From the Editor-in-Chief


	Feb 7, 2000

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Who has India's toughest job? I think it's Farooq Abdullah. As chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, he has the unenviable task of keeping both his reluctant people and the Centre happy while trying to stay alive. It is an enormously difficult but extremely vital job. The fresh build-up of tension we now see on the Indo-Pak border and the war-like noises on either side have a single point of origin: Kashmir. As long as the state boils, we can never live in peace. Kashmir's future -- and indeed our own -- will be determined by how well Farooq does his work.

And so this week's cover story analyses how he's doing as Kashmir, after Kargil and the hijacking, casts a long shadow over India. In 1996 Farooq came to power with a two-thirds majority, promising to reconstruct a shattered state. He said he would reconstruct schools that had been burned down, bridges that were blown up; he promised autonomy to replace the popular call of azadi. The flamboyant Farooq, who's commonly accused of spending more time on the golf course and away from his troubled state, hasn't kept those promises. He blames the Centre for most of his ills. Our story examines why Kashmir is deteriorating again. Militancy and maladministration apart, there is the vexatious question of autonomy. We bring you the report of a state government committee which demands maximum autonomy. Now hanging fire with the Centre, it could, explains Special Correspondent Ramesh Vinayak who spent a week in the Valley researching the story, lead to a confrontation between Farooq and the Centre. Meanwhile, suicide squads launch deadly attacks on army camps. Says Associate Editor Harinder Baweja who's covered Kashmir since 1989 and has met Farooq several times: "He has charm and courage, but somehow these don't reflect on the ground." If that continues, Kashmir could be a flashpoint for subcontinental conflict soon.

(Aroon Purie)

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