India’s handling of the recent uprising in occupied-Jammu and Kashmir bears testament to the hollowness of Indian claims to being a liberal democracy. A region that India considers its integral part but with the rhetoric limited only to the area and not the people, Kashmir through its resistance has passed verdict on its treatment by India: settle for nothing short of azadi (freedom). This freedom is an expression of Kashmiri calls for dignity and rights, which they have been deprived by India. New Delhi is viewed by the Kashmiris as a tyrannical centre, and all those that partner with New Delhi as accomplices who perpetuate that status quo. After all, in the presence of draconian laws such as the Public Safety Act, which sanctions arbitrary arrest, and the Armed Forces Special Special Forces Act, which gives law enforcement agencies wide ranging powers, the democratic exercise in Kashmir has been rendered into a farce. In its pursuit of suppressing the Kashmiri uprising, the Indian government has put the majority of separatist leaders behind bars. In the absence of any case against them, it is a travesty of justice and repudiation of fundamental human rights that leaders like Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yaseen Malik have been locked up, and that too reportedly, in solitary confinement for long periods of time. Forsaking the route of dialogue altogether, India has instead tried to justify its security-centred approach by denying the indigenous character of the Kashmiri movement altogether, and instead, blamed Pakistan for fomenting and supporting the rebellion in Kashmir. How Pakistan can create such a widespread movement, and keep it financed despite its own economic limitations, or even if that is somehow the case, how come the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) coalition government in Kashmir have not been able to discover and destroy this channel are questions that India has not given answers to. Rather all that India has achieved through this propaganda is divert world attention from Kashmir and instead focus it on Pakistan to answer for its alleged wrongdoings. It is not just in Pakistan that India is being called out for its human rights violations in the valley. Even in certain segments of Indian society itself, Indian excesses and the need for dialogue in order to end the conflict is increasingly being talked about. Most recently, an Indian journalist, Santosh Bhartiya, in his open letter to Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi has talked about the alienation of Kashmiris from the rest of India, the aggression in Kashmiris against India, and the high level influence of the Hurriyat Conference in occupied-Jammu and Kashmir. Most importantly, the journalist pressed upon Modi to talk to all stakeholders in Kashmir, including the Hurriyat. This was even in the election manifesto of the PDP, but, the way PDP turned on its earlier promises, and, instead, adopted a heavy-handed approach of dealing with the people whom it is ostensibly elected to serve is reflective of the authoritarian character of rule that Kashmiris are subjected to. However, the PDP-BJP coalition government has an opportunity to live up to its words, and it should initiate dialogue with the separatists in Kashmir. In the light of how certain ideologies give way for others, and how an armed struggle is renounced for a framework of peaceful solutions, the PDP has the example of its own minister, Sajjad Lone, who was, once upon a time, a separatist leader. Perhaps, he can be made use of to open a channel of communication between the separatists and the Indian government in order to work out a settlement. Pakistan and India have so far been incapable of even coming to the negotiating table to resolve the Kashmir dispute. In the meantime, Kashmiris should not have to live in their present state of anger, fear and pain. Let Kashmiris — pro-freedom, pro-India, pro-Pakistan — talk to one another to find a way to resolve their issues to bring peace to their beautiful valley. *