PM Modi’s hardline Kashmir strategy suits BJP, but not India or the Valley

[sbh02]

The NDA government’s approach over the last two months in Kashmir has amounted to ignoring the scale of casualties and depth of suffering. A real worry is that the Modi government’s analysis of the problem leaves it very little scope to reach out to Kashmiris, let alone explore a political solution

The two-day all-party delegation visit to Kashmir during September 4-5 was a farce and a fiasco. Consider the drama we saw in recent days. After years of talking about the need for dialogue with all stakeholders, Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti chooses to invite separatists for talks with the delegation while they are in jail or under house arrest. Leaders such as Sitaram Yechury and Asaduddin Owaisi try to do the Centre, which now has no access to aggrieved Kashmiris, a favour by knocking on the doors of separatists. When they are turned away, home minister Rajnath Singh, instead of using the visit to make sensible statements about understanding local anger or announcing concessions, points out that separatists lack the principles of “insaniyat, Kashmiriyat and jamhooriyat (humanity, Kashmiri ethos and democracy)”.

Evidently, for our home minister, expressing no remorse about 75 civilians being shot dead by security forces and hundreds blinded for pelting stones is a sign of upholding such principles, while incarcerated leaders not opening up for a chat amid a tense backdrop is a sign of the lack thereof. Singh distanced himself from Mufti’s letter and Yechury’s reach-out to separatists and will likely convene another all-party meeting in Delhi. All that the delegation visit has yielded is a confirmation for Kashmiris that well-meaning Indian MPs are powerless to intervene on their behalf (and, to that extent, one more link to Delhi’s political class stands attenuated).

The Modi government’s strategy over the last two months in Kashmir has amounted to ignoring the scale of casualties and depth of suffering, maintaining silence for extended periods, making the odd, weak statement about the pain of Kashmiris with barely a reference to blinded children, and ritually reiterating that J-K is an integral part of India.

What should be a source of worry is that the Modi government’s analysis of the problem leaves it very little scope to reach out to Kashmiris. The Centre has convinced itself that the protests are all Pakistan’s doing. Singh reckons that whatever is happening is because of Islamabad; PM Modi has also argued that the youth are being misled. This is reflected in the government’s narrative. The Centre shared its assessment of the situation with the Opposition and, according to NDTV, it listed “top ten hurdles” in the Valley that include the use of social media for false rumours to instigate youth to lead violent mobs; stone pelting on security forces by radicalised and incited youth; armed militants mixing with stone-pelting mobs and addressing rallies; militants using cover of “agitating mobs” firing at security forces and lobbing grenades, provoking security forces to retaliate and attacks/threats on government officers, political representatives and policemen, no identifiable leadership of protests and the challenge of radicalization.

Some of these claims will remain debatable in the absence of hard evidence. Security forces regularly collect footage of public gatherings in Kashmir but so far we have very little video evidence of the thousands of confrontations between the forces and protesters in recent weeks to establish how the balance of force works out in the streets of the Valley, especially since one side has the guns and the other has stones.

It is also not clear if the government has spelled out to the Opposition the context within which such blowback has taken place. Kashmir has been seething over the 120 youth killed in 2010, the relief package for the 2014 was unconscionably late and inadequate. The BJP added to its insecurities by suggesting a rollback of Article 370, which gives special status to the militancy-hit state, and hinting at allotting land for retired soldiers. It will have likely obscured the fact that Hizbul Mujahideen commnder Burhan Wani, whose death in a July encounter triggered the ongoing protests, emerged as a symbol of resistance, as someone who could take on the State while ordinary Kashmiris led routinized, subjugated lives – and that all this would not have come to pass if Kashmiris were allowed to mourn him and had not 21 people been shot dead within three days of Wani’s killing on July 8.

The Modi government has evidently scrubbed out nuances in its reading of the situation and is wholly blaming Pakistan for the crisis. Whether or not it is by design, such an approach suits BJP’s political and ideological purposes perfectly. The BJP politically cannot do any of the things that Kashmir needs right now: it cannot express remorse for the killings and order an inquiry into excessive force as that will alienate security forces; it also cannot announce a roadmap for a political solution and restore autonomy as that would offend its base, which is committed to abrogating Article 370. On the contrary, maintaining a steady diet of anti-Pakistan rhetoric helps with its polarising strategy for the UP elections; a focus on stone-pelting youth and representing them as Islamabad-sponsored terrorists inevitably keeps one kind of “anti-national” always in the public eye and shores up middle-class support. Kashmir helpfully becomes JNU Act II.

