Mehbooba Mufti's soft corner for Burhan Wani exposes her govt's failure to tide over the crisis

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has finally come out of her self-imposed isolation to declare that if security forces knew beforehand that one of the holed up militants on that fateful evening of 8 July in south Kashmir’s Kokernag was Burhan Wani — the notorious Hizbul Mujahideen militant commander — things would have been different.[caption id=“attachment_2919568” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti. AFP[/caption] Speaking to the reporters in Srinagar on 27 July, Mehbooba said, “As far as I know, what I heard from the police and the Army, who said they only knew that there were three militants inside the house but did not know who they were. I feel if they knew, perhaps we would not have such a situation when the overall situation in the state was improving, so it could have been a chance.” How one wishes that she should have just remained in her private cocoon, rather than making such vacuous remarks. Burhan or no Burhan, the security forces would have reacted in the same manner in that situation. In counter-terrorism duties they are trained to respond as per the needs of the mission, not as per the compulsions of the political establishment. In fact, excessive political interference in counter-terrorism operations has imperiled India’s response to the terrorism menace. What Mehbooba should have talked about is the utter failure of her administration and the disappearing act it did in the immediate aftermath of Burhan’s encounter leading to uncontrolled mobs protesting and torching police stations and damaging public property. She should have asked where the battery of KAS officers were, which she is always surrounded with, during the unfolding crisis and what role did it play in accentuating the already bad situation. The typical attitude of Kashmir’s successive political establishments — be it the Congress, National Conference or the PDP-BJP — has been that they think they are the unquestioned satraps of Kashmir, blessed by New Delhi. That is evident in their attitude towards ordinary Kashmiri masses and how they perform their duties - if they do it at all. However, at the first whiff of a crisis, the entire administration disappears with no trace or whatsoever, leaving the security forces to deal with the unfolding situation and giving the field day to the Hurriyat-led separatists. This was evident in 2008 and 2009 protests, 2014 floods and now again in 2016. Obviously security forces — the Army, the paramilitaries and the police — have their own axes to grind. The Army-paramilitary rivalry, the distrust between the IPS bureaucracy and the Army generals and the overall attitude of disdain that the government has towards the training and welfare of the paramilitaries. All of these factors play out on the ground when a CRPF jawan holds on to his antiquated rifle with a rampaging mob in front of him armed with stones. As a representative of the Indian state, there he is with a responsibility to enforce the authority. And not always he does his job in a satisfactory manner. What New Delhi and Srinagar — New Delhi particularly — have to understand that it is not the job of the security forces to carry out administrative tasks and do political outreach, at least not in the Kashmir Valley, where they are always viewed with suspicion. The Army and the paramilitaries will ensure that a right atmosphere is created for political outreach, but after that the administration and the government will have to perform their responsibilities by way of governance and statecraft to ensure that the law and order situation does not vitiate. This can be done in two ways: (i) People’s grievances towards the government and administration do not manifest in street protests and (ii) those protests which take place are tackled effectively by a paramilitary, well-trained in crowd control along with an outreach to the sections in Kashmir, which are inimical to government. Anything short of this strategy has the potential to worsen the situation in Kashmir, which is already witnessing its another ‘summer of discontent’. The author is a former intelligence officer with the government of India. Views expressed are personal.