Marten wrote:Viv S is consumed by the politics of it all. No realpolitik need enter the discussion, eh?
What if it were a bunch of Kashmiri Pundits trying to raise the Indian flag at Lal Chowk?
I don't think they'd be threatened or that the situation would escalate. Its unlikely the state govt. would be too bothered assuming the venue didn't already have a function scheduled. Of course this is my opinion only.
Who said the BJP does NOT have support in the valley. In this case, it is not just a bunch of Kashmiri Pandits who were trying to publicise the Yatra. Check the names of the local district representatives who got arrested. All were Muslim.
I said it and I will repeat it. The BJP has NO support in the valley, district representatives being Muslim notwithstanding. Of course no support doesn't imply mathematically zero supporters. I'm sure they have an office in Kashmir with staff and a coterie of supporters.
The vast majority of folks who oppose militancy are unable to articulate themselves since unlike the polite opposition you're faced with, they face bullets and indiscriminate killings. We cannot post an army man in the house of every Kashmiri who wants protection. What we can do is help them by disarming the militant minority and the folks who fund militancy. To do so, we need to first build up nationalistic sentiment (or at least the ability to put up a more vocal opposition to the militants). See it is the same game played by both sides; except "we" are being nice about the rules.
We = India, and the Indian establishment, including the majority of folks in the valley who do not want secession.
The vast majority of people are NOT pro-militancy but are still alienated. And seeing as I've repeated this, I guess I might as well illustrate it with an example. A close friend of mine hails from Srinagar (though we didn't meet up when I stayed there). His dad's a senior police officer in the JKP and he graduated from an IIT. His grandfather was shot on the street by soldiers on suspicion of being a militant. Now while my friend is pro-India, its very easy to tell he's very alienated, and considers the state of affairs as imposed on Kashmir from New Delhi responsible (a view most in his native place share).
For all the rights and wrongs of it, fact remains a yatra by right wing hard-liner party in the state is resented by those in the valley. Call them traitors or make it a matter of principle, a show of muscle doesn't win them over.
They = The militant Wahhabi adherents to a thought process of either secession or alienation in some form. These are the same folkers you call Sufiya. Heh.
I haven't referred to the militants (the core of which were Pakistanis indoctrinated in Wahhabi teachings) as belonging to the Sufi sect. This is precisely what I told Krisna, though I couldn't really comprehend his reply. Sufi or Wahhabi isn't a description, its an actual religious sect (maybe it would more accurate to call it a tradition in the case of Sufism).
It is bloody-mindedness if not simple-mindness that claims we should assuage the feelings of the militants and not aggravate them. Boots on the ground determine who holds strategic ground. Why don't you support helping willing Indian citizens into the valley. Are you saying finding 5 lac people to support the local economy is difficult?
Militants are fast losing relevance. The insurgency has been dormant for a while now, especially compared to what it was a decade ago. Point is to marginalise the separatists by bringing the moderates into the limelight. And instead of bringing Indians from the heartland into the valley, I think at this stage it'll be better and softer approach would be to take the Kashmiris into rest of the country.
If they had even more brains, they'd have quit the Congress and NC and defected to the BJP. 
read my earlier post for your benefit-