What now for the way forward? Home minister Singh has spoken of devising an action plan for Kashmir. Well, the 2011 report of Kashmir interlocutors is yet to be tabled in Parliament. Based on recent events, we shouldn’t be surprised if these four elements play out: PM Modi will make India’s case aggressively abroad to deflect attention from human rights violations and ratchet up anti-Pakistan rhetoric as the UN General Assembly season approaches (prompting reactions from Islamabad). The PM’s G20 summit speech that “one single nation” is spreading agents of terror in the region is of a piece in this strategy. Singh will continue political consultations in Delhi and generate whiffs of process that will be talked up in the media. Militant groups such as Hizbul Mujahideen will threaten India, vindicating BJP spokespersons and their allies in the talk circuit while security forces continue to inflict civilian losses as they try to recover control of the street in Kashmir.

We are now in a situation where what is good for the BJP politically does not align with what India and Kashmir need. India does not need to be weighed down by internal crisis, get its reputation tarnished internationally, and expend political and diplomatic energies towards a neighbour one-fifth its size while compelling domestic and geo-strategic challenges loom. Kashmir needs comfort, healing, justice and closure. PM Modi and BJP are in a position to help both. For that they need to eschew the political incentives built into the current situation which they have helped conjure. But for that they first they need to be willing to get their analysis right.

Else, a long cynical winter beckons.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/analy...-the-valley/story-zkJdNLGMYEMafvuIkvj86O.html

 

[sbh02]

Great article!

 

[sbh02]

Wish there were more Indians that could think differently from the popular narrative.

 

[Kathin_Singh]

Wish there were more Indians that could think differently from the popular narrative.

Wish there is even SINGLE ONE Pakistani that could think differently from the Establishment narrative!

 

[Sucha Kuggu]

Tell this to your PM not this forum.

 

[sbh02]

Wish there is even SINGLE ONE Pakistani that could think differently from the Establishment narrative!

Pakistanis think differently from the establishment narrative much more than Indians do. Look at our mainstream media and newspapers vs yours.

Look at the number of Indians on this website, and on websites such as Dawn News; and compare it to their treatment of Pakistanis on their websites. That tells you everything about Indians.

 

[cerberus]

The NDA government’s approach over the last two months in Kashmir has amounted to ignoring the scale of casualties and depth of suffering. A real worry is that the Modi government’s analysis of the problem leaves it very little scope to reach out to Kashmiris, let alone explore a political solution

The two-day all-party delegation visit to Kashmir during September 4-5 was a farce and a fiasco. Consider the drama we saw in recent days. After years of talking about the need for dialogue with all stakeholders, Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti chooses to invite separatists for talks with the delegation while they are in jail or under house arrest. Leaders such as Sitaram Yechury and Asaduddin Owaisi try to do the Centre, which now has no access to aggrieved Kashmiris, a favour by knocking on the doors of separatists. When they are turned away, home minister Rajnath Singh, instead of using the visit to make sensible statements about understanding local anger or announcing concessions, points out that separatists lack the principles of “insaniyat, Kashmiriyat and jamhooriyat (humanity, Kashmiri ethos and democracy)”.

Evidently, for our home minister, expressing no remorse about 75 civilians being shot dead by security forces and hundreds blinded for pelting stones is a sign of upholding such principles, while incarcerated leaders not opening up for a chat amid a tense backdrop is a sign of the lack thereof. Singh distanced himself from Mufti’s letter and Yechury’s reach-out to separatists and will likely convene another all-party meeting in Delhi. All that the delegation visit has yielded is a confirmation for Kashmiris that well-meaning Indian MPs are powerless to intervene on their behalf (and, to that extent, one more link to Delhi’s political class stands attenuated).

The Modi government’s strategy over the last two months in Kashmir has amounted to ignoring the scale of casualties and depth of suffering, maintaining silence for extended periods, making the odd, weak statement about the pain of Kashmiris with barely a reference to blinded children, and ritually reiterating that J-K is an integral part of India.

