Kashmir: An Interlocutor Who Was Not

Within 24 hours of the appointment of ex-Director of Intelligence Bureau for “sustained dialogue” in Jammu and Kashmir the cat is out of the bag. An official statement issued by Ministry of Home Affairs did not use the word “interlocutor” and refers to him as Government’s “representative” who can hold speak to anyone he so wishes. However, Union Minister of State in Prime Minister’s Office, Jitendra Singh not only rubbished talk of appointing Dineshwar Sharma as an interlocutor but also ruled out need for holding talks, as he argued, there is no “Kashmir issue” and that the only issue to discuss is Pakistan’s occupation of part of Jammu and Kashmir territory. So what is it that the ‘interlocutor-who-was-not’ expected to do? Well, the Prime Minister laid to rest any idea that RSS-BJP Government would be discussing any political offer or concession, by attacking Congress Party for their “insensitive” and “shameless” reference about “Azaadi” and Greater Autonomy, extrapolating P Chidambaram’s espousal of autonomy as that of Congress Party. The fact of the matter is that Congress Party too is disinclined to make any political concessions to do with autonomy as it was on their watch that autonomy got eroded. In a manner of speaking both parties are on the same page, no matter what individual leaders have to say, albeit RSS-BJP espouses a more virulent response in both words as well as deeds.

Significantly, the representative himself has been candid in asserting that he sees his main role is to wean away the youth from getting “radicalized”. His singular contribution in IB has been to prepare and launch counter “radicalization” programme directed towards Muslims. Some overzealous scribes presented Dineshwar Sharma as being a dove, being in the mould of ex RAW chief AS Dullat who advocates dialogue with ‘separatists’, unlike the hardliner Ajit Doval, the National Security Advisor who believes in a no-holds-barred approach to military suppression. Such fanciful write-ups too stands discredited now.

Thus, if anyone wanted to believe that there has been re-thinking in the Government over its refusal to hold talks with ‘separatists’ in J&K then the contrary seems to be the case. Government is downscaling appointment of its “representative” and sum total of their propaganda is that former IB chief is free to meet anyone and that ‘separatists’ are free to hold talks with him, provided they give up any talk of even autonomy, let alone Azaadi, since these fall within what are considered illegitimate aspirations.

So, the exercise is actually in a nature of a mopping up operation where the people brutally suppressed are then provided balm or counselled to give up their resistance and accept the futility of resisting and instead seek a job and other help Government is willing to consider providing to them. The import of Army Chief Bipin Rawat’s statement that the “Government strategy on Kashmir has worked, and we are negotiating from a position of strength” lends weight to this inference.

In other words, Dineshwar Sharma is on the same page as the Government. To him as much as the Government there is nothing to offer nor is there radicalization taking place among Hindus anywhere in India especially not in Jammu where it is palpably evident. Thus lynchings by Hindutva fanatics in Jammu, the role of ‘gau rakshaks, threat held out to hapless Rohingya Muslims refugees, the arming of Shiv Saniks and Bajrang Dal persons and arms training provided to them in “Disturbed Area” like Jammu are ‘par for the course’. It is like what Lt General SK Sinha, Governor of J&K once expounded in 2008 delivering his First Maneckshaw Lecture that violent agitation by Jammu based right-wing Hindutva fanatics in 2008 was patriotic because they used national flag, never mind the lynching and attacks on Muslims or imposing economic embargo against Valley to “starve them”, among other such “patriotic” crimes. In contrast, he condemned Kashmir based Amarnath Land agitation as anti-national although it was peaceful and bloodless agitation in 2008, all because they waived green flag, which reminded him of Pakistani flag.

Apart from this, the other major problem confronting RSS-BJP is that not all of 50 lakh educated unemployed youth in Jammu and Kashmir can be provided jobs by the Government. There are not enough jobs going around, to begin with. Recruitment into armed constabularies is finite and there are too many claimants elsewhere in India for everyone to be accommodated in armed services. So how many does the Government believe it can lure or co-opt? What happens to the rest?

Point is that it is not just electoral needs and attempt to lure majority Hindu vote bank that lies behind RSS-BJP belittling their representative. Rather it is their ideological stance of ensuring that J&K becomes like “any other state” in India, and “nationalists”, implying Hindus settled in Kashmir, to stamp out the very idea of ‘Azaadi’ as also autonomy, which governs their conduct. Myopic understanding has been the bane of Kashmir, although this one takes the cake for diminution of talks in few days of the announcement of “sustained dialogue”. But time and again such efforts have been defeated on the streets and inside homes of Kashmir. This is precisely where RSS-BJP’s approach is going to be tested.