The youth of Kashmir are no more enamoured with “dove” Dineshwar Sharma than they were with “hawk” Ajit Doval, the national security adviser.

Sharma, appointed with much fanfare by the Narendra Modi government to negotiate peace in the Valley – after three years of muscular rule – is a former Intelligence Bureau (IB) director and is already seen as a threat by the state’s protesting youngsters.

So while the rest of the country debates whether the Centre’s choice of interlocutor for the Valley on “short notice” is an ominous one or a strategic move, Kashmir’s youth are not buying the story that Sharma wishes to bring peace.

IPS officer Sharma served as IB director from December 2014 to 2016 in Uttar Pradesh. On Monday, home minister Rajnath Singh declared that Sharma had been hand-picked by his ministry for Kashmir and would now assume the position of cabinet secretary.

But what of the past three years in Kashmir? The PDP-NDA alliance in power has seen the highest number of young Kashmiri boys and girls, even school children and women, coming out to join protests against the government.

The current crop of youngsters grew up in the backdrop of militancy in the late 1990s and witnessed the resistance movement turn into a violent civilian struggle. Today, they suffer from depression, anxiety and paranoia in the wake of increasing protests, poor education, crumbling infrastructure, drug abuse, all resulting in a high number of school and college drop-outs.

Peerzada Muzamil, a student of politics at Kashmir University, explained why the youth do not trust the government’s intentions.

Last year, he, along with 200 other people, was part of a delegation that attempted to meet home minister Rajnath Singh during his visit in September. “The ministry had announced that he was willing to meet anyone who wanted to talk. You know, they gave our 200-member team 10 minutes to talk. What were we supposed to discuss in 10 minutes?” he asked.

“I don’t trust anything anymore. This is all just a show, a media hype to suit their narrative,” he added.

Another student, PhD scholar Toyeba Pandit, said: “This is a redundant story served in a different plate, that’s all.”

The Kashmiris view the IB as a draconian outfit, and Pandit believes there is no way the youth will fall for the supposed peace initiative by the Centre. According to her, there has to be a better selection process in such an effort and such a huge responsibility cannot be put on one person.

Heeba Din, also a PhD student, echoes her sentiments. “There should have been a team comprising representatives from politics, IB, civil society, women and youth. The Kashmir conflict is a multi-layered problem that can’t be resolved by one man who gets to decide what ‘legitimate aspirations’ are. Only a fair team of representatives can respond to the layered grievances we have here,” she said.

As a young person who has been repeatedly failed by the State, Din said she “doesn’t count on this interlocutor for anything”.

“How do you expect the youth of Kashmir to trust the very person who is representing the same force that we have been fighting? Why should we?” she asked.

When Newslaundry asked Sharma whether he intended to appoint a team to work with him, he said “right now, it’s just me”.

Incidentally, news of Sharma’s appointment came a day after BJP’s youth wing – Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYP) – held its first ever convention in Kashmir, which tried to put forward a secular face with shouts of “Allahu Akbar”. Former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s doctrine of “Insaniyat, Jamhooriyat and Kashmiriyat” was also invoked.

BJYM president Poonam Mahajan, who addressed a crowd of 1,000 young men and women in Srinagar, described the occasion as “historic” and concluded by saying “this is just a trailer, friends, the complete superhit movie is yet to come”.

BJP’s doublespeak

In 2010, the same BJP which has now named Dineshwar Sharma as the person in charge of engaging with stakeholders in Kashmir, had lashed out at the Congress for appointing three interlocutors for the Valley.

The BJP, the very party which in 2010 accused three Congress-appointed interlocutors of agreeing to “bend along the Hurriyat lines, instead of sorting out the issues in the Valley”, has now announced that a former IB director would hold “sustained interactions and dialogue to address ‘legitimate aspirations’ in Jammu and Kashmir”.

Journalists at Rajnath’s hurried-convened press conference on Monday raised questions over what the home minister meant by “legitimate aspirations”; whether the Hurriyat was going to be involved in the talks and whether Sharma’s appointment indicated that the BJP was considering its hardline approach as a failed strategy in Kashmir.

Rajnath refused to provide any clarity on his ambiguous statements and responded to most questions by saying that Sharma would have “full azaadi” to take decisions.

For the last three years, dialogue and interaction have not been part of the BJP’s strategy in dealing with the Valley.

