Mehbooba's gag on Hurriyat can fuel Kashmir militancy

A fortnight after militant “commander” Burhan Muzaffar Wani's killing, Kashmir continues be under severe curfew, while the government tries to squeeze possibilities of respite. The besieged seven-million odd people continue to starve for essentials, and the equally essential phone and internet connectivity.

While the first signs of a breather came from the separatist leadership who called for relaxation of the hartal on July 21, the government confronted the move by making a special announcement that there would be no relaxation in the chronic curfew.

Having failed to maintain law and order in the wake of Wani's death on July 8, the state government continues to contradict its directives.

If, on July 10, the state Cabinet formally appealed to the separatist leadership to help the government restore normalcy, there was no sense in confronting them with a more stringent curfew.

The crisis in the Valley this time is altogether different from the 2010 uprising, when militancy was yet to see a revival and the Hurriyat was divided.

The situation then revolved mostly around the mood swings of senior separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani, who was accused of almost everything - from leading the mass agitation to finally helping the government restore normalcy.

This time the Hurriyat is a united voice, if not house. Kashmir’s head priest and Hurriyat M chairman, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, and Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chairman Yasin Malik have joined hands with Geelani. Unlike the past, they now issue joint statements.

For Hurriyat, the situation is equally delicate.

If they prolong the hartal, there is apprehension of a backlash from people running short of resources. If they break the strike call, cynics may label them as “traitors”. 

And Geelani alone won’t be at the receiving end in 2016.

The Hurriyat today is stuck between the devil and the deep sea. But the government’s rigid stand of crushing the uprising with an iron hand is pushing Kashmir to hell.

If the government continues to gag Hurriyat, the agitated youth will look at the separatist movement as a failed medium for resolution to Kashmir issue.

For them the revival of militancy, already glorified by Burhan’s funeral attended by more than two lakh mourners, may emerge as the last resort to glamourise their K-cause.

If New Delhi gives space to separatists and discusses initially-achievable targets like the restoration of the pre-1953 status of J&K with “porous borders”, the situation in the Valley can improve phenomenally.

For now, however, chief minister Mehooba Mufti looks unwilling to listen to such pleas.

Now that Union home minister Rajnath Singh is scheduled to visit Kashmir, he should initiate a dialogue with separatist leaders and the neighbouring country.

Let New Delhi not be sacred of conventional retaliatory fire from jingoistic news anchors.

Otherwise, Kashmir will continue to fester.

There have been signs of an unusually alarming rebellion this time: 49 Kashmiris have lost their lives and more than 2,500 have been wounded during street protests.

Pushed to the wall, the otherwise moderate face of the Kashmir cause, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, on July 13, jumped from the compound wall of his home to defy the curfew and house arrest.

Apart from politicians, the government’s intelligentsia, including CM Mehbooba Mufti's advisor Amitabh Mattoo, must consider that even former home minister P Chidambaram recently said that Kashmir craves for “greater autonomy”.

Administrative patchwork or harsh policing cannot be a sustainable solution to political dispute. Let the Mirwaiz not be provoked enough to jump any further. Let dialogue win over violence.