Polls are great outreach opportunity

The repeated bouts of snowfall notwithstanding, the winter is receding, spring is already here and summer is not far. Since the unrest of 2008 –which saw nearly four months of curfews and some 60 deaths in clashes, including those in Jammu –one really shudders at the thought of another summer which has now become synonym with unrest in Kashmir.



Some of the problems leading to summer rages in Kashmir are phenomenal but a lot many stem out of complacency of the state. Once a problem occurs the best remedy in use has been the ‘wait’ to have it let get over by time. Neither is there any comprehensive strategy to handle the unrest when it is in the swing and nor is there any visible post turmoil policy to avoid recurrence the next year.



In the period between two rounds of unrest the government moves down to Jammu for its biennial Darbar Move. In this vacuum, let us accept a bitter truth, the separatists put themselves against odds of winter chill and reach out to the alienated lot for further strengthening the constituency of dissent. The government admits that only 76 persons were killed last summer. It could be roughly assumed that the separatists must already have visited the 76 families to strike an emotional chord.



The government has announced a compensation package for the families of the dead. On a couple of occasions in the past some families refused to accept the compensation. Keep the compensation issue aside. The best way would have been to deploy the Ministers, legislators and other credible political leaders to go and meet the families, hear their point of view and explain to them what government thinks of young people pelting stones.



Chief Minister recently engaged with young people of her party and that was a welcome sign –over 2000 turned up. Let the people in mainstream politics not emerge as unwanted rivals of those who were on the side of unrest last year. Such a binary would only strengthen the separatist constituency. So outreach is the best way to avoid another summer of turmoil.



There is a golden opportunity before the government and all political parties to launch the ‘project outreach’. This opportunity is in the shape of Lok Sabha polls to two constituencies and the long overdue Panchayat elections through which the mainstream politicians could reach out to the people in big way and consequently reduce the impact of separatists.