Administrative expediency may have prompted the decision to re-deploy the Border Security Force on internal security duties within the Kashmir Valley, lest the law-and-order situation deteriorates to uncontrollable depths. For despite all the “official” denials, the Jammu & Kashmir Police is on the verge of throwing in the towel, and personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force are showing signs of strain that are only to be expected after lengthy commitment in a “hot” zone. Yet, in popular perception the BSF follows the Army in terms of “heaviness”, occupies the second spot in the force structure above the state police and the CRPF. The latest induction of 2,600 BSF jawans — further numbers are standing-by — will only fuel the animosity over New Delhi “banking’ on a military solution to a political problem. That the BSF made its presence felt on the eve of yet another visit of the home minister to Srinagar sends out a signal that would appear to run counter to Mr Rajnath Singh&’s expressed intention to try and open new doors for dialogue. In such matters the impression in the public mind matters enormously, hence calling the BSF out could have waited until the home minister completed the opening round of this fresh exercise. An exercise, remember, that the Prime Minister launched only after his government faced scathing criticism for talking of troubles in Balochistan even as Kashmir was ablaze. Clearly only those with saffron-steeped mindsets accept that Pakistani mischief is the prime source of trouble in Kashmir. If Narendra Modi and his team are finally coming around to accepting an unpleasant reality a new dawn may actually be discernible — though the BSF on the streets and its “taking” over the premises of educational institutions to accommodate its personnel would not reflect much new thinking on Raisina Hill.

The restoration of “peace” must be seen only in terms of a brief, surgical mission by the BSF, and simultaneously an exercise needs to be launched to revive and restore confidence-levels in the J&K police (the Army is starved of local intelligence inputs while the cops remain hunkered down) so that the populace does not resent “outside” forces. The quality-deficit in the leadership of both the J&K police and the CRPF is confirmed by things having come to such a sorry pass.

The crumbling of the cops (local and central) was palpable and pellet guns were no panacea. As for the deficit in political leadership, the experience in the Valley confirms that once a lid is put on the violence the netas go back to their nefarious ways — until the simmering tensions erupt yet again. The Modi government inspires little confidence that it will, eventually, try to do things differently.