Forward, With A Sentimental Throwback

Ruling PDP pushes Vajpayee-era India-Pak talks as a way out of Kashmir violence. Political stunt, cries NC.

- Naseer Ganai

WHEN Pakistan yet again violated its truce with India—this time disturbing a larg­ely calm sector—the Jammu and Kashmir government made a fresh and fervent appeal to resolve the imbroglio. The day the armies of the two countries exc­hanged heavy fire in Uri off Pooch along the Line of Control, chief minister Mehbooba Mufti rep­eated her plea for a dialogue with Isla­mabad. Add­ressing a Sunday function in nondescript Devsar area of Kulgam district, she also wanted more Cross-LoC roads opened for trade and travel with the western neighbour.

That move has piqued the Opposition National Conference (NC). Its leader Omar Abdullah says Mehbooba has chosen a wrong audience to broach the subject. “She must be in Delhi to convince the powers-that-be,” he says, cryptically. I don’t know what she wants to achieve by going public over this matter. In a way, it’s an admission that she is forced to take the line because she is unable to convince Delhi of the soundness of her argument.” The former CM also notes that Mehboo­ba’s Peoples Democra­tic Party (PDP) has allied with the BJP both in Srinagar as well as at the national level.

The subplot the NC hints at is that the saffron party is indifferent to the PDP. Irrespective of that ridicule, Mehbooba continues to speak about “dialogue with Pakistan”­—with such intensity that poli­tical observers see it as a desperate PDP move to improve its image and that of its CM. The party’s image as being ‘soft separatist’ did suffer during six months of protests that broke out in the summer of 2016 following the July 8 killing of Kashmiri militant Burhan Wani in a shootout with security forces.