What should be a source of worry is that the Modi government’s analysis of the problem leaves it very little scope to reach out to Kashmiris. The Centre has convinced itself that the protests are all Pakistan’s doing. Singh reckons that whatever is happening is because of Islamabad; PM Modi has also argued that the youth are being misled. This is reflected in the government’s narrative. The Centre shared its assessment of the situation with the Opposition and, according to NDTV, it listed “top ten hurdles” in the Valley that include the use of social media for false rumours to instigate youth to lead violent mobs; stone pelting on security forces by radicalised and incited youth; armed militants mixing with stone-pelting mobs and addressing rallies; militants using cover of “agitating mobs” firing at security forces and lobbing grenades, provoking security forces to retaliate and attacks/threats on government officers, political representatives and policemen, no identifiable leadership of protests and the challenge of radicalization.

Some of these claims will remain debatable in the absence of hard evidence. Security forces regularly collect footage of public gatherings in Kashmir but so far we have very little video evidence of the thousands of confrontations between the forces and protesters in recent weeks to establish how the balance of force works out in the streets of the Valley, especially since one side has the guns and the other has stones.

It is also not clear if the government has spelled out to the Opposition the context within which such blowback has taken place. Kashmir has been seething over the 120 youth killed in 2010, the relief package for the 2014 was unconscionably late and inadequate. The BJP added to its insecurities by suggesting a rollback of Article 370, which gives special status to the militancy-hit state, and hinting at allotting land for retired soldiers. It will have likely obscured the fact that Hizbul Mujahideen commnder Burhan Wani, whose death in a July encounter triggered the ongoing protests, emerged as a symbol of resistance, as someone who could take on the State while ordinary Kashmiris led routinized, subjugated lives – and that all this would not have come to pass if Kashmiris were allowed to mourn him and had not 21 people been shot dead within three days of Wani’s killing on July 8.

The Modi government has evidently scrubbed out nuances in its reading of the situation and is wholly blaming Pakistan for the crisis. Whether or not it is by design, such an approach suits BJP’s political and ideological purposes perfectly. The BJP politically cannot do any of the things that Kashmir needs right now: it cannot express remorse for the killings and order an inquiry into excessive force as that will alienate security forces; it also cannot announce a roadmap for a political solution and restore autonomy as that would offend its base, which is committed to abrogating Article 370. On the contrary, maintaining a steady diet of anti-Pakistan rhetoric helps with its polarising strategy for the UP elections; a focus on stone-pelting youth and representing them as Islamabad-sponsored terrorists inevitably keeps one kind of “anti-national” always in the public eye and shores up middle-class support. Kashmir helpfully becomes JNU Act II.

What now for the way forward? Home minister Singh has spoken of devising an action plan for Kashmir. Well, the 2011 report of Kashmir interlocutors is yet to be tabled in Parliament. Based on recent events, we shouldn’t be surprised if these four elements play out: PM Modi will make India’s case aggressively abroad to deflect attention from human rights violations and ratchet up anti-Pakistan rhetoric as the UN General Assembly season approaches (prompting reactions from Islamabad). The PM’s G20 summit speech that “one single nation” is spreading agents of terror in the region is of a piece in this strategy. Singh will continue political consultations in Delhi and generate whiffs of process that will be talked up in the media. Militant groups such as Hizbul Mujahideen will threaten India, vindicating BJP spokespersons and their allies in the talk circuit while security forces continue to inflict civilian losses as they try to recover control of the street in Kashmir.

We are now in a situation where what is good for the BJP politically does not align with what India and Kashmir need. India does not need to be weighed down by internal crisis, get its reputation tarnished internationally, and expend political and diplomatic energies towards a neighbour one-fifth its size while compelling domestic and geo-strategic challenges loom. Kashmir needs comfort, healing, justice and closure. PM Modi and BJP are in a position to help both. For that they need to eschew the political incentives built into the current situation which they have helped conjure. But for that they first they need to be willing to get their analysis right.

Else, a long cynical winter beckons.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/analy...-the-valley/story-zkJdNLGMYEMafvuIkvj86O.html

You are Not Posted what News Paper Posted in the Ending Remark

The views expressed are personal. The author tweets as @SushilAaron

 

[Kathin_Singh]

Pakistanis think differently from the establishment narrative much more than Indians do. Look at our mainstream media and newspapers vs yours.

Look at the number of Indians on this website, and on websites such as Dawn News; and compare it to their treatment of Pakistanis on their websites. That tells you everything about Indians.

