Political parties of all shades of opinion, right, left, center or regional ones are assessing the climate of militancy from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and pockets of western India and large parts of eastern and north eastern India. They are discussing that there have negotiations with militant outfits around the country and several rounds of cessation of police action and cease fire by those outside the pale of law. But oftentimes, these spells of truce have been followed by regrouping and a degree of mayhem.

The political outfits, even though now preoccupied with electioneering in Punjab, Uttaranchal, Uttar Pradesh, Manipur and Delhi, appear to be impressed by new initiatives in Kashmir, which were given a new start less than three years ago when Atal Bihari Vajpayee visited Kashmir. Dr. Manmohan Singh has given it a great push by trying to normalize ties with Pakistan and discuss all issues, including Kashmir, as even Mr. Vajpayee also tried.

The political circles around the country realize that India- Pakistan ties have for ever been marked by anger, hyperbole, lack or reason, with occasional bursts of concern for the poor of South Asia, including the hapless Kashmiris. But words have generally remained words even though a number of confidence building measures have been taken amid realization of the futility of war and proxy war.

The politicians of different hues admit that India has had to learn to live with it, cope with it and sacrificed the lives of the flower of its youth to defeat a misinterpreted and mistaken jihad, which promises jannat and hoors in after life to those who are induced to pick up the gun or bomb and lay down their lives in spite of total misguidance and misleading promises. Those who make suicide bombs or squads of themselves may or may not have seen or gone to the unknown jannat, but they have left their parents, brothers, sisters, friends to mourn for them and wail. They have also converted the paradise on earth that Kashmir is acknowledged to be on all hands—yahi hai, yahi hai, yahi hai—without doubt into jahannum, with forests destroyed and climate changed, leaving a trail of death and destruction on land, water bodies and air.

In this background politicians of different shades see a voice of sanity being heard and appreciated. That call to sanity and humanity has been given by the youthful Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, the Imam of South Asia's largest Jama Masjid in Srinagar, with a lot of wood paneling on the outside and inside to keep the faithful warm and comfortable amid snow, sleet, rain or shine. The political parties appreciate his statement that militancy or terrorism has not achieved anything other than taking the lives of our loved ones and creating more graves, he told Mr. Atique Khan, the nominal prime minister of the Pakistan occupied Kashmir areas, at a dinner hosted by Mr. Khan. The Mirwaiz suggested that the armed struggle should be given up to find a solution to the Kashmir issue.

####