The proverbial “miles to go” must come into play in respect of the Prime Minister’s welcome suggestion of a nuanced outreach to the alienated Kashmir Valley in an Independence Day address that ticked all the right boxes. Only the follow-up action will determine how far Narendra Modi will go to snap the link between separatism, jihadi terrorism and traditional autonomyaspirations.

It is true that this government never ruled out negotiations, but it always imposed conditions unacceptable to separatist elements headed by the All Party Hurriyat Conference that are regularly projected as anti-national. A mini-miracle will have been performed if Modi can create fresh space in which queries unresolved since 1947 can be addressed anew in a manner only he is capable of.

Rightly did the Prime Minister emphasise from the Red Fort that there would be no relaxation on the counter-insurgency front, yet he will have much work to do before a new template is created in which protests by the common folk (now schoolgirls included) are not bracketed with gun-toting militants.

Key to that exercise will be overhauling the administrative machinery headed by a lessthan-competent Mehbooba Mufti.

Her laudatory response to Modi’s outreach effort is over-simplistically optimistic, perhaps indicative of her reluctance to accept that the separatist/jihadi elements would not have found the ground so fertile if good governance had been delivered.

Modi will have to mount a massive effort at administrationimprovement before he can wrest the initiative away from those indoctrinated to believe that ‘azadi’ is their sole hope for succour.

He would also need to curb intemperate comments from his underlings which could derail all efforts towards retrieving a vexatious situation. There are a couple of positive pointers.

The defence minister has said that a combination of demonetisation and the NIA crackdown on the source of terrorist-funding has altered the situation on the ground, which means the opportunity for attempting a healing touch is at hand. This sets the appropriate stage for the initiative Mr Modi now wants to take. The deputy-chief minister indicates that the BJP will put “on hold” its long-standing bid to end J&K’s special Constitutional status until it has a mandate of its own.

The Centre could “firm up” that position by taking a categorical position in the apex court ~ at present its stance is vague.

The BJP, at all levels, will have to come to terms with the political leadership in the Valley consistently creating the impression of a stand-off between New Delhi and Srinagar. And learn to accept that the only Muslim-majority state will tread a path at some variance with the rest of the country.

All that, of course, is for the future. Of immediate concern is the government’s commitment to translating Mr Modi’s vision into reality. The people of Kashmir maintain they have been repeatedly short-changed; it is for the leader with as wide an acceptance nationally as to bring about the transformation.