Kashmir priorities

The fight usually in the news is instigated by Pakistan in Kashmir to gain control of the Valley. It is conducted through the aegis of the Hizbul Mujahideen, a local Islamist militant outfit which plays in step with Pakistan-based groups like Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, and may take forms like mobilising a stone-throwing campaign. Hizb was created at the height of the militancy in 1989-91 to wean cadres away from JKLF, which seeks independence for Kashmir.

But the real “struggle”, with which ordinary non-political Kashmiris are emotionally invested, goes back much farther — from the jailing of Sheikh Abdullah in 1953. Its principal content is for autonomy available under Article 370. With the BJP in power at the Centre and a coalition partner in the Mehbooba Mufti government in Srinagar, Article 370 is at a discount. From its Jan Sangh days, the saffron party has been against this provision, which gives Kashmir a special place while being an integral part of India. But the BJP hasn’t scrapped it as that might mean technically annulling J&K’s accession to India. Nevertheless, it has stymied the bridge-provision politically by giving short shrift to any talk of a political conversation in Kashmir and solely speaking the language of the security grid.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi stuck to this script while inaugurating the country’s longest tunnel in the lower Himalayas that will cut the journey time between Jammu and Srinagar by two hours. He asked Kashmir’s youth to choose between “tourism” and “terrorism”, although all those who agitate are hardly terrorists.