Breaking the ice

The Yashwant Sinha-led team of well-meaning individuals currently on a goodwill mission to Kashmir has a distinct advantage over the previous “official” delegation led by Home Minister Rajnath Singh: it carries no baggage and is exploratory in nature. There are no media-built expectations from it and the BJP has cleverly maintained a distance. And it has already scored a point. Hurriyat leaders did not shut their doors on them as they did earlier. As expected, the Hurriyat leaders made a single demand: release of all youth and separatist leaders “so that a common and collective point of view can be put forward after consultation”.

If dialogue is an option, as Kashmir veteran Farooq Abdullah has suggested it is the only way to break the logjam, then both sides need to come down from their rigid positions. Separating “boys” from militants should not be much of a problem. Those willing to retrace their steps from the path of stones and bullets should not be denied a chance to rejoin the mainstream. Those burning schools in the Valley would not like youngsters to return to the classroom and it is they who deserve a different treatment. The boys have been sucked into a narrative of injustices, which though is not entirely wrong. Excesses should give way to aspirations. Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti too has urged security men to do more “parenting” than policing.

If the Hurriyat leaders did condescend to meet the Yashwant Sinha team, it was because, perhaps, the mood in the Valley has changed.  A prolonged disruption of normal life in the Valley is beginning to hurt those very people in whose name the “struggle” is supposedly being enacted.  Syed Ali Shah Geelani has lost quite a bit of his moral authority and the “boys” no longer heed his leadership.  The Sinha delegation provided him an honourable opportunity to retrieve the lost ground and re-emerge as the “sole” spokesman of the “resistance”.   It can only be the beginning of a long track back to the base camp of justice and political fairness.