In a month, the PM has gone from recalling Vajpayee’s ‘Kashmiriyat’ ideals to sanctioning the BJP pull out of the coalition government.
Two days before he travelled to Sochi on 21 May, to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spent a full day in Ladakh, Srinagar and Jammu, inaugurating a variety of developmental projects.
In Srinagar, he felt the powerful tug of history. Certainly, no BJP leader can go to the Kashmir Valley and not remember the “kashmiriyat, insaaniyat, jamhooriyat” phrase that Atal Bihari Vajpayee engraved into the annals of memory in 2003.
Modi willingly gave into the spell.
कश्मीरियत के अटल जी भी कायल रहे हैं और इसी कश्मीरियत का मैं भी मुरीद हूं।
न गाली से समस्या सुलझने वाली है, न गोली से, समस्या सुलझेगी, हर कश्मीरी को गले लगाने से। pic.twitter.com/5WwB32G6gJ
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 19, 2018
“Atalji was affected by the spirit of Kashmiriyat and I am its devotee too. The Kashmir problem can never be resolved through abuse or the bullet. The only way out is through embracing the Kashmiri people,” Modi said.
When the ceasefire was announced on 16 May, it is said that the PM personally pushed for it. National security Advisor Ajit Doval was not keen, believing that militants would take advantage; nor was BJP president Amit Shah.
But Mehbooba Mufti, chief minister of J&K at the time, had for some time wanted the Centre to demonstrate that it was willing to apply the balm. Home minister Rajnath Singh was on Mehbooba’s side, as was the Centre’s recently installed interlocutor on Kashmir, former IB chief Dineshwar Sharma.
Now it seemed as if the PM wanted to put his weight behind the idea. So a call went from Doval’s office to the home minister’s office, advising him to announce the ceasefire. The @HMOIndia Twitter handle tweeted it.
A day after the announcement, the PM spoke fulsomely about the “pious thoughts of Paighambar Mohammed Sahab” during his Mann Ki Baat radio address.
Simultaneously, some small initiatives with Pakistan had been launched. The head of the Coast Guards had met, some prisoners were exchanged and retired diplomats were sent off to Islamabad to participate in Track II seminars that had long been dead and only recently brought out of the woodwork.
If the Ramzan ceasefire went well, and if it was extended to the Amarnath Yatra, and if the security situation in the Valley calmed down, it was beginning to be said, Delhi could think of pushing confidence-building measures with Islamabad.
The decision to call off the ceasefire earlier this week on 17 June, and walk out of the coalition with the PDP two days later, were taken equally suddenly — by none other than the triumvirate of the PM, Doval and Amit Shah.
BJP general secretary and point person for J&K, Ram Madhav, was asked to call Mehbooba Mufti the morning of the walk-out, but she couldn’t take his call. She got to know her partner had abandoned her when she saw Ram Madhav announce the decision at a press conference.
Rajnath Singh hadn’t been told either before the deed was done. He left for Lucknow the day after, where he participated in Yoga Day celebrations, and then on a four-day trip to Mongolia.
The killing of Shujaat Bukhari is said to have been the trigger for the PM. The fact that four terrorists could walk into the heart of Srinagar with a machine gun, lie in wait for the journalist for 45 minutes, identify him when he came out of his office and then pump a magazine of bullets into his body is believed to have convinced Modi that the security situation in the Valley had gone completely out of control.
The rest of the week has been taken up with the PM leading the fourth Yoga Day celebrations in Dehradun. Even President Ram Nath Kovind, in Paramaribo, Suriname, performed yoga along with his counterpart, President Bouterse.
On the eve of Yoga Day, the PM had tweeted:
Yoga is the journey from ‘me’ to ‘we.’ It promises balance, calm, helps boost concentration and gives immense strength.
As we approach the #4thYogaDay, I urge people around the world to make Yoga a part of their lives. pic.twitter.com/A4zk3ybNye
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 18, 2018
With Kashmir out of the way, any plans for rapprochement with Pakistan will also likely fall by the wayside (In any case, Pakistan seems set for another period of instability, with upcoming elections). The BJP seems set to fully focus on its election strategy for 2019. Prime Minister Modi will lead the way.