Rekha Chowdhary
More than a month after indications were given by senior leaders of People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) including Farooq Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti that the parties comprising the PAGD will jointly contest the Assembly polls, the provincial committee of the National Conference, chaired by Omar Abdullah, the Vice President of the party, passed a resolution that the party will contest all the 90 seats of the Assembly on its own. This resolution of the party showing the intention of the party to go alone has aroused lot of queries. Questions have been raised not only about the NC’s relationship with PAGD but also the very future of PAGD. Many saw this development as a direct jolt to the PAGD having the implication of weakening the Alliance. Question have also been raised about the internal working of the NC with Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah taking different directions of politics.
In response to these question, Farooq Abdullah while asserting the right of a democratic party like NC to pass any resolution, has also stated that the final decision regarding the participation in the election would be taken around the time when elections take place.
However, the whole episode brings out the dilemma that is faced by the NC regarding its role in the competitive politics in J&K on the one hand and its relationship with the PAGD, on the other. This despite the fact that in the formation of PAGD, NC has played a major role and from the beginning Farooq Abdullah has been its chairman. With the PDP being the other large party of Kashmir as its member (along with smaller partners like ANC, CPM and CPI) it forms the core of this Alliance. So why the Dilemma?
Dilemma is in relation to the competitive politics of Kashmir. Since 2002 when PDP came into the electoral scenario as a serious competitor to the NC, the two parties have contested each election as bitter rivals, the rivalry continues to remain at the ground, at the cadre level and even at the level of mid-level leadership. Even when the top leaders of these parties came together to form the alliance called the PAGD, the structure and organisational reality of each of these parties continue to operate as per the logic of the party politics.
The formation of PAGD and its relation with election has different logic. PAGD was formed in reaction to August 2019 changes, especially the abrogation of the special constitutional status of the State. The Kashmir based parties formed the alliance to fight for restoration of this status. Its decision to enter the electoral politics was strategic at the time of DDC elections. Facing the negative political campaign of the BJP against the traditional mainstream parties of Kashmir and its aggressive agenda of annihilating these traditional parties, these parties decided to contest election through the platform of PAGD.
Though the PAGD succeeded with a massive mandate in Kashmir Valley, it was quite clear that the NC as an individual party was much ahead of other parties. And this resulted in NC’s reassessment of its political position within Jammu and Kashmir even after the abrogation of special constitutional status of the state. The loss of confidence which was a result of the loss of its core political issue – the Autonomy and the aggressive campaign of the BJP – was now substituted by a newly gained conviction about the party’s potential in power politics, especially in Kashmir Valley. This resulted in the party adopting a pragmatic approach towards the political issues. Post-DDC election, one could see NC rather than approaching issues with rigidities and extremism, taking a more pragmatic approach. For instance, the party has successfully delinked the Article 370 issue from the electoral politics. By taking a position that party is using the legal channel and fighting the case in the Supreme Court, the party has taken this issue out of the focus of electoral politics. And despite showing its resentment over various issues including delimitation process as well as continued stalemate over the restoration of Statehood, the party has taken a clear stand that it will not shun the electoral politics and will participate in the election whenever these take place.
One can see that much of pragmatism of NC is located in its stake in power politics. The party sees itself as a potential competitor for power with a sufficient support at the ground level.
PDP, on the other hand, has been a much bruised party. Since 2018, it has been facing a perennial crisis. It has been losing its leaders to other parties. Though NC has also lost its leaders to parties like BJP, PC and Apni Party but due to its long history and its rooted cadre, it has been able to meet the challenge of defectors quite well. But for PDP, a relatively new party, the situation is quite critical. Most of its founding members have already left it. This has created almost an existential crisis for this party. And for that reason, unlike the NC, the PDP is not looking at the electoral politics with such an enthusiasm. And with not as high stakes in power politics as the NC, the party has got more stakes with PAGD. Mehbooba Mufti, one can see, is hardening her stance.
It is with reference to the reality of the competitive politics that one can see how the two parties are differently related to the PAGD. For PDP, PAGD is an extension of its politics, especially in the context of demand for restoration of the special constitutional status of the state. And due to its critical situation, it certainly requires both the politics of the PAGD and its platform for contesting election. It suits the party if PAGD enters the Assembly election with all the members of the Alliance (including the NC) contest the election under its common platform.
For NC, the situation is somewhat different. It is not that it does not need PAGD or finds it as a liability. For the ideological issue and particularly for its fight against the BJP, it certainly needs PAGD. And yet, its electoral ambitions push it to go beyond PAGD.
Situation, however remains in a flux and can be changing at any point. In the long term, the NC may take the decision to contest the Assembly election under the platform of PAGD or go independently – depending on the circumstances as these develop before the election. However, the present episode of NC’s provincial party resolution of going alone should be seen in terms of two realities of Kashmir : first, that PAGD and political parties have their own logic and existence. With the formation of PAGD, the political parties did not dissolve themselves and have continued to operate as individual parties. These parties relate to the PAGD keeping intact their party interest. Hence, these may use the platform for electoral purposes only if it suits them. Parties like the People’s Conference decided to opt out of PAGD quite early, as it found the platform damaging its electoral interest. NC can similarly devise a method to delink itself from PAGD for electoral purpose while remaining aligned with it for other purposes.
Related with it is the second reality which relates to the traditional rivalry between the NC and the PDP. The two parties continue to maintain their political stance and their individual party-logic. The rivalry that exists at the ground level does not dissolve automatically and would come to surface from time to time. This time also, the issues that were confronted related to the inter-party rivalry. The resolution passed by the provincial party to contest on all 90 seats, was in response to the complaints made by the cadre at the ground level about the speeches, statements and jingles made by PDP against the NC. This episode clearly reflects the discomfort of the cadre about making peace with the rival party. The response of Omar Abdullah, also reflects the normal response of a competitive political party leader faced by a rival party campaign.
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