Hum Ko maloom hai Jannat ki haqeekat lekin
Dil Ko Khush rakhane Ko ghalib ye khyal achcha hai

 

[Flash_Ninja]

Wish there is even SINGLE ONE Pakistani that could think differently from the Establishment narrative!

Pakistanis don't have a consensus on most things, this forum is a testament to that

 

[sbh02]

Beware the New Groupthink on Kashmir:

Three weeks after he was first elected president of the United States, Barack Obama met a group of reporters and shared his thoughts on the pitfalls of decision-making. In the course of that interaction, he made this point: “One of the dangers in the White House, based on my reading of history, is that you get wrapped up in groupthink and everybody agrees with everything, and there is no discussion and there are no dissenting views.”

There is no American monopoly on groupthink. It is a universal weakness. Historians can tell us of numerous instances of grave mistakes and gross misjudgments that resulted from it. And now, we in India seem to be on the verge of a new groupthink of our own on Kashmir.

In this new thinking it is understood and unquestioningly accepted by all that the woolly-headedness of the past decades must be rolled back, and that it must be replaced by a new muscular approach to men and matters in Kashmir. This new mood is perhaps part of a larger rethink.

The other day we got a glimpse of the new theology from a senior military functionary, Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha, chief of the Indian Air Force.

The good air chief was reported to have rued how India had allowed Azad Kashmir to become “a thorn in our flesh” because the post-Independence leadership allowed itself to be governed by high ideals, rather than following “a very pragmatic approach” to security needs. In the new official wisdom, which the air chief unwittingly voiced, there are no strategic or other advantages in taking “a high moral ground.”

In this emerging groupthink, the ‘separatist’ has been coddled for too long; he must now be made to feel the rough end of the Indian truncheon. A kind of easy acceptance is being sought for this tough stance, invoking strands of nationalism, patriotism and a kind of anti-Pakistanism. Tactical cleverness is being mistaken for strategic clarity and wisdom.

It is being authoritatively whispered in our ears that the separatist leaders, especially those who are associated with the Hurriyat, will no longer be allowed to enjoy the protection of the Indian security forces. Enough is enough. This kind of no-nonsense assertiveness goes down very well with the middle classes back in the ‘mainland’.

Assuming — and this is a very crucial assumption — that we were ‘protecting’ Syed Ali Shah Geelani, we were presumably keeping him away from coming to harm at the hands of Pakistani agents and contract-killers. Somewhere, sometime there must have been a judgment — and, a mature and considered judgment at that — that it was probably worth providing protection to the Hurriyat leaders; otherwise, they would be easily eliminated and replaced by more radical, more intractable rabble-rousers. Perhaps we have concluded that we have lost control over the Hurriyat leaders, and that we are prepared to have a known devil displaced by an unknown devil.

The only flaw in this seductive groupthink is that the Hurriyat leaders by themselves do not add up to anything; what makes them toxic is their capacity to summon mobs on the streets and to have people of the Valley respond to their calls for hartals.

But a self-assured democracy should be able to ask whether by locking them up or by denying them permission to visit Delhi or Saudi Arabia, we are able to wean the crowds away from the difficult Hurriyat-wallahs. And, while we are at it, we might as well ask ourselves why it is that suddenly the Hurriyat leaders seem to have acquired a greater traction than, say, two years ago. It is inexplicable that we deny the authenticity of the democratic energy we have witnessed on the streets in the Valley; it is inexcusable that we attribute authorship of the anger to Pakistan.

Pakistani meddlesomeness is older than the Shankaracharya Hills but our new rulers in New Delhi seem to be confused. It will be naive to think that just because our prime minister allows himself to go and attend a wedding in Nawaz Sharif’s family, the Pakistani military establishment would surrender its assets and advantages in Kashmir. Just as it was a criminal neglect on the part of our intelligence establishment not to be prepared for an explosion after “Commander” Wani’s death in an encounter. Our police, army, political and intelligence leadership cannot go on making errors of commission and omission and then blame Pakistan for taking advantage of our mistakes.

The separatists were not born separatist. What drove very many Kashmiris over to the other side were our policies, postures and pretensions, and “our” politicians and their arrogance and aberrations. But then from time to time our democracy, too, has produced that magical illusion to induce the alienated and angry Kashmiris to come back to this side. After the Kargil war it was evident to every Kashmiri — as it was to every Pakistani — that Islamabad would never be able militarily to come to help them with the “struggle”.

