Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to topple the Kashmir government is just the beginning of what will likely be a new direction that New Delhi will take towards the restive state – one that will be marked by a significantly more hawkish posture than ever before. For Modi, there is an ideological divide between him and the Congress in how to “handle” Kashmir, but we cannot ignore the obvious political backdrop as the prime minister would not pursue this strategy if he did not feel that it would pay political dividends. One of the most fascinating aspects of India in recent years has been the evolution, and establishment, of a very clear right-to-left divide. For a country where the political spectrum started at center left, and ended at the far left, the creation of the center-right by the BJP helps establish a political arc that is seen in most democracies, providing a wide spectrum of views and ideologies.

But along the way, this also means that an increasing number of policies, issues, and debates become subsumed into one of the two camps, and we begin to see a divergence in how matters should be handled.

As I wrote recently, India’s foreign policy has rapidly changed under Modi - whether the policies are “good” or “bad” depends on the observer and their political bent. But change it has, and Kashmir is another example. Numerous commentators will point to how Modi’s approach to Kashmir is very different than Vajpayee’s, and how Vajpayee had it right (never mind that while Vajpayee pursued Kashmir the same commentators criticised him). But these commentators are right in their current statements because there was not much change in New Delhi’s approach to Kashmir for numerous years. Despite being part of the center-right, Vajpayee did not drastically define a new approach to Kashmir. his has now changed. Modi is staking out (and defining) a center-right approach to Kashmir, warranting a more hawkish stance, while Congress and others are pushing a more center-left view.

The point is that Kashmir, like most issues, will now have a right wing and left-wing approach or set of solutions. And this development has been made possible because the electorate in turn has evolving views on the subject. There will inevitably be a lot of hue and cry about Modi’s draconian approach, and my goal is not to refute or substantiate whether it’s the right method, but rather look at why his agenda is more likely to resonate with the rest of India, politically speaking.

There was a time when Kashmir was considered and viewed a separate entity in India. The idea of autonomous rule (or something close to it) was the status quo belief, even before militancy took center stage. Those who grew up during this period, and went on to become senior bureaucrats and public officials, formulated their policies vis a vis this general agreement.

However, today, half of Indians were born after terrorism swept the Valley, and Kashmir-militancy-Pakistan funding all blended into one. The idea that leaders of the Hurriyat Conference were allowed to meet Pakistani officials and diplomats in New Delhi sounds insane to many Indians today, even though this was a standard practice for many years. A grouping of separatist leaders meeting with their offshore financiers is seen by many young Indians as akin to Israel allowing the Palestinian Liberation Organisation meet with its Iranian handlers in downtown Tel Aviv. Why on earth would India facilitate such a meeting between those who argue for separation from India, and those who finance the group’s endeavors.

Which is why when Modi prevented meetings between the Hurriyat and Pakistani officials, and Congress vocally protested, the electorate (outside of Kashmir) agreed with move. The status quo of how political parties handled Kashmir is no longer acceptable for many Indians.

And now, with Modi looking to aggressively clamp down on militancy, and choke of the financing of the Hurriyat, Congress is once again protesting the move and writing op-eds criticising Modi. That’s perfect fair to do so as their approach to Kashmir is again, ideologically different than Modi’s, as it should be, to ensure that India has a well rounded political arc with diverging opinions and thoughts.

It is not a matter of Modi being right or Congress being right, rather the demographic shifts in India have changed the perspective Indians hold towards Kashmir, and in turn have allowed for Modi to define a center-right approach towards Kashmir. While in the past such an approach would not have been accepted by the masses, again, due to demographic shifts, a new generation of Indians who have only known post-Kashmiri militant uprising India, are skeptical of the past policies. And Modi is capitalising on these changing attitudes while Congress, once again, risks being seen as being out of touch, again, politically speaking.

First Published:Jul 2, 2018 7:13 AM IST