The Congress Party's growing weight on the national scene and its strong partnership with the National Conference in Srinagar means Delhi has the political capital to boldly pursue India's long-term strategic objectives in Jammu and Kashmir and beyond.

Five broad imperatives must guide Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi as they reach out to the people of Jammu and Kashmir this week.

The first is to unveil an ambitious but credible strategy to rapidly modernise the transport infrastructure in the state. The long delayed Kashmir rail project, a small element of which the PM will unveil this week, compares rather poorly with the dramatic rail line that Beijing has pushed in record time across the difficult terrain of Tibet.

More broadly, the massive road and rail networks that China has built just over the last one decade in Xinxiang and Tibet that border J&K, demand that Delhi emulate Beijing's strategy of securing sensitive frontier regions through infrastructure development.

A second priority is to reorder the security management of the state by changing the disposition of the central security forces to reduce the friction between them and the citizens, especially in urban areas. Home Minister P. Chidambaram has already suggested some decisions are at hand, including one to modify the armed forces special powers act.

A third imperative is about the long-awaited dialogue with the dissident groups in the state. Delhi's emphasis on 'quiet diplomacy' in Kashmir may rule out major announcements on the specifics on the process. But there should be ample room for Dr. Singh and Mrs. Gandhi to expand on Chidambaram's proposition that the 'unique' problems of J&K demand 'very special' political solutions.

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