For the past three years, the Narendra Modi government in India has dogmatically refused to negotiate with any party in Kashmir, be it separatist, nationalist or even relatively pro-Indian groups. At the same time, it has ramped up its already brutal occupation of Kashmir to new levels of cruelty. Then, suddenly, on Monday it appointed former Intelligence Bureau head Dineshwar Sharma as an interlocutor with the responsibility to consult all stakeholders in what Home Minister Rajnath Singh called “a sustained interaction and dialogue to understand the legitimate aspirations” of the Kashmiri people. That this came just a day before US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson visited India may have been a coincidence since the US has not put any pressure on India for its human rights abuses and did not even mention Kashmir during his trip.
The US, along with much of the international community, has given India a wide berth and even accepted its ludicrous framing of the occupation as being part of the fight against terrorism. When External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj referred to elements providing safe havens to terrorists in her joint press conference with Tillerson, she was trying to create a parallel between US accusations of Pakistan’s supposed patronage of the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani Network and India’s belief that the indigenous liberation movement in Kashmir is directed by Pakistan. Still, to give an individual seeming freedom to hold talks without preconditions looked like a significant U-turn from the hardline Modi government. As is always the case with India when it comes to Kashmir, though, there may be less to see here than meets the eye. Senior Hurriyat Conference leader Maulvi Abbas Ansari immediately rejected the proposal since it did not include Pakistan, something the Hurriyat Conference has always maintained is necessary for a lasting solution. Other important Kashmiri leaders such as Syed Ali Geelani, Yasin Malik and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq are yet to weigh in – although they too have also called for Pakistan to be a part of talks before. Less than a genuine attempt to seek peace in Kashmir, this looks like a whitewashing attempt by Modi to disguise its crimes and pretend to be open to compromise.
Even establishment figures like Ghulam Nabi Azad, a Congress Party member who is a former chief minister of Occupied Kashmir, have said they doubt the intentions of the Modi government. That the prime minister refuses even to halt operations by security forces in Kashmir – another two people have been killed this week – shows just how superficial his supposed commitment to peace is. India is yet to apologise for killing more than a thousand people since the murder of Burhan Wani last year. That it is refusing to consider engaging with Pakistan, despite its constant insistence that the Simla Agreement of 1972 restricts all diplomacy on Kashmir to bilateral negotiations, is further proof that this gambit is little more than a distraction. In that it is similar to what a previous BJP-led government under Atal Behari Vajpayee did when it appointed KC Pant as its Kashmir interlocutor. He was given a similarly wide berth but was thwarted by the centre’s refusal to let up on its illegal occupation. For the idea of Modi the peacemaker to be anything other than a cruel joke he will have to do a lot more than just choose an envoy.