Men, Matters & Memories
M L Kotru
Controversy appears to have been a constant companion of the People’s Democratic Party–Bharatiya Janata Party coalition government the first two weeks of their most unlikely tie-up. No time really for a honeymoon, not even of the odd couple type.
Looked like the two-month pre-nuptial parleying hadn’t really led to a marriage of minds. Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, the Chief Minister, for his part, believes he has been more than forthcoming while the terms of the contractual marriage were discussed and finally approved by the BJP and its domineering parivar.
This is no place to set out the details of the tough bargaining that preceded the agreement between the two to give it a try. A good thing for the State, one thought, after the divisive, split verdict the electorate had rendered, acknowledging, as it were, the BJP’s predominance as representative of “Hindu” Jammu and likewise of the PDP as the most significant voice of the “Muslim” valley.
So, with that understanding as the backdrop the two sides did agree to tie the knot – a marriage of convenience, really. What remained to be seen was would it be a happy one, with two dissimilar partners living together, at least for some of the six years their contract would appear to have tied them to; or, would it be one of those flash in the pan non-starters. A challenging situation, which only the brave would accept.
The initial euphoria with Prime Minister Narendra Modi choosing to attend the oath-taking ceremony of the Mufti Sayeed-led Government and the bonhomie on display on the occasion raised hopes of things being honky dory. Too true to believe, in fact.
In the event it did not take the fissures long to surface. Chief Minister Mufti Sayeed, clearly relying on his party’s well-articulated commitment to reconciling the conflicting voices, including, importantly the voices of separatists of various hues in the valley, with the national discourse, raised BJP’s hackles.
Particularly that one about the separatists having contributed to the massive turnout at the assembly polls by not trying to disrupt the polling. The Mufti was obviously thinking in terms of the absence of any form of violence during the campaign after the feeble Hurriyet call for a boycott had gone nearly unheard.
Serious objections were raised, with some mindlessly accusing the Mufti of having thanked the ‘Pakistani assets in the State’ for a popular, peaceful Statewide poll. The absurdity of the arguments advanced, mainly by garrulous Hindutva lobby on the many TV networks, had barely gone away before we had the other, potentially more damaging, incident involving the release of Mussarat Alam, the man behind the stone-pelting youth of 2010 who had brought life in the valley to a virtual standstill for months on end, an episode that also claimed some 112 lives, mostly of young stone-pelters.
Predictably, the news about Alam’s release, within days of Mufti’s taking over Government, sent Parliament in New Delhi into a tizzy, with former ally Congress in the van of the attack. The Prime Minister and the Home Minister, acting true fire fighters, found themselves put on the back-foot even as they tried to downplay their own anger. The anger at that moment was directed at Mufti Sayeed, Narendra Modi arguing at one point that neither he nor his Government had been consulted by the Mufti Government of which the Prime Minister’s was a part. The Home Minister was even more vehement promising a fuller version as soon as it was received from the State Home Department.
The truth though was substantially different. Alam who has a long list of cases pending against him has been bailed out on all but one of the 27 cases he faces. He did carry a Rs. 10-lakh prize on his head had finally been arrested under the State Public Safety Act under which he has remained behind bars for over four years. Under the PSA, though, it is incumbent on the authorities to have all extensions of detention reviewed by a three-member judicial advisory board. That’s what explains his longish incarceration thus far.
Only when the review fell due this time both the Omar Abdullah Government and later Governor N. N. Vohra, during his short rule, bridging Omar’s departure and the Mufti’s induction, chose not to follow up the District Magistrate’s view in this regard.
Neither approached the review board with the result that the detention had virtually become illegal. That’s what caused the release of Alam which in any case was of a piece with Mufti’s party’s commitment to reconciliation and his time-tested healing touch approach of an earlier era. The reconciliation bit does indeed find mention in the accord between the PDP and BJP. His release thus had been overdue and the State didn’t seem overly concerned.
Given the PDP’s political commitments and its convictions it perhaps chose to let the story find its own conclusion. If Governor Vohra had opted not to ask the State Home Department to move in the Alam matter the presumption would have been that the Centre too was not interested in opening the can of worms. Vohra, during the short spell of governor’s rule, was directly responsible to the Home Ministry and in fact expected to do its behest.
At another level, after he had taken over, it would seem the Mufti’s abiding faith in the ‘healing touch’ and his commitment to reconciliation, persuaded him not to reopen the Alam case ,particularly when both Omar Abdullah as Chief Minister and Vohra had opted to give it the Nelson’s eye.
In the circumstances it would seem irrelevant to ask if the Mufti’s BJP partners in the State Government were taken into confidence or not. The presumption, even wrongly, perhaps, was that the Home Ministry was already aware of the fact that Alam’s detention had legally ended weeks earlier and that no questions had been asked nor demands notified.
Evidence that all is well at the State level was available in the presence, in Srinagar and not Jammu where the crisis had erupted, of the Deputy Chief Minister, BJP’s Mr. Nirmal Singh. Mr. Singh was busy discussing issues of concern to the valley’s business community, particularly those hit by the unprecedented floods of some five months ago and still waiting for relief. He clearly wasn’t even aware of the crisis atmosphere that would envelop the coalition so soon and on an issue mistakenly not taken as seriously as it should have been.
If the crisis seems to have blown over or subsided for the present, the credit must go to a refreshing aspect of the PDP’s political negotiations with the BJP and the public disclosure of the coalition agenda. The Alam episode to that extent may well serve as a reminder to the partners as to where exactly to draw the line.
At the end of the first round the honours, in boxing parlance, are evenly shared. The Mufti’s constituents in the valley have as much reason to be satisfied as do the BJP’s in the Jammu region. Both the parties may have taken their time to chalk out a common minimum programme or the emphasis they have placed on good governance and it follows they also know that any volte face by either would result in a downward spiral of their fortunes in their respective constituencies.
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