What The Modi Government Must Do To Win Hearts And Bridge The Trust Deficit?

As the centre restarts the stalled political process in j&k, it needs to win the hearts and trust of its people

- Raj Chengappa

IN early July, a clutch of officials from the Jammu and Kashmir administration assembled at Hari Parbat, overlooking Srinagar. Their mission? To study the feasibility of putting a 100-foot-tall flagpole on the hill so that, on a clear day, a giant Indian flag could be visible from Gulmarg, 50 kilometres away. It was to symbolise that, almost two years after the Modi government took away J&K’s special status by abrogating Article 370 and demoted it to a Union territory, the Indian State had established an unchallenged dominance over the Valley. That Kashmir was no more a disputed territory but an integral part of the Indian federation.

The move came a fortnight after Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for an all-party meeting of J&K leaders to discuss the prevailing situation in the UT. Among those who were invited and attended the June 24 meeting were the leaders who had been vilified by the central government for bringing ruin to the erstwhile state. For both Modi and these leaders, it was a walk back from their stated positions and an acknowledgement that they were all part of the solution and not the problem itself. But holding the meeting in Delhi and not Srinagar was a clear message that all talk of autonomy or independence was a closed chapter. It was the Centre that was calling the shots and deciding the sequence of how the new normal will be achieved. As an expert put it, “After the conquest, the prime minister was signalling that the next phases will be consolidation and accommodation.”