SRINAGAR: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has repeatedly called for "out of the box" solutions to the Kashmir dispute. It seems now is the time for him to act. All eyes in Kashmir are set on Singh, hoping he will make a decisive intervention to improve the situation and bring dialogue back on track to find a lasting solution to the festering row. The need for his personal attention is all the more urgent as moderate separatists inch closer to hardliners, and mainstream political parties add further to the strife with their cacophony.
Though their motives are different, mainstream political parties and moderate separatists both believe that Singh must urgently intervene to salvage the situation, as Kashmir limps back to normalcy after weeks of violence that has added further to anti-India sentiments here. The calm could be temporary, as a host of protest marches by various separatist groups are on the cards in the coming days.
All Party Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umer Farooq told TOI that the need of the hour was "restoration of trust" and special efforts from the PM to bring back "credibility to the institution of dialogue".
Mirwaiz said they would not rejoin the dialogue process unless New Delhi took concrete measures to convince them that it was sincere. Among possible actions, he listed revocation of Armed Forces Special Powers Act, freeing of political prisoners and some sort of demilitarisation. "Then only you can restore credibility to this institution," he said.
Mirwaiz pointed out that the inability to move forward on dialogue in the past few years, killing of people in firings, fake encounters and other unfortunate developments of recent times had put moderates on the back foot. "Honestly, today, dialogue is equated by a majority of Kashmiris to sellout," he said.
Opposition PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti too echoed the same line on Prime Minister's intervention. "At this point of time, we feel the situation on the ground demands there has to be a major initiative by the Prime Minister," Mehbooba told TOI. "Some kind of initiative to reach out to the public is a must for Kashmir situation to improve," she added.
The first aim of the PM's initiative must be to "defuse anger" and then to address the larger political issue of Kashmir. The PM could have made a gesture during the Shabi Meraj, the Muslim festival that was observed amid tension and curfew on Friday, she said. There was already a sense that New Delhi was not proactively pursuing Kashmir issue, Mehbooba said. All that has "shrunk" the space for mainstream political leaders in the Valley, she added.
While Mehbooba's demand for PM's intervention was indirectly meant against chief minister Omar Abdullah, even the latter seems to believe that New Delhi needs to wake up from its slumber to handle the Kashmir issue on a proactive basis. During the PM's recent visit to Kashmir, Omar told Singh about the need for immediate and proactive measures to negotiate for lasting peace. "We are going to get the government of India to understand that we need to look at some other mechanism other than just the round-table meetings," Omar said.
