Kashmir unrest: Why PM Modi was right in carrying on with his African tour

I don’t see any reason why Prime Minister Narendra Modi should have cancelled his African tour because of the unrest in Kashmir. I might have reservations about the vanilla blandness of the African visit and the poor coverage by his official entourage and the bland agendas but this criticism that he should change his itinerary and dash back seems unwarranted. Why should he have upgraded the issue created by the killing of Burhan Wani by displaying a concern that adversaries would read as panic and would give much joy to his detractors and those fomenting trouble? It is a good feeling to get the PM of a country to cancel his engagements and trot back, sort of giving solid PR to the hostile elements. See, we have them on the run. [caption id=“attachment_2889376” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses a news conference at the State House in Nairobi, Kenya. Reuters [/caption] As for Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar distributing light bulbs in Goa while Kashmir ‘burns’, well, get over it. Firstly, it is not a war with another country; it is an internal conflict and comes under the Home Ministry. Let them do their job. They are doing it. Let Parrikar distribute his light bulbs…the more normal life is, the less large the looming of the problem. With today’s technology, no one is out of the loop wherever they are and physical distance is not equivalent to the ostrich head in the sand. Audio-visual connectivity is real time 24/7. Modi probably got a better news feed than you and I. Do you really think that if Modi had rushed back and flown to Srinagar, it would show great concern and resolve the conflict? On the contrary what it would have done is detract from the operation, unnecessarily add stress on the men and women in uniform, create a massive security problem, become a lightning rod for more demonstrations and generally be a colossal self indulgence. Again, if he did it, Rahul Gandhi would have to follow – if he is back from the secret vacation no one particularly cared about. And that is not something anyone wants, so let’s stop being nasty for the sake of being nasty. As for comparing it to US President Obama coming back from Spain and making it straight to Dallas, that is very unfair. Obama is going to call on the families of the dead policemen. It is the done thing followed by a nationwide address on an issue that is affecting the black and white communities and has exploded in his face. Even then, he didn’t short circuit his Spain trip and if Modi had on his return, called on the families of those who have lost sons and fathers and brothers and husbands in this confrontation, good on him. And he can take Parrikar with him, light bulb in hand, to brighten the darkness in the homes of extinguished lives. We have this habit of looking for fault. You really think, even if you are a rabid anti Modi individual that he was not fully conversant and updated on what is happening in Kashmir when in Africa? We do not need or want a visual confirmation. Beating drums in Kenya is not a display of indifference. It is just putting the situation in perspective in the greater scheme of things and marching on. Sometimes, let’s give ourselves some credit.