Prime Minister's peace balm for Kashmir's angry youth

New Delhi: Tufail Mattoo, Amir Ashraf - Kashmir's children of conflict. Children and teenagers who have become the face of the Kashmir tragedy. (Watch: Kashmir's children of conflict)

The two-month strife that began with the death of 17-year-old Tufail Mattoo. A boy who was walking back home from a tuition class when a tear gas shell, apparently meant for a protesting mob, burst his head open.

From then, angry young men have poured out on to the streets in defiance of not just the curfew, but possible death itself and it was to them that the Prime Minister sought to speak directly.

Flanked by key ministers of his government, Dr Singh went on television to accept both their anger and their pain as legitimate. Quietly accepting that this was a generation that was disengaged, alienated and traumatised, Manmohan Singh said, "I understand the pain and anger of the young people."

While other politicians may have mentioned Pakistan or prefixed their description of protesters with the now commonly-used term stone-pelters, the PM was careful not to make moral judgments.

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Speaking in Urdu, Manmohan Singh also accepted that mistakes had been made and referring repeatedly to Kashmir's generation next, conceded that there were no easy solutions in sight. "The solution has to be political and through dialogue. We appeal to everyone to talk." And in a state where security forces have been locked into hostile confrontation with the raw rage of street protesters, the PM indicated, with his Defence Minister present, "I am aware of the public sentiments on the Armed Forces Special Powers Act."

In his closing remarks at the meeting the Prime Minister said,"If there is consensus among political parties on autonomy for J&K, we will consider within the ambit of the Constitution."

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Dr Manmohan Singh reiterated that he was aware of the alienation of the people of Jammu and Kashmir and that it had to be removed. "People of the state must have a life of self-respect and dignity," he said. 

The Kashmir that watched and listened to every word, was no longer the Valley of 1990, when the separatist movement first erupted. Or even 2000, when militancy was the biggest challenge. This is Kashmir in 2010, where despite having the youngest Chief Minister in the country, it is the young men and women, who have lived in the shadow of conflict since they were born, that India has to find a way of talking to.