With the so-called “struggle” project over, all that remained was to enlarge the circle of participation and partnership between the Kashmiris and Indian democracy – with its enormous capacity for accommodation and adjustment. We seem to have forgotten that an Indian prime minister had proclaimed and promised that “short of azadi, sky is the limit.”

The only redeeming feature of the new groupthink on Kashmir is that the chief minister, Mehbooba Mufti, seems to be a very, very reluctant recruit. She is the only leader who appears to have the courage to contest and challenge the separatists and their arguments. Hers is perhaps the most demanding, most exacting as also the most dangerous job in India. She can, and does, question the Hurriyat’s pretensions precisely because she derives her legitimacy from a democratic mandate. Her efficacy critically hinges on her ability to showcase herself as the voice of the Kashmiris, rather than as New Delhi’s chosen nominee in Srinagar. And, if the folks on Raisina Hill and in Nagpur cannot appreciate this delicate but absolutely necessary requirement, then we are in for serious trouble.

Perhaps just to humour the high priests of the new groupthink, the chief minister did allow herself to suggest that if anyone can “solve” the Kashmir problem, it is Narendra Modi. We had heard the same tired mantra during Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s days, as if Kashmir is the personal jagir of this or that prime minister.

The new groupthink notwithstanding, there is an old contradiction at work: an “imperial” Delhi has the constitutional obligation of the Centre to control, and coerce, if necessary, a recalcitrant periphery; but the “democratic” India flashes its moral badge and flaunts its openness and inclusiveness to blunt the separatist and his secessionist message. Kashmir will continue to test the relative effectiveness of the “imperial” Delhi and the “democratic” India.

http://thewire.in/65184/beware-new-groupthink-kashmir/

 

[mpk1988]

To hell with what the coddled idiots, separatists and those kashmiris want. What the BJP is doing is what India wants and should've been the norm for years. Our way or the highway. I want to see what these guys can do if we take a strong stand. There's absolutely nothing.. NADA!!! that anyone can do. That's the bottom line.

 

[sbh02]

Talks about talks in the Kashmir Valley

There is a silver lining in the dark cloud of uncertainty looming over Jammu and Kashmir. An all-party delegation that recently visited the Kashmir Valley has called for talks with all stakeholders which may include the “separatist” All Parties Hurriyet Conference as well. Will the Modi government find such an extraordinary idea agreeable? Anyway, the federal government needs an out-of-the-box approach to resolve the Kashmir tangle.

A high profile visit by the Indian army chief General Dalbir Singh to the Kashmir Valley on Friday, fourth in a row in 7 weeks, highlights the gravity of the security situation in that region. Kashmir Valley has been in turmoil for two months following the killing by the security forces of a charismatic commander of the separatist militant organization, Hizbul Mujahideen in early July.

As many as 73 people have been killed so far in the violence and several thousand injured. Curfew had to be re-imposed in many parts of the capital Srinagar yesterday as “precautionary measure” in anticipation of violent protests after Friday prayers. There are severe restrictions on the movement and assembly of people in the rest of the Kashmir Valley as well.

Gen. Singh’s tour is being seen as signaling that “Indian Army will no longer remain on the sidelines”, as a security analyst Ajay Shukla wrote. In reality, though, the government directed the army to create conditions on the ground that would hopefully enable the return of paramilitary forces and police who have fled their posts and were forced to concede large tracts of territory to protestors.

This is a replay of 2010 when too the writ of the Indian state had ceased to exist following large-scale street protests across the Valley. Traditionally, Delhi’s modus operandi is to call in the Army when nothing else works, and forcefully establish “dominance” over disaffected people. The Army generally succeeds.

However, a major difference is that Pakistan-backed insurgency has been on the wane and cross-border infiltration is also relatively on a much smaller scale. This is despite direct incitement of anger in the Valley from Islamabad. In short, this time around, Army’s task is rather curious – namely, re-energize the police and paramilitary forces and restore their self-confidence, morale and operational viability.

It is an unpleasant task for any standing army – control unarmed crowds pelting stones and finesse an inchoate civil disobedience movement while also revive the demoralized police machinery and protect it from the wrath of the people. But being a disciplined force, Indian Army will carry out the orders of the civilian leadership in Delhi. Experts anticipate a “three-pronged strategy” by the Army:

• Making its presence (“footprint”) more visible by spreading out the deployments with a view to “reasserting dominance over the countryside”;
• Instilling confidence in the police and paramilitary by providing them security protection; and,
• Bringing into the Valley more paramilitary forces as reinforcement to handle the heavy “workload”.

