What Modi can learn about Kashmir from AS Dulat's book

Here's a one-line summary of Amarjit Singh Dulat's book, Kashmir: The Vajpayee Years: "I talked and talked and talked." Talked to Kashmiris, that is. While the media focuses on the sensational headlines, the book as a whole has a far less headline-worthy message: India must talk to Kashmiris.

As an intelligence officer, first with the Intelligence Bureau and then as the head of the Research & Analysis Wing, Dulat dealt with Kashmir and Kashmiris right from the beginning of the conflict. And he didn't end his engagement after he retired.

Dulat is clearly too fond of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Farooq Abdullah. But he isn't wrong in saying that Vajpayee was the only prime minister after Nehru who believed in seriously engaging with Kashmiris, even as he was engaging with Pakistan.

We saw what happened when, in the Manmohan decade, New Delhi stopped being serious about the need to talk to the Hurriyat Conference. What happened was the uprisings of 2008 and 2010, which caused much bloodshed, made Kashmir difficult again for New Delhi, and focused international attention again to the disputed region.

Those who believe we don't need to talk to Kashmiris are the same who think we don't need to talk to Pakistan, and Prime Minister Modi's government seems to share the view.

Militancy in Kashmir virtually ended after the 2003 ceasefire. Tourists began to pour in. And we thought all was well. To New Delhi's embarrassment, Kashmiris rose up again in 2008. Their main message has been that "normalcy" isn't merely absence of violence, and that the Kashmir conflict isn't over.

Dulat's book has come at a time when Kashmir doesn't make the headlines, an election is over, we've moved on from the shock of an "unholy alliance" between the PDP and the BJP, and all is well. However, all isn't well just because bombs aren't going off.

To be sure, many Kashmiris will have many problems with Dulat's book. That it doesn't talk about the torture and killings by Indian security forces even as it claims to empathise with Kashmiris. That it doesn't address the issue of right to self-determination. That it reveals too many things about Kashmiri secessionists which will embarrass them and thus make it harder to do what Dulat wants: talks between them and New Delhi. That it tells you many dirty secrets of Srinagar but not of New Delhi. That it shows how New Delhi buys over, blackmails, cajoles, tires out its political opponents in Kashmir. And so on and so forth.

Yet, there is a good purpose Dulat's book serves. It's a reminder to smug Indians that conflicts aren't resolved or even "managed" by military boots and repressive laws alone. Dulat's book, for all its faults, shows you that conflicts are about human beings and human beings need to talk and listen to each other. Indians, for their own good, should read Dulat's account of how the Indian intelligence went about persuading militants and separatists to engage with New Delhi, and thus neutralised them and their anti-India activities.

The problem with New Delhi's approach to Kashmir is that it has relegated the place and the conflict to intelligence agencies and security forces. This is an abdication of responsibility by our politicians. Kashmir is a political issue and needs a political solution. Here is a former top spy telling you that politicians must get involved, like Vajpayee did, and they must talk to Kashmiris.

The last time India was ruled by a full-majority government, we were looking at the embers of the Khalistan conflict, and the chinars of Kashmir were yet to turn red. Thirty odd years later, Narendra Modi heads a full majority government. Before Kashmir returns to the headlines, he must read this book.

Also read: Who are the faces of Kashmir's future?