discuss now are terrorism and the return of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The refrain in India is that it desires normal neighbourly relations with Islamabad in an environment free of terror, hostility, and violence.
But Pakistan wants to only discuss Kashmir and also seeks a reversal of the withdrawal of Article 370 which is not going to happen. The positions of the two countries have thus become too irreconcilable to make it easy for them to re-engage. But it is still possible that the prime minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Shehbaz Sharif will engage and break ice. In the interest of regional peace, the two neighbours need to transcend their differences and talk to each other. This alone will change the situation in the region for the better. But for that to happen, Pakistan has to also observe some ground rules. A true dialogue can only take place in an environment where there is no risk of it being upstaged by violence as has happened in the past.
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