Af­ter months of de­ten­tion, four­teen main­stream Kash­miri lead­ers thirst­ing for a whiff of fresh air and some po­lit­i­cal wran­gling, went on a pic­nic to Delhi, with­out an agenda in hand, with­out any pro-Kash­mir rights pre­con­di­tions and ex­pect­edly re­turned empty-handed with plat­i­tudes, promises and pop­ulist slo­gans. Re­port­edly, the three-and-a-half-hour meet­ing was held “in a cor­dial at­mos­phere” and the Prime Min­is­ter of In­dia, as quoted by the Kash­miri lead­ers “lent a pa­tient ear” to their con­cerns and prob­lems.

THE BODY LAN­GUAGE OF THE KASH­MIRI LEAD­ERS AD­E­QUATELY DIS­PLAYED their des­per­ate­ness amidst the or­ches­trated out­reach of the In­dian gov­ern­ment. Ex­cept for the In­dian Prime Min­is­ter and Home Min­is­ter, no one has a smile on their faces. No leader worth the salt had the gump­tion to say that we will join talks only or even that de­lim­i­ta­tion will have mean­ing only when the Kash­miri youth are re­leased un­con­di­tion­ally from the pris­ons of Kash­mir, Delhi and Ut­tar Pradesh.

Prime Min­is­ter Naren­dra Modi asked the Kash­miri lead­ers to co­op­er­ate for de­lim­i­ta­tion to hold elec­tions soon.  The fact that hereto­fore only a farce of elec­tions has been con­ducted in Jammu and Kash­mir over the decades was not pointed out by the Kash­miri lead­ers who have been at the fore­front of the po­lit­i­cal spec­trum.

The de­mand by the Kash­miri lead­ers of all par­ties re­gard­ing the restora­tion of Ar­ti­cle 370 was met with In­di­a’s po­lit­i­cally cor­rect re­sponse -“In due course when cir­cum­stances are ripe.”

The Pres­i­dent of Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal (Am­rit­sar) -Sim­ran­jit Singh Mann, be­fore the visit of the Kash­miri lead­ers, had warned them, “Why do you want to go to Delhi with­out an agenda, with thou­sands lan­guish­ing in pris­ons, many killed by the In­dian Armed Forces, J & K bi­fur­cated with the ab­ro­ga­tion of Ar­ti­cle 370 and 35A and Kash­mir ruled un­der the bar­baric AF­SPA?”

“Why do you want to go to Delhi with­out an agenda?”

Sim­ran­jit Singh Mann, Pres­i­dent, Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal (Am­rit­sar)

While the mat­ter of Ar­ti­cle 370 is sub-ju­dice, none asked how long will it re­main so. 

With only a pass­ing ref­er­ence, the an­guish of the fam­i­lies of those killed and those be­hind pris­ons was not rep­re­sented.  In In­dia and the world, all those who get sick of lock­downs may gauge the anx­i­ety of the peo­ple of Kash­mir whose en­tire state is un­der lock­down for years un­der the jack­boots of the In­dian se­cu­rity forces. 

To add in­sult to in­jury, an in­sen­si­tive ad­min­is­tra­tion in Jammu push­ing de­lim­i­ta­tion for ger­ry­man­der­ing and di­lut­ing the num­bers of Kash­miris with labour from the rest of In­dia is mak­ing mat­ters worse.

With the Tal­iban and the in­ter­na­tional com­mu­nity forc­ing a re­think by In­dia of its Kash­mir pol­icy, which led to these talks, yet In­di­a’s in­sin­cer­ity of the whole ex­er­cise was ap­par­ent. 

With an ear on the ground, young Kash­miri Sikh ac­tivist An­gad Singh called yes­ter­day’s meet­ing in Delhi as one-sided, shame­ful and a be­trayal of the peo­ple of Kash­mir. There was no mean­ing­ful di­a­logue and no dis­cus­sion on sub­stan­tive is­sues. The pop­u­la­tion of Kash­mir is not happy at all.

“Yes­ter­day’s meet­ing in Delhi as one-sided, shame­ful and a be­trayal of the peo­ple of Kash­mir.”

An­gad Singh, Kash­miri Sikh ac­tivist

Triv­i­al­is­ing the strug­gle of Kash­miris for the past cen­tury, In­dian PM Naren­dra Modi re­duced it to a pop­ulist quip, so eas­ily lapped by the In­dian me­dia -“Dilli ki Doori and Dil ki Doori khatam karna chahte hain.” -I want to end the phys­i­cal dis­tance be­tween Delhi and Kash­mir and the mis­trust of Kash­miris with the In­dian lead­er­ship.  

The peo­ple of Kash­mir, in­clud­ing the mi­nor­ity Sikhs, if some­one can hear them, are say­ing loud and clear, “Delhi ke liye, Kash­mir dur ast aur Kash­mir ke liye, Delhi dur ast.” -For Delhi, Kash­mir is far away and for Kash­mir, Delhi is too far away.