WAY through the 40 coldest days of Kashmir's protracted winter, what locals call the ‘Chilai Kalan', there are signs of a political thaw that New Delhi would be wise to encourage. Most suggestive is former All-Party Hurriyat Conference Chairman Abdul Gani Bhat declaring that security forces were not responsible for the deaths of separatist leaders Abdul Ghani Lone and Mirwaiz Maulana Mohammad Farooq. Rather Bhat, followed by Lone's sons, has blamed someone within the separatist movement and in doing so has broken with the norm of holding the army and the Indian governmnet responsible for all violence in Kashmir, The Times of India said in its editorial. This outbreak of truth-telling is salutary. It is also indicative of chinks developing within the separatist movement. But there has been a softening of rhetoric even on the part of Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who called for jihad in the 1990s and has led the ‘Quit Kashmir' movement since June 2010. Geelani still opposes Indian rule – nothing else could be expected – but is now a proponent of ‘absolutely peaceful' opposition. All these are positive signs, which need to be capitalized on. Wasteful shutdowns and violence scarred much of 2010, and there is little point in persisting with such a course. Dialogue without preconditions is the way out. While the Indian government has dropped preconditions, separatist factions have quite a few of their own which come in the way of talks. But the government, too, must do its bit to prepare the ground for dialogue by normalizing, as far as possible, conditions in the Valley. And Pakistan can't be ignored as a factor in Kashmir. Efforts must be made to elicit positive signals from Islamabad. __
