Manmohan to visit J&K on Tuesday
Manmohan to visit J&K on Tuesday
The United Progressive Alliance’s top brass of Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi was together in Kashmir never after October 28, 2009, when the Baramulla-Anantnag train service was extended from Wanpoh to Qazigund. Their visit was preceded by months of turmoil over the alleged rape and murder of two young women in Shopian that finally deflated with the findings of an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
As Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had been wriggled out of the muddle -- on one occasion it led to his resignation -- he had regained confidence. “Kashmir”, he told Dr Singh and Mrs. Gandhi in his address, “is not simply an economic problem. It is essentially a political problem that needs a political solution”.
That’s exactly what the valley’s separatist leadership had been pleading since the eruption of armed insurgency in 1990. Pressed for an interpretation, Mr Abdullah would call “autonomy” as the solution. Revocation of the Jammu and Kashmir Armed Forces Special Powers Act has been the National Conference’s second highest pursued agenda. Till date, it has achieved neither.
This time around, nobody in Srinagar is expecting Dr Singh or Mrs. Gandhi to announce ‘greater autonomy’ or revocation of AFSPA as the UPA regime has indicated from its day one that such issues were least within its competence and confidence.
No ‘quiet diplomacy’
There are indications that none of the separatist leaders has shown inclination towards joining a secret meeting with the Congress top brass. All the Track-2 champions, who had thronged Srinagar last fortnight, have packed off. Men from an intractable Syed Ali Shah Geelani to the self-styled moderates, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik, are understood to have conveyed to New Delhi that there was “no scope of a meeting until the previous “commitments” were fulfilled.
“Returning Afzal Guru’s mortal remains”, according to some sources, has been added to the separatists’ clichéd conditions of releasing “all political detainees” and booking the Police officers for over a hundred civilian deaths of the 2010 street agitation.
What then makes the June 25 visit significant?
Dr Singh and Mrs. Gandhi are visiting Srinagar for the first time after the street turmoil in 2010 and Guru’s execution in February 2013.
Prime Minister Singh was in Srinagar on a two-day visit on June 7, 2010, to attend the convocation of Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agriculture Sciences and Technology, Kashmir. In two days of his return, the valley stirred with the death of a 13-year-old boy Tufail Matoo allegedly in the tear gas shelling by Police. Over a hundred protestors died in the next three months of violent demonstrations. Then the Union Home Minister P Chidambaram’s phrase of “quiet diplomacy” was never heard thereafter.
On March 4, 2011, Prime Minister Singh landed in Jammu and returned to New Delhi after attending the convocation of SKUAST (J).
A pause of turbulence
Otherwise a frequent visitor, Mrs. Gandhi too was never seen in the valley in the last over three years. On February 14, 2009, she was accompanied by the then Minister of Railway Lalu Prasad Yadav, Minister of Civil Aviation Praful Patel besides Ghulam Nabi Azad and Omar Abdullah, when she inaugurated the new terminal building of Srinagar Airport and flagged off the now-defunct Srinagar-Dubai air service. She also inaugurated extension of the train service from Mazhama to Baramulla.
On October 11, 2008, Mrs. Gandhi and Prime Minister Singh traveled together to launch Kashmir’s first train at Nowgam Railway Station near Srinagar. They were again together on October 28, 2009, when the train service was extended from Wanpoh (Anantnag) to Qazigund. Later, on May 29, 2010, Mrs. Gandhi inaugurated a tribal cultural centre in Jammu and returned to home. The valley subsequently witnessed two political turbulences.
On June 25, Dr Singh and Mrs. Gandhi would be together in Kashmir to attend a meeting with the Chief Minister and his council of ministers, other meetings with leaders of different mainstream political parties besides their scheduled meetings with Police and armed forces. A commemorative stamp in the name of legendary poet Mehjoor is also being released. Extension of the train service from Qazigund to Banihal, through the 11 Km long Pir Panjal tunnel would happen on June 26.
Yet again, the Hurriyat-sponsored shutdown would be perfect. And, yet again, the Prime Minister’s visit would be a success.
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