Clearly, authorities are hard-pressed to re-impose the writ of the state, which has ceased to exist across the Valley. The earlier hopes of sitting out the protests have been dashed. The authorities fear “a dangerous momentum towards anarchy,” as Shukla put it.

Some wriggle room

This is a gambit insofar as it is essentially yet another attempt at cauterization of a bleeding wound. Indeed, the top army commander in Kashmir Lt. Gen. D. S. Hooda has gone on record that what is needed is political management rather than treating the situation as a security problem.

However, there could be a silver lining on the horizon.

On the face of it, an all-party delegation from Delhi comprising mainstream political parties, including the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, which visited the Valley on September 4, failed to achieve anything tangible, but the initiative may turn out to be hugely consequential insofar as the delegation, which was led by India’s interior minister Rajnath Singh, has brought to the table an idea that was considered blasphemy up until this week – the imperative need to talk to “all stakeholders” (read the seemingly “separatist” All Parties Hurriyet Conference as well.)

The suggestion has come from India’s mainstream opposition parties, but the fact remains that Prime Minister Narendra Modi now gets some wriggle room, if he wishes to create such space, for re-calibrating the BJP’s stance that there could be no talks with “separatists”.

The good part is that the government cannot ignore an all-party consensus. Therefore, the statement issued by the all-party delegation after its return to Delhi on September 7 calling for talks with all stakeholders becomes something of a benchmark to measure the events in the coming weeks.

Suffice it to say, there is reason to hope that talks may begin with the so-called “separatists” in the Valley. There can be no two opinions that there will be overwhelming support in the Valley for such talks.

Of course, there have been so many false starts over the past six decades and the sense of betrayal in the Valley borders on despair. There have been “interlocutors” who were unaccountable; there have been “back channels” which led nowhere; and there have been the ubiquitous Track II. What is needed is an out-of-the-box approach.

Is the Modi government capable of new thinking? Indeed, faced with a comparable piquant situation exactly ten years ago, to encourage the political forces in Nepal to transition to democracy, the then prime minister Manmohan Singh had approached the leader of Communist Party of India (Marxist) Sitaram Yechury to use his influence and persuasive skill to bring the Maoists into the mainstream democratic process. That approach went a long way to eventually consolidate the democratic transformation in Nepal.

Interestingly, Yechury who was a member of the delegation from Delhi which visited the Kashmir Valley on Wednesday, has proposed that a committee of parliamentarians who are answerable to the Indian parliament and the Modi government could be constituted, comprising the ruling and opposition parties, who could be entrusted with the mission to engage all Kashmiri stakeholders in a concerted effort to find a lasting political solution.

Painted into a corner

Will the Modi government find such an extraordinary idea agreeable?

Yet another big question will be as regards Pakistan’s attitude. To be sure, Islamabad is making robust attempts to insert itself into the upheaval in the Kashmir Valley (although the mass protests are largely indigenous and spontaneous.)

This is where India needs to lower the rhetoric and re-engage Pakistan as well. The government’s harsh rhetoric against Pakistan has gone down well in the BJP’s core constituency of Hindu nationalists. But beyond that, it is unproductive – and even counter-productive.

Within the week of Modi demanding from the forums of the G20 summit in Hangzhou and the ASEAN summits in Vientiane the isolation of Pakistan by the international community and the sanctioning of that country for fostering terrorism, Washington has pointedly advised India and Pakistan to hold dialogue to lower tensions. The US state department spokesman Mark Toner said on Thursday,

• We strongly encourage in all of our dealings with either India and/or Pakistan stronger relations between the two countries. It’s clearly in the security interests of the region that they work to de-escalate tensions and that they have dialogue. And that’s something we constantly encourage for just that – or out of just that concern, which is that we don’t want to see tensions escalate, spiral out of control, and lead to some kind of incident. Again, it’s important for the two countries, the two governments to maintain strong, cordial, and productive relations.

Washington senses that Modi government has painted itself into a corner. No amount of anti-Pakistan rhetoric is helping an improvement in the ground situation in the Valley. A military crackdown will damage India’s reputation; it does not solve the problem, either. Political dialogue becomes unavoidable. Pakistan’s cooperation can help.

http://atimes.com/2016/09/talks-about-talks-in-kashmir-valley/