The situation in Jammu & Kashmir demands an appropriate political response from the Government of India. This is an opportunity for New Delhi to take certain steps which may or may not resolve the issue completely but will restore trust and give confidence to the people in the State. What J&K require at this juncture is a political ‘package’ and not economic packages. The latter has been employed in the past so many times. The political establishment in New Delhi must realize that pouring in money and promise of development is not the sole answer to the resolution of the Kashmir conflict. The Congress led UPA government has the wonderful opportunity to actually do something on this front. The UPA has a friendly government ruling in J&K. In fact both the Congress and the National Conference (NC) are allies in the Centre as well as the State. Therefore Prime Minister Manmohan Singh must use this time and make a breakthrough during the tenure of the present government. In this regard, the question of autonomy deserves a serious look in by the PM and senior Congress leaders including UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi. New Delhi will be well aware of the different political groups making out their case for resolution of the Kashmir issue. The autonomy demand is one such case being espoused. The National Conference which is now in power in J&K has already reaffirmed its demand on autonomy. Then the main Opposition party in J&K, the PDP wants something different from autonomy. Self rule is its demand. Other demands are more radical including the call for separation and self determination. Then again there are the political parties such as the BJP which is strongly opposed to any autonomy demand and wants the special provision given to J&K under Article 370 scrapped.
Keeping all this political reality in mind, the Congress led UPA government should push for some kind of resolution. While to be fair to the Government of India, it cannot be expected be take a final call on Kashmir in such a short notice, nevertheless it should start taking the political initiative for a ‘step-by-step’ approach to resolving the Kashmir issue. And in this scheme of things autonomy becomes inevitable. And in fact autonomy is the most feasible option at this juncture because in the original scheme of things autonomy has its basis in the Indian constitution. And those who speak of autonomy are not so much demanding it but rather want the restoration of the autonomy provisions in the Indian constitution which had been over the last 40-50 years diluted through amendments. The BJP which is opposed to autonomy should realize that by denying this, it is only going to alienate Kashmiris from the mainstream and in the process give an upper hand to the extremists who would continue to justify their misdeeds. The political establishment in Delhi should listen to the moderate voices. The Prime Minister should not waste anymore time and take the political initiative to evolve a consensus on the autonomy question. Autonomy could be part of a step-by-step approach. Autonomy should also be seen as ‘moderate’ and a middle path solution.
