Last week's massacre in Kashmir has cast a shadow over the policies of Mufti Mohammed Sayeed's state government. But is India's BJP-led central government exploiting this incident to further its own political agenda, ask Murad Bukhari and Sudhanshu Ranjan from New Delhi The People's Democratic Party (PDP)- Congress alliance in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) is facing a crisis of credibility. A spate of terrorist killings that left 40 people dead in three bloody attacks between 22 and 24 November has put the new chief minister, Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, under intense criticism for his policies. The crisis reached a climax with the killing of 13 people at Jammu's Raghunath temple, an event which has triggered off a wave of anger across the country and led to questions being raised over the state government's "soft" policy on terrorists. The attack was all the more shocking because it happened barely a day after militants detonated a landmine on the Jammu to Srinagar highway, blowing up a bus carrying Indian soldiers and their families, killing 10. These attacks were preceded by the release of about 25 militants by Mufti Sayeed's government as part of an election pledge to begin a political dialogue in Kashmir. However, India's Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani, stated with barely concealed outrage, that the state government's policy of releasing militants was directly responsible for the killings. "The centre was not consulted before the militants were released. It's a dangerous trend," he said. His remarks ignited a fire in Kashmir, with Mufti Sayeed countering that central government agencies had indeed cleared the names of those released. His coalition partner, the Congress Party, were more specific. Their spokesman, Jaipal Reddy, said that KM Singh, the head of the Kashmir division of India's intelligence services, had been consulted before the release of the prisoners. The Indian central government's response, clearly designed to display New Delhi's displeasure with the Mufti Sayeed government, rubbished the claim saying that such informal consultations are common in the intelligence lexicon but do not amount to clearance. Indeed, this latest round of violence has given the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in New Delhi a convenient excuse to criticise the policies of the state government. This the BJP did skillfully. Instead of attacking Mufti Sayeed's PDP, it has targeted the nationally recognised Congress Party. The BJP knows full well that the Congress Party, as a national party with ambitions of forming governments in many regions of India, cannot afford to risk its wider popularity for the sake of Kashmir alone. The PDP is a regional party with a support base confined to India's Kashmir Valley. In order to embarrass the Congress, the BJP has asked it to pressure the PDP into revising its policy of releasing convicted militants. Until now, there has been agreement between the PDP and Congress on the policy of prisoner releases in Kashmir. The BJP, trying to drive a wedge between the PDP and Congress, has argued that the Congress should have considered the "consequences" of honouring this agreement. Indeed, the Congress, fearing damage to its national reputation, has been put on the defensive with party president, Sonia Gandhi, offering an apology after the Raghunath temple attack. She also stressed that her party was not "soft on terrorism" and that two of her family members have been victims of terrorist attacks. Terrorism is also a major issue in the state of Gujarat, which goes to the polls on 12 December amid a hotly contested electoral battle between the Congress and the BJP. However, the PDP is emphatic that its success at the operational level is contingent on initiating a dialogue with the people of Kashmir. Kashmiri law minister and PDP acting- president, Muzaffar Baig, says that to describe its policy as "soft" is a subversion of the truth, for it takes more courage to talk to a militant than to kill or imprison him. He said that terrorists are not being released indiscriminately as alleged. The state government has screening committees at the district level and a full- fledged review committee, headed by a retired judge of the high court, he added. Baig does not agree that this latest surge in terrorist violence is the result of the release of terrorists. "Here, I would like to say that it was [with] this very [BJP] government at the centre that five hardcore militants were released. One minister even escorted them to Kabul. Why are we conveniently forgetting that it is the five militants released [by the BJP] who are today heading the most dreaded organisations in Pakistan?" The chief minister's daughter and PDP Vice-President Mehbooba Mufti, said, "It is very unfortunate that certain parties in the Indian government are trying to make Kashmir [into] a battlefield to win the Gujarat elections. They should not do this because Kashmir is a national issue, it is not like any other state. It is to the BJP's credit that they [oversaw] such a successful election [in Kashmir], it is in their interest to let the J&K government work."
