Srinagar, March 25 -- The home minister attributed this to the prime minister "Narendra Modi's vision of building a developed, peaceful and unified Bharat." Speaking in Rajya Sabha, the home minister backed up his claim with figures. While in 2004, 1,587 incidents of violence were reported in J&K, the number dropped to just 85. Similarly, civilian deaths, according to home ministry figures, have fallen from 733 to 26, and security personnel casualties have declined from 331 to 31 over the same period. It is also obvious that the stone-pelting is now virtually non-existent. Strikes, once a routine method of expressing dissent, have also disappeared.

However, the renunciation of separatism by the two Hurriyat constituent groups has a certa...