Kashmir is not one but two disputes. One is the familiar international one with Pakistan which has been an ongoing dialogue with the Pakistan leaders—Bhutto and Zia, Sharif and Musharraf. But there is also the dispute within India. Kashmiris have their legitimate desire for good clean governance and elections not manipulated by Delhi. For the rest of India, Kashmir has to be there mouse-like in its meekness, so we can show the world how secular and tolerant India is. Kashmir is there to serve India; India will not do much except keep a large army there and make sure Kashmiris don’t get up to anything. Just last week we learnt that the three-month ban on sending SMS has been lifted in Kashmir. Can you imagine any other part of India, which can be treated so highhandedly?

Leaders in Kashmir (not Jammu, of course) are treated with suspicion, if ever they express any opinion except a parrotlike repetition of Kashmir being an integral part of India. If so, why not make it an integral part? In the summer, when the Jammu agitation closed off the access of the Valley producers to markets in Punjab, we saw how pathetic the infrastructure investment has been there. The long-planned rail link is still in the distant future. So the rest of India is happy to keep Kashmir in isolation as long as it keeps quiet about autonomy.

May be Gen X will do better. It will treat Kashmir as a normal part of India, without hysteria and constant suspicion. Perhaps the presence of Congress and BJP and the many more national parties, which contested the elections, are a good harbinger of things to come. Like other states, Jammu and Kashmir will have local parties and national parties. They will complain about the state being neglected to bargain for more money. Let the genuine desire for autonomy be met with more investment for a genuine integration of the state into India. Then perhaps Mehbooba Mufti will not have to prove her loyalty to India any more than Raj Thackeray does.