Binoo Joshi
If the Centre needed a reminder from Jammu and Kashmir government regarding its proposal to hold talks with Pakistan , the Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti delivered it in a resounding manner in New Delhi on Saturday. She urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to open talks with Pakistan to re-embark on the journey of reconciliation that his predecessor Vajpayee, and , he , himself had undertaken . It is the time to restart that process .
There are many challenges awaiting Mehbooba Mufti this summer . She has to battle on so many fronts – the cross border shelling has shattered her plans to ensure peace in the region , the attention consumed by such acts delay the developmental projects and what is worse that she has to combat a narrative of negativism and frustration .
Then there is a baggage of history of unfulfilled promises and the division in the communities owing to the circumstances, which she has to bridge but the violent mood leaves things in cold storage and the verbal and actual duels between India and Pakistan make her task tougher . It is not her individual success or failure that matters, what matters is that if she is consumed , the whole idea of the mainstream also gets consumed . Her problem is not only the ever-taunting Opposition also the men and women within her own government , and to be precise, within her own Peoples Democratic Party. She is caught in a cobweb
She- read mainstream – can breathe only if the national narrative is goof and also that narrative is applied to Indo-Pak relations .
Her appeal must be heeded, not to give a give fillip to her political ideology – that is one way of thinking- but to save the state of Jammu and Kashmir from the onslaught of the hostilities of the two countries .
