EVER since Burhan Wani, the young commander of the Hizbul Mujahideen, was killed on July 8, the situation in Indian Kashmir has deteriorated. The visit to Srinagar and Jammu of an all-party parliamentary delegation, on Sept 4 and 5, has worsened the situation.

The Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who led the delegation, extended no invitation to anybody. He simply tweeted an announcement on Aug 24, “I will be staying at the Nehru Guest House. Those who believe in Kashmiriyat, Insaniyat, and Jamhooriyat are welcome”. The initiative was thus thrust on them, provided they endorsed his slogans.

An official elaborated: “There will be no separate initiation to the separatists but if they want to come and talk to the home minister they are welcome.” He added a precondition no separatist would accept: “The talks will take place within the constitutional framework.”

Neither India nor Srinagar has any relief to offer.

They had to don sack cloth and ashes, renounce their stand, and beg for their release from detention as well.

Just a day before the meeting, Mehbooba Mufti invited six separatist bodies but “in my capacity as the president” of the PDP; not as chief minister. Her BJP colleagues had vetoed that.

The separatists had a point. Only a few days ago, parliament had passed a resolution endorsing the hard line and shutting the door to any compromise. Two leaders, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Shabbir Shah briefly met the MPs and told them that they could not engage in any talks pursuant to a decision of the joint resistance leadership comprising Syed Ali Shah Geelani, the mirwaiz and Yasin Malik. Geelani refused to open the door at all.

Foiled in his ruse, Rajnath Singh breathed fire and brimstone on his return to New Delhi on Sept 6. It was instantly announced in the media that the three top leaders will be visited with appropriate punishment — curb on travels, scrutiny of their bank accounts, removal of security cover, etc.

The truth emerged when “a highly placed government source” made three revelations. First, the government regarded the Hurriyat leaders’ refusal as “a major strategic gain by the centre” as it tries to restore normalcy in Kashmir. It can now claim ‘we did our best. They did not help us’.

Secondly, those leaders can no longer be considered ‘stakeholders’, as if their importance depended on official recognition rather than their acknowledged standing in popular esteem.

The last is the most sinister of all. The refusal was actually sought by New Delhi. “The government didn’t see it feasible to talk to them at this juncture.” Rajnath Singh’s tweet as well as Mehbooba’s letters, issued in tandem, were dishonest ploys.

On Aug 8, Mehbooba Mufti met Rajnath Singh as well as Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval. It was then decided to show the ‘mailed fist’. She was given lists of persons to be arrested and imprisoned. She agreed to do so.

Sankarshan Thakur of The Telegraph reported: “Mehbooba’s thumbs-up endorsement of Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s steel-fist prescription and her scurry to the capital to demonstrate common cause with Prime Minister Narendra Modi have earned her the Valley’s favoured and dubious title far more swiftly than many of her predecessors: Delhi’s stooge. That she petitioned the prime minister for dialogue with Pakistan is viewed widely in Kashmir as a rhetorical admission that she herself is at a loss in the realm she rules.

Rajnath Singh briefed Modi on Sept 6. He “endorsed our view that the time has come to take a tough stand”. On the same day, Mehbooba told an audience: “The way a mother slaps her child when he tries to touch a hot kangri [firepot] I will do the same to save my people.” It has been noticed that the tone of her rhetoric changed radically once New Delhi secured her compliance.

Neither the centre nor Srinagar has any relief to offer to the people to alleviate their lot. The editor of The Milli Gazette Dr Zafarul Islam Khan was invited to a meeting of some “eminent Indian Muslims” on Aug 21 by the home minister and felt insulted at what he saw and heard. “It was clear during our interaction with the [home minister] that he is not ready for any confidence-building measures as of now: no readiness to bring the injured youth right away from the Valley, no readiness to immediately stop pellet guns, no readiness to announce compensations right away. No talk of lifting AFSPA Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act from unaffected areas like north Kashmir and moving the army away from inhibited areas. Instead, more troops are being airlifted to the Valley. No readiness to talk to Hurriyat or Pakistan for a final solution of this festering wound.”

The Government of India has nothing to offer to the people of Kashmir except slogans and repression.

The writer is an author and a lawyer based in Mumbai.

Published in Dawn, September 10th, 2016