Rekha Chowdhary
After 2019, it was not only the structure of the representative politics that underwent a drastic change in J&K (about which I talked in my last article), but there have been various other changes in the political scenario. Of these the most crucial changes that need to be analysed relate to the state of political parties. The party politics, as we will see in this and the next few articles, has been impacted by the developments that took place in last few years.
In this article an attempt will be made to understand how Kashmir-based mainstream parties reacted to the abrogation of the special constitutional status of the state and how these parties changed their stance from ‘protest’ to begin with to ‘pragmatism’ in last few years.
The Kashmir-based parties were severely impacted by the August 2019 changes. With the abrogation of the special constitutional status of the state, these parties experienced a sort of existential crisis and a loss of their political narrative. Despite their political difference with each other, leaders of these parties had almost a consensus on the importance of Article 370 for the state in general and Kashmir in particular. Defence of Autonomy under this Article was therefore not only the starting point for every political party but also a distinct mark for their status as ‘mainstream parties.’ Known as pro-Accession and pro-Constitution parties, these parties distinguished themselves from the separatist organisations mainly on the ground that while latter contested both the Accession of the state as well as the Constitution of India, these parties grounded themselves in the Constitution of India. So the reading down of Article 370 cut the ground under the feet of the mainstream parties. After August 2019, the leaders of these parties were completely confused as to what to offer to people and how to make their politics relevant in Kashmir. It was an existential crisis for these parties.
In this situation of existential crisis the first response of these parties was to resort to protest politics through the formation of People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) which had restoration of Article 370 as its sole objective. Almost all political parties based in Kashmir allied themselves with it. These included the National Conference, PDP, People’s Conference (PC), Jammu and Kashmir Awami National Conference (ANC), CPM, Jammu and Kashmir People’s Movement (JKPM).
Though seemingly poised for long protest, these mainstream parties were faced with a difficult situation when the District Development Council (DDC) elections were announced towards the end of 2020. Boycott of these elections was an option but it was an option full of peril. In the absence of their participation, the political vacuum would be filled by new political actors and these parties would become redundant. Already facing the existential crisis, these parties could not take the risk of giving election a miss and therefore decided to participate. However, to continue with their protest, rather than competing with each other, these rival parties decided to fight the elections together under the common platform of PAGD.
DDC election however changed the equation among these parties and differences started emerging regarding their approach towards electoral process and their association with PAGD. With the exception of PDP which remained interested in joint political response of all the mainstream parties of Kashmir under the banner of PAGD, other parties stared having second thoughts about operating only through the PAGD. Sajad Lone’s People’s Conference was the first party to withdraw from PAGD. Others, while not directly opting out of PAGD, found more pragmatic ways to return back to the logic of competition. In any case, having a history of bitter competition and rivalry at the ground level, the cadre and the leadership of these parties could not remain comfortable dissolving their distinct identities in PAGD for long time.
By the time, the leaders of these parties were invited by Prime Minister Modi to have a meeting in Delhi in June 2021, leaders of these parties had already adopted pragmatic approach towards electoral politics. In the meeting with the PM, no political party raised any issue about Article 370 and rather got persuaded to participate in the Delimitation process taking place back home. Understanding the importance of participation in the electoral process for their survival, the leaders of these parties started making a distinction between their electoral role and their fight for Article 370. The fight for Article 370, as most of the mainstream party leaders took the position, was a matter to be legally contested in the judiciary and therefore was not linked with the electoral politics.
With a strategic distinction made between electoral politics and the politics around Article 370, the political parties could now take a more pragmatic approach towards the electoral politics. The key leaders from Kashmir therefore started declaring their keenness to participate in electoral politics and PAGD almost became a history.
Meanwhile, the traditional electoral rivalries started coming out in open. People’s Conference that had taken a formal decision to come out of the PAGD, had already started adopting a combative approach towards other parties, more particularly the National Conference, NC also started weighing its role in the future politics of the state vis-a-vis other parties. The boost that this party got with the DDC results, made it confident about its future prospects in Kashmir. Its leadership and cadre therefore started insisting on competing with, rather than going along with, other parties during the Assembly election whenever these would take place. Omar Abdullah therefore has been declaring the intention of the party of going alone in the next Assembly election.
It is the PDP alone that has been continuing to have its stake in the PAGD politics and seeking a combined fight of all the parties in the Assembly election. The thrashing that the party has taken place in last few years, has rendered it quite weak (more about it in the next Article) and therefore its interest lies in a unity with rather than competition among the parties.
As the present situation shows, much has changed in the political response of political parties. These parties have come a long way from their earlier stance when these linked their participation with restoration of special constitutional status of the state. Later, some of the parties even put condition of restoration of statehood for J&K for their participation in electoral politics. But ultimately, one after the other, the prominent leaders of these parties not only started stating that their party will participate in election with or without the restoration of the statehood but also demanding elections at the earliest.
(Feedback welcome at rekchowdhary@gmail.com)
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