INDIA'S GAINS WITH CONCILIATORY SECURITY IN J&K

It was possible to conduct elections in the strife-torn area in a free manner because of the lessons learnt over the years. It's necessary to sustain the momentum now

- LT GEN SYED ATA HASNAIN (RETD)

MAR Abdullah has once again ascended the hot seat as the head of J&K government through a transparent, free and credible electoral process. Many have commented to say it was immaterial who came to power in J&K. That such an electoral process could be carried out in a proxy war zone without an incident of violence or repoll is itself a certification of what the nation has achieved. There are times when we need to sit back and observe what we did right without too much critiquing and negativising, notwithstanding the attack at Z-Morh which is an after event.

Most striking is the fact that whenever the international community intercedes in conflicts around the world, it aims at a drawdown among the contestants, then an election, to get a people's elected government in the seat of power. It's not often this happens successfully and if it does, it rarely lasts. Cambodia and Mozambique were two good examples of UN interventions and both had an Indian peacekeeping presence.

The recent parliamentary and assembly elections in J&K need to be examined from the angle of the success of the Indian model of conflict management, which betters almost all other models. We rarely give ourselves credit for this, but it's not any one agency or domain that has succeeded in achieving what may have at one time appeared as an impossible task; it's the Indian system and its conciliatory approach that many are critical of.