BOOK EXTRACT: Revealing the fine print

First-Hand Assessment: The Disaggregated Matrix

In the early stages of his political journey, specifically during his tenure as the chief minister of Gujarat, Modi initiated mini pilot tests that would later shape his approach in Jammu and Kashmir. Reflecting on those days during our interaction, PM Modi recounted an encounter with young National Service Scheme volunteers from Jammu and Kashmir visiting Gujarat. One of the girl students curiously asked Modi, don’t you have police here? Initially perplexed at this seemingly innocent question, Modi realized that the child, being from conflict-riddled Jammu and Kashmir, was accustomed to seeing police or other security forces around all the time, and that defined ‘normality’ for her. The incident left a deep imprint on Modi and strengthened his resolve to bring about comprehensive change in the region.

Meeting with Youth from the Gujjar–Bakarwal Community

On 23 August 2014, Modi hosted youths from the Gujjar–Bakarwal community of Poonch district at his residence in Delhi. The youths were travelling to Delhi and Agra as part of ‘Saer-e-Watan’ under Operation Sadbhavana (Goodwill). Modi engaged with them to understand their challenges stemming from the lack of development in the region and alienation from the mainstream. The youngsters were pleasantly surprised when Modi recalled his own experiences of interacting with the community during his visits to Poonch and Rajouri districts. This meeting gave Modi important insights into the minds of the young Kashmiris, especially those born after 1990.

 The 2014 Diwali Interactions: The Turning Point

In 2014, Modi challenged a decade-long tradition with a surprise Diwali visit to soldiers in Siachen, becoming the first prime minister in nearly ten years to set foot on the glacier. While sceptics questioned the timing—why Diwali and not Eid—locals recognized the genuineness of his gesture and appreciated Modi’s decision to forsake his own festival to spend time with the people of Jammu and Kashmir. His heartfelt gesture endeared him to the people, forging a deeper emotional connection.

Though he was in Srinagar for just a few hours, Modi managed to meet hundreds of people in a series of meetings and had as wide an array of inputs as there could possibly be. He interacted with flood victims and delegations of businesspersons, professionals, civil society organizations, youth organizations, transport operators, travel companies, fruit growers and educational institutions. These series of meetings have perhaps been grossly underestimated by the media, in the impact they had in shaping Modi’s later outlook towards the region.

To the surprise of many travelling with Modi, but not to Modi himself, there was collective discontentment revolving around issues of general governance. The businesspeople rued the lack of private investment. The civil society was grossly dissatisfied with the inadequacy, missing out aspirational opportunities and the need to go to other states of relief distribution. Youth organizations were most concerned about owing to the dearth of private institutions in education. The impact of violence and protests on transport, educational institutions and private investment in the tourism sector was a uniform grievance of every support for fruit growers, the mainstay of farming in the region. delegation. Farmers were despondent about insufficient government stakeholders were invested in the idea of development and prosperity.

As per PM Modi’s own account: ‘It was evident to me that these stakeholders were invested in the idea of development and prosperity. Although I had an inkling that this would broadly be the sentiment, the passion with which each group argued for what were essentially all good governance issues came as a pleasant surprise. There was a yearning for growth and opportunities that was no different from people in any other part of the country.

However, there was one crucial difference. In contrast to people in the rest of the country, the delegations that came to meet Modi also displayed a sense of deep frustration with the local politics of the region.

Almost every delegation voiced a strong desire to get rid of Jammu and Kashmir’s notorious political families who had been siphoning public funds for personal gain for years. Across the board, there was a palpable distrust in the state government and leadership due to rampant corruption-a common grievance that emerged during Modi’s interactions with various delegations.

When it was suggested that a central package may be considered for overall development, another uniform voice rang across all the delegations. Everyone, without distinction, requested Modi for direct transfer of funds, rather than routing resources through the state government. All suggested in one voice that they would trust the central government more than any local dispensation.

The representatives also expressed their anguish at being trapped between the two regional parties, both failing to deliver on promises. The pervasive disillusionment pointed fingers squarely at the state government, exposing the deep-seated frustration that had festered for years.

