The Minister of State for External Affairs V. K Singh’s statement in Parliament, “Since the entire State of Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of the Union of India and these so called Kashmiri leaders are Indian citizens, there is no bar on their meeting with representatives of any country in India”. The statement is a deviation from the earlier Indian stand on Hurriyat leaders meeting Pakistan leaders. By this volte face it appears India is trying to keep Kashmir as an undisputed region and this has been the truth. Pakistan has kept the region disputed by not accepting the accession of Jammu and Kashmir with India. An off shoot of partition, Kashmir is an integral part of India and there is no need of third party mediation to the issue. The residents of Jammu and Kashmir travel on Indian passport; use Indian currency and have properties though out the country and religion can be no reason to stake claim of allegiance by anybody and any section of the society to another country. Hurriyat leaders have been meeting Pakistan leaders since Agra summit in 2001 and India has been objecting to such overtures by Kashmiri leaders every time. After Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pak counterpart Nawaz Sharif met in Ufa in 2015 grounds were made clear for NSA level talks but Hurriyat played the card of meeting Pakistani envoy in New Delhi. The move was thwarted by the authorities by taking them under preventive custody and the talks were stalled. Except secret NSA-level parlays in Bangkok talks remain elusive. It looks the change in New Delhi’s stance is somewhat a new experiment to test untested waters of bilateral relations by lowering the ‘red line’ than to continue with the age-old traditions of bans and restrictions. Even the Union Government’s reaction to recent unrest in NIT Srinagar, fake rape charges against security men and the rioting claiming three lives, mob rampaging security pickets and subsequent withdrawal of security men from there, weekly appearance of ISIS flags along with Pakistan flag and its acceptance as a symbol of protest are all part of a larger design of events which is awaiting to unfold in Kashmir Valley.
