Azaan Javaid - Pulwama Attack: Rajnath Singh Back In Spotlight As Modi Doctrine Fails
Ajai Sahni, Director of the Delhi-based Institute for Conflict Management, contrasted the situation in Kashmir - where Modi and Doval have taken an active interest - with the Maoist conflict in Chhattisgarh, which has been largely left to Singh’s Home Ministry. “Talking purely from the internal security point of view, wherever there hasn’t been an interference, situation has improved,” Sahni said. “For instance, Naxal-affected regions have shown improvement in the last few years but at the same time look at what is happening in Kashmir.”
The day after
the worst militant attack in Kashmir in over two decades,
Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off a new high-speed train, and
then travelled to Jhansi for a public address where he vowed to avenge the
deaths of at least 40 Central Reserve Police Force troopers, who were killed
when a suicide bomber attacked a convoy in Pulwama. “The country’s blood is boiling,” Modi said, in a speech
that sounded more like campaign rally than a sombre address to the nation. “The
security forces have been given free rein.”
A few hours before the
Jhansi speech, Finance Minister Arun
Jaitley addressed the press after a high-level meeting of the Cabinet
Committee on Security, where he announced that the government was
revoking Pakistan’s “Most Favoured Nation” trading status. Meanwhile Home
Minister Rajnath Singh, the minister charged with ensuring India’s
internal security, quietly caught a flight to Srinagar to ostensibly take stock
of Kashmir’s rapidly escalating spiral violence — a task he is nominally tasked
with overseeing, but in practice has come to epitomise just how peripheral he
has become in the five years that he has served in the Modi government.
Earlier this
week, HuffPost India spoke with a cross-section of politicians,
senior officials in the government, and security analysts to understand if
Prime Minister Modi’s autocratic approach to government posed a threat to India’s
security. Our sources were interviewed prior to the deadly Pulwama attack, but
their comments proved eerily prescient. “The truth is that he
has been upstaged by the Prime Minister, the Prime Minister’s Office and even
the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley,” said Yashwant Sinha, a former Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP) member-turned-critic, who has served as the Minister of
Finance and Minister of External Affairs in the Vajpayee government.
“Very recently it was
Mr Jaitley who addressed the parliament on the issue of President’s rule
in Jammu and Kashmir. He is the finance minister, is that his
job?” asked Sinha. “Shouldn’t the Home Minister, who directly overlooks
Kashmir, be making a statement on crucial issues like these?”
… Ajai Sahni, Director
of the Delhi-based Institute for Conflict Management, contrasted the situation
in Kashmir - where Modi and Doval have taken an active interest - with the
Maoist conflict in Chhattisgarh, which has been largely left to Singh’s Home
Ministry. “Talking purely from
the internal security point of view, wherever there hasn’t been an
interference, situation has improved,” Sahni said. “For instance,
Naxal-affected regions have shown improvement in the last few years but at the
same time look at what is happening in Kashmir.”
Sahni indicated that
the Indian government’s policy on Kashmir appeared unduly influenced by the
BJP’s political impulses. A prime example is “Operation All Out”, a much-hyped
military operation that was intended to eliminate suspected militants but
resulted in alienating the state’s population instead. The operation was
launched in 2017 to much fanfare; the following year the valley’s youth joined
the militancy in record numbers — 200 new recruits, compared to 126 in 2017,
and only 6 in 2013. “Our policies towards
Kashmir shouldn’t be undermined by aspirations of government formation
and that is exactly what is happening,” Sahni said. “What specialization does
Mr Ram Madhav or current state governor Mr Satya Pal Malik possess to be placed
in positions that determine our Kashmir policy?”.. read more:
KASHMIRI
PANDIT SANGARASH SAMITI - Urgent Letter to President of India and Other High
Officials (January 14, 2019)
War Resisters International - Tactics for Combating Militarism (2013) // Stopping the War Business: SEOUL, 16-17 October 2015
