A group consisting of concerned Indian citizens (prominent former government officials and civil society leaders) visited Srinagar from June 19 to 23, 2018.

The visiting group consisted of the following:
1. Yashwant Sinha (Former Indian External Affairs Minister )
2. Wajahat Habibullah (Former Indian Chief Information Commissioner and former Chairman of India's National Minorities Commission)
3. Air Vice Marshal (Retd) Kapil Kak
4. Bharat Bhushan (Editor, Catchnews) and
5. Sushobha Barve (Executive Program Director of Centre for Dialogue and Reconciliation – CDR)

The Kashmiris think that the harder the slap on their face, the better the electoral fallout in the rest of India. Most are reconciled, however, to the fact that they have been reduced to a pawn in the larger politics of the BJP.

Although there has been widespread condemnation of the daylight murder of Shujaat Bukhari, the unforeseen event has sent shivers down the spine of Kashmiri intellectuals and social activists. It is widely believed that the forces behind the murder did not want a resolution ofthe Kashmir issue through dialogue which left out certain stakeholders or whichdid not take their interests into account. It was a signal to civil society groups and social activists that their efforts towards reconciliation and peace would not be tolerated beyond a point; that they should not aspire to become a determining influence on the resolution of the Kashmir issue.

However, the overall political and security situation in the Kashmir Valley did not show any indication of improving. While the general public was shedding no tears after the collapse of the BJP-PDP alliance, it was also not enthused by the imposition of Governor’s Rule. There was a sense of dejection and expectation of worse to come as the discourse on Kashmir seemed to be becoming more aggressive by the day. No one expected the Modi government to take a peace initiative. People were already looking beyond the next general election due in April-May 2019 and hoping for a change in Delhi’s policies after that. Until then the people believed that harsh security measures or “danda-raj” as they called it,was likely to continue as the dominant doctrine, irrespective of who implemented it. The change of guard in Srinagar would make no difference.The political spacein the Valley has shrunk and along with it the prospect of a dialogue for peace hasalso become distant.
‍

The most disturbing aspect of the present situation was that the Kashmiri youth was under nobody’s control. Such was the sense of dis-empowerment and helplessness among the youngsters that not even parental control seemed to workon those intent on joining the ranks of militants. There was glamorisation of violence among them. The youth read about the lynching of members of theminority community in the rest of India and this probably further fueled theirantipathy towards the Indian state.
‍

The overall message that seemed to have gone around was that Delhi either did not recognise the Kashmir issue as political or that even if it did, it did not want to do anything about it. This perception might become very diffi cult for Indian democracy to deal with, even if there were a change of guard in Delhi in May 2019.

A copy of this report was made available courtesy KashmirLife.