Separatists may or may not turn up to meet the all-party delegation in Srinagar, but India's stake in Jammu & Kashmir must not be diluted, whatever happens
The separatists’ puppeteers across the border thought hard and advised a change of strategy. The Army had been all too successful in gunning down mercenaries or misguided Kashmiris who had crossed the LoC to train for their elusive pursuit of jihad. The number of active terrorists in the Valley had come down from 3,000-plus in 2007-8 to less than 600 at last count. So, the jihad route wasn’t paying the dividends ISI hoped for. The switch in strategy entailed enhanced funding to Valley-based overground separatists to whip up frenzy through sustained brainwashing of ordinary people, especially the youth.
Kashmir is too serious an issue to be left to the Neros in Srinagar and New Delhi. The Indian nation has a huge and collective stake in Kashmir. We cannot allow haphazard, immature and politically disastrous steps to be taken by a pussy-footing Government. To begin with, the question of dilution and/or gradual removal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act from the Valley must be discarded as the red herring that it is. The Army is not out on the streets battling stone-throwing crowds and thus the removal of AFSPA is not of consequence to the present crisis.
The real agenda of separatists has been scripted in Islamabad and that is merger of the Valley with Pakistan. They have now started talking of ‘minority’ areas like Jammu and Ladakh being irrelevant to the Kashmir ‘dispute’ and are demanding plebiscite in the Valley.