Modi came back from that trip with one clear estimation—the public in Jammu and Kashmir, far from harbouring hostility towards India, yearned for direct engagement with the central government. They were exasperated with the status quo stemming from the lack of robust leadership, and their grievances were mainly directed at the state government. It was their deep desire for good governance and development that had led them to desire direct engagement with the Centre. This meeting had a lasting impact on the policy choices that Modi would make in subsequent years.

A ‘Curious’ Meeting with Students

During his first term, Modi had the opportunity to interact with school students from Jammu and Kashmir on numerous occasions under various programmes, which revealed to him that while the youth of Kashmir were curious and inquisitive about the workings of the central government, they did not harbour any negative preconceptions about the same.

On 30 May 2015, Modi interacted with a group of twenty-four schoolchildren from the Mawar Valley in Jammu and Kashmir, who were touring various parts of the country under the Indian Army’s Operation Sadhbhavana. Later, on 6 January 2016, over 240 youths from Jammu and Kashmir met Modi at his residence in Delhi. These youngsters, who were mostly from militancy-affected families, orphanages and marginalized sections, were visiting Delhi under the ‘Watan Ko Jano’ initiative of the Ministry of Home Affairs and the government.6 On 28 February 2017, more than 100 young individuals participated in a meeting with Modi under the same initiative. Again, on 23 December 2017, he met a cohort of thirty schoolgirls from Jammu and Kashmir who were travelling across the country as part of Operation Sadhbhavana. These meetings, apart from affording an opportunity for direct interaction, were also instrumental in crystallizing Modi’s opinion on what the young generation of Kashmiris was thinking.

In one of these meetings, a young boy shared an interesting anecdote that, though seemingly innocuous, offered an interesting insight. The boy hailed from a village that had just been electrified under the 100 per cent village electrification programme started by Modi. When the boy got the opportunity to speak, he shared his joy at his village finally having electricity. He further went on to say that when the news spread that he had been selected to go and meet the prime minister at his residence, his entire village had pooled funds to buy a television set, eager to watch and learn more about the prime minister. PM Modi recalled that there was a definitive sparkle in the eye, a smile on the face and a sense of pride as the boy narrated the story.

Unlike a majority of the delegations that met the prime minister, which mostly comprised people staying in Srinagar, this boy hailed from a very remote corner of the region. His story was unmarred by any sophistication or acquired skills of conversation; it was just an innocent narration.

The sentiment expressed by the boy was clear – there was no dislike and certainly no hatred for the prime minister as the select media narrative or the separatist elements suggested; rather, in the remotest corners of the region, there was curiosity and even gratefulness for the prime minister of India.

The Sarpanch Intervention

In 2016, following the Burhan Wani encounter, a series of terrorist attacks on schools led to closures, disrupting the education of thousands of students across Kashmir. However, Modi was determined not to allow terrorism to ruin the future of Kashmiri children.

On 5 November 2016, Modi held a meeting with a delegation of the All Jammu and Kashmir Panchayat Conference. During the meeting, he took the opportunity to address the sarpanchs, seeking their support in stopping the attacks on schools, which was an often overlooked but urgent concern for the citizens of Kashmir.

Modi’s message to the sarpanchs was direct: They are not just burning physical buildings, they are burning the future of children. The sarpanchs respected Modi’s plea for ensuring safety of schools and fulfilled the promise made to him. Almost immediately, attacks on schools came to a complete halt.

Reflecting on this intervention during his Mann Ki Baat address in November 2016, Modi expressed his gratitude towards the sarpanchs: “I am feeling happy today that these pradhans, who had come from the Kashmir valley, kept their word in letter and spirit.” He highlighted the positive outcome of their commitment, with Kashmiri students achieving an impressive 95 per cent participation in board exams: “They returned to their villages and made people from far and wide aware of this issue.”

The Unofficial Ambassadors

In the period spanning 2016 to 2018, Modi deployed multiple individuals to visit Jammu and Kashmir and ascertain the prevailing public mood and ground-level sentiment. Among those who were sent, Modi personally instructed Hardeep Singh Puri (an ex-Indian Foreign Service officer and later minister in Modi’s cabinet), Y.C. Modi (former director general, National Investigation Agency [NIA]), Moosa Raza (former chief secretary of Jammu and Kashmir) and Shyamal Dutta (former Governor of Nagaland and former director, IB) to directly engage with citizens and officials and provide a first-hand understanding of the local situation and sentiment in the region. Interestingly, the purpose behind Modi’s request remained undisclosed to the individuals involved. For example, Puri was told to visit Jammu and Kashmir as a private citizen, not to engage the official paraphernalia. He was asked to stay low and just observe everyday life and report what he saw. None of the people sent had at that point of time any idea of the larger plan Modi was pursuing. They were also unaware about who else was engaged, if at all.

