Much has been written, and much will be written in the coming days, or more likely in coming decades about the decision of the current BJP-led NDA government on Kashmir. I have spoken with several scholars in India and abroad, and I’m reading different viewpoints. I came up with these pointers for the Government of India to keep in mind from now on while tackling issues in the state (these are my opinions, and not of any organization or institution):
- Involve locals in different/all projects
- Learn what they want, instead of telling them
- Involve international humanitarian organizations in the worst terror affected areas
- Start exchange programs for youths to and from Kashmir
- Communicate with the leaders
- Discuss a sustainable model for peace-building; there is no ideal solution
- Engage the elderly and youths alike
- Better learning environment
- Run more programs to involve women
- Provide public goods (demand-based, must be done by the Government, not by the foreign players)
- Let them express their voices
- Focus on tourism
- Phase-wise infrastructure development
- Interaction with armed forces and locals
- A clear policy on Human rights violations
- Arrange conferences and seminars to invite scholars to have thoughtful discussions
- Dissent should be accepted
- Promote local culture
- Know that a sustainable peace-building may take decades
- Pakistan’s idea of religious homogeneity has (and will) bring turmoil inside Pakistan (and unfortunately to Kashmir and other parts of India)
- A clear policy for China
- Environment protection laws must be in place (key learnings from other Himalayan states shall be replicated)
- Big projects must be done with consulting locals
- Communicate and practice peace-building
- Discuss history, learn from mistakes, work carefully and thoughtfully
- practice and preach co-existence
- Inter-religious co-existence is a must, so it shall be practiced
- not just separate colonies for Pandits, but something more than that
- Again, involve locals
- No place for radicalization
- Be ready for protests, it is their right
- Build statues of local, national and international leaders
- Conserve local sites
- Don’t impose ideological stands
- Take opposition parties in confidence, as elections in India happen every five years
- Don’t kill the messenger
- In the absence of options, Pakistan will use the tactics of armed insurgency and cross-border terrorism (not direct war, again my opinion), while dealing with it communicate with locals
- Discuss the possible options India had in the scenario
- International meetings and diplomatic missions must talk about Kashmir
- Work on economic development of the country, the more opportunities, with lesser/no frictions/discrimination the better situation will be
- Never forget the real meaning of Kashmiriyat
- No illegal arrests
- Indian opposition must take part in re-building Kashmir
The GoI can try to think of good-enough governance practices if resource scarcity becomes a challenge.