A Greater Kashmir article revealed that, according to statistics compiled by South Asia Terrorism Portal, there was a 42 per cent rise in militancy-related deaths in the Valley since the NDA took over in 2014, when compared to three years of UPA-II in power.

The number of security personal killed in militant attacks increased by 72 per cent.

An article published by Scroll this August indicated that close to 1,043 people had been injured by pellet guns in Kashmir, with 19 people sustaining injury in both eyes.

Last year, after the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani, Kashmir erupted into violent protests, leading to the longest-ever shut-down of four months.

The Centre’s announcement of dialogue has come exactly nine weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Independence Day speech, when he had reached out to the Valley from the ramparts of the Red Fort saying “Kashmir’s problems can be solved only by embracing its people, not with bullets or abuses”.

Soon after this, in September, Rajnath Singh had visited the Valley to meet a large number of delegations.

The Hurriyat

The Hurriyat Conference, one of the most influential organisations in the Valley, has been responsible for mass protest marches and complete shutdowns. Previously, the separatist group has been critical of interlocutors, boycotted all-party delegations and closed the doors to many members of the state. Nevertheless, it has intermittently been open to engaging with leaders such as BJP’s Yashwant Sinha, who led the five-member Concerned Citizen Group (CCG) to the Valley, and Congressman Mani Shankar Aiyar.

Khurram Parvez, a prominent Kashmiri human rights activist and leader of a civil society group, said what the National Conference or PDP will say in these dialogues is not of much value. “All eyes are now on the Hurriyat,” he added.

Former special director of the Intelligence Bureau and former chief of Research and Analysis Wing AS Dulat seemed optimistic about the Hurriyat’s involvement in peace negotiations. Dulat told Newslaundry that Sharma is a “good guy”. “Mirwaiz (Umar Farooq of Hurriyat) has been saying he wants to talk, so why will he close the doors now?” he asked.

Former IAS officer and chairperson of National Commission for Minorities Wajahat Habibullah, who was also part of the CCG to Kashmir, said “it’s good that there’s finally some initiative to reach out”. Nevertheless, he seemed sceptical about the Hurriyat’s willingness to engage.

Currently, seven members from the Hurriyat are in judicial custody post raids conducted by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for terror links, hawala and illegal property accumulation.

When Newslaundry got in touch with Sharma regarding his plans to reach out to the Hurriyat, he said “it depends on the situation”. He was unwilling to elaborate what “situation” he was referring to.

On whether his presence would make any difference to the NIA raids or military operations in the Valley, Sharma said: “No, the NIA investigations cannot be hampered and military operations happen independent of my guidance. So I will not interfere with either.”

However, in an interview to The Indian Express, Dulat pointed out that now that Kashmir had a special representative from the Centre, he should make the NIA understand that “they should not do things which are going to spoil the chances of dialogue”.

“Because ultimately, once you start, one of the points raised will be release of separatists’ colleagues. They have done that in the past, so no big deal. Obviously, people who are under arrest or under house arrest will have to be released to be able to talk,” Dulat said.

Despite repeated attempts to reach out to the Hurriyat Conference, their members remained unavailable for comment.

The Opposition

In a series of multiple tweets, leader of the National Conference, Omar Abdullah, welcomed the Centre’s initiative of appointing Sharma. But he too raised the question of what Rajnath meant when he said “legitimate aspirations”.

“Who gets to decide what ‘legitimate aspiration’ is,” he asked in a tweet.

In response to this, Sharma told Newslaundry that “only the home ministry knows what it meant by ‘legitimate aspiration’”.

A few hours after the home minister’s press conference, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram tweeted saying: “With appointment of interlocutor, I hope government has finally admitted ‘muscular approach’ has failed in J&K.”

Senior Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar told Newslaundry that Sharma’s appointment was a “big mistake”.

“The first step itself is flawed. By selecting a former IB director instead of politician, the NDA has already rendered the ‘peaceful dialogue’ dead,” he said.

He also added that it would be a flouting of the agenda of alliance if members of the Hurriyat are not considered as stakeholders in the discussion.

Sharma, who intends to visit Kashmir next week, is aware of the baggage his former identity as an IB director brings. “I agree and understand that it is going to be a bigger challenge for me to work as an interlocutor in Kashmir but I am hopeful. I cannot discuss my plans as yet,” he told Newslaundry.