Alongside, engaging with these ‘unofficial ambassadors’, Modi regularly sought insights from the former Governor of Jammu and Kashmir and one of the most astute Kashmir watchers, Jagmohan, through off-the-record meetings. Another person that he consulted frequently was former Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, Lieutenant General S.K. Sinha (retd), who had been a long-time participant as well as an observer of issues in Kashmir, ranging from his time serving in the Indian Army during the accession in October 1947 to holding office as Governor of the region from 2003 to 2008. Modi had built his relationship with Lt Gen. Sinha in the 1990s itself, when he would frequently meet him to gain insights from his vast experience, post his travels in the Kashmir region.

Hardeep Singh Puri’s Report to Prime Minister Modi

Hardeep Singh Puri, who spent four days in Jammu and Kashmir between 16 and 20 June 2017, presented a comprehensive report of his findings to Prime Minister Modi on 11 July. His report highlighted the multifaceted nature of the Kashmir crisis. Puri highlighted the hostile influence of Pakistan and the receptive domestic constituency, which created a multi-layered challenge. He also pointed out the issue of governance deficit marked by poor administration, rampant corruption and confused policymaking. Puri also suggested the barriers created by Article 370 be overcome so that development could take place more easily.

Moosa Raza’s Visit to Jammu and Kashmir as State Guest

In April 2017, Modi requested Moosa Raza to revisit Jammu and Kashmir—this time as a state guest with the freedom to engage with diverse stakeholders. Raza’s findings revealed widespread discontentment due to non-compliance with the Common Minimum Programme. Interacting with retired civil servants, he unearthed rampant corruption, with the state’s ‘iron hand’ notably absent. Raza reported alarming levels of corruption, where ministers appointed their personal assistants in high positions, and political connections determined appointments of collectors. In the light of these revelations, Raza proposed many potential remedies directly with Modi.

Following a review of the report, Modi, on 21 April 2017, requested a concise presentation of Raza’s findings and recommendations for further follow-up action.

 Independent Channel for Information

Modi had also created multiple independent sources of information that allowed him to comprehensively understand the situation on the ground.

One such ingenious strategy introduced by the prime minister to collect information about the public mood was by involving travel agents from other states of the country. These travel agents had all kinds of contacts, mostly by force of circumstance, to help them keep their business running. Aware of this peculiarity, Modi utilized these agents from various corners of the country as a source of back-channel information collection as well as information dissemination. These agents became Modi’s inconspicuous yet effective source of ground-level information which helped him gain comprehensive insights into the current situation in the region. This channel was especially useful in the latter half of 2016 and early 2017. Modi had tasked some of these agents to stay in constant contact with local Kashmiri travel agents and intermediaries to get real-time updates on the public mood and sentiment. During those interactions, he also got an opportunity to gauge the real motivations of the various disruptive elements, how much real support they actually had and how much of their perceived support was simply the silence of the majority.

 Valuable Lessons from Information Collection

In dissecting the intricacies of Jammu and Kashmir, Prime Minister Modi realized that Article 370 enjoyed a higher salience in the power corridors of Delhi than on the streets of Kashmir. Contrary to public misconception in the policy and media circles, the people of Jammu and Kashmir did not hold Article 370 on any great pedestal; rather, their immediate concerns revolved around fundamental governance issues such as jobs, housing, basic infrastructure, education opportunities, healthcare facilities and disruption-free tourist season.

In fact, Article 370 was more of a formidable roadblock obstructing good governance in Jammu and Kashmir. Modi, cutting through the noise, recognized that development goals could only be achieved by removing this roadblock. These insights only solidified his belief in implementing policies grounded in the real needs and aspirations of the people, rather than misguided assumptions.

  (Above is the extract from Message from Prime Minister Narendra Modi

370 Undoing the Unjust

A New Future for J&K)