Why Modi is feeling special this Vijaya Dashami

Why is this year's Vijaya Dashami special? Wait for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s answer tomorrow. He will be at Lucknow’s Aishbagh Ramlila to celebrate the victory of good over evil. And elaborate on why he thinks this year’s Vijaya Dashami (victory day) is so special.

Already Modi has declared that this year’s Dussehra is “very special for the country” in an obvious reference to the September 29 surgical strikes across the LoC in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir. Tomorrow he is expected to announce the BJP’s election bugle in Uttar Pradesh.

For sounding the poll war cry, he has decided to break with tradition. The Prime Minister has traditionally been slaying demon king Ravana at Delhi’s Ramlila ground to celebrate the victory of good over evil. 

The upcoming UP election has made him change venue and tradition. The BJP has set the stage for Modi’s chest-thumping, contrary to the Prime Minister’s own advice to his ministers and party leaders.

With Modi deciding to put the Army’s action across the LoC at the centre of the election, all speculations and debates must stop over the BJP’s intent to exploit the surgical strikes for political gain.

Rest assured that chest-thumping from Aishbagh in Lucknow would trigger volatile reactions from the opposition parties. BSP chief Mayawati has already sounded the chorus of the Opposition.

"The pyre of jawans who lost their lives in the Uri attack has not yet died down, but the Prime Minister is coming to Lucknow to celebrate Dussehra for his political motives. It is likely that for the same purpose, he might come to UP for Diwali as well. Taking the loss of Uri martyrs' families into account, the BJP should have celebrated Dussehra and Diwali with sobreity and simplicity," she said at her rally in the city on Sunday.

Sobriety is the biggest casualty of the post-Uri and post-surgical strikes discourse. It’s going to get worse from here onwards as the parties get into active election campaign mode in UP and Punjab.

But I would like to move from the politics of chest-thumping to call for politics of healing, from the politics of brinkmanship and one-upmanship to politics of reconciliation.

Going by Modi’s own thinking, why can’t this year’s Vijaya Dashami be “very special” for the people of Kashmir? If it’s very special for the county, surely it must also be very special for the people of Kashmir.

Now that good has triumphed over evil in a very emphatic and decisive manner in the manner of the Army trouncing “evil” across the LoC, isn’t it time to let the people of the Valley become an equal partner in the celebration? The Prime Minister has an opportunity before him.

He can use the occasion tomorrow from the podium of Aishbagh to issue a message of reconciliation to the people in the Valley. The volatility of the Kashmir situation is an existing paradigm. The political will to shift the paradigm must also form an alternative paradigm.

The overwhelming protests and violence against the security forces are hard reality. It’s also, perhaps, the dominant reality.

But Sunday’s instance of Kashmiri youth rescuing a soldier who was trapped in a mangled vehicle is also a reality.

Just two days after young Junaid Akhnoon, a 16-year-old boy, was killed with pellet gun injuries, triggering massive protests, a group of youth on Srinagar bypass road near Lasjan area of the city came to the rescue of soldiers who were trapped in a vehicle that had met with an accident.

The instance of youth saving the life of a solider is as much a reality in Kashmir as the images of stone-pelting ones. The eagerness of a large number of Kashmiri youth to join the police and the armed forces is also as powerful a reality as people crying for azaadi. 

Such duality of realism calls for duality of approach too. Then why is the Modi government taking a one-dimensional approach?

One would like to know that if the Prime Minister can directly address the people of Pakistan from Kozhikode, why can't he address the youth of Kashmir? The question begs an answer.

Ever since the Valley erupted in protests after the killing of Burhan Wani, using the K word appears to have become an anathema for the government at the Centre. One hears a lot on Pakistan, absolutely nothing on Kashmir.

One hasn’t heard of any follow-up on the all-party delegation's visit to the Valley. Chief minister Mehbooba Mufti has met with the Prime Minister but the outcome of the meeting remains wrapped in secrecy.

One doesn’t hear of any outreach being talked about to bring back the situation from the brink. Managing the security situation, fighting off the menace of cross-border infiltration and terrorist violence will remain priorities. Can’t making an outreach to the people, appealing to the angry youth, be a simultaneous approach to meet the Kashmir crisis?

Tomorrow, there will be two important addresses to celebrate the traditional victory of good over evil. Besides, Modi’s address in Lucknow, the RSS chief will give his annual “Vijay Dashami” address in Nagpur.

BJP and RSS followers will be keenly looking forward to RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s speech. So will be RSS's critics.

One hopes the RSS chief doesn’t raise the war pitch. One hopes Modi listens to his own advice and avoids chest-thumping at the Lucknow Ramlila.

Also read: What's wrong in Rahul Gandhi calling Modi a 'dalal'?