TALES OF TRAVESTY
DR. JITENDRA SINGH
It is a hilarious scene on the political stage of Jammu and Kashmir. As if to raise the box-office rating or, shall we say, the theatre TRP, the audience is treated to a guest appearance by India’s first crown prince and hier apparent Rahul Gandhi. Promptly responding to the continuing spate of killing of Panches and Sarpanches in Kashmir, the Congress party’s Prime Minister-in-waiting calls a meeting in New Delhi with a delegation of Kashmir Sarpanches and Panches on September 27, precisely on the day when at nearby Surajkund the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party is moving a political resolution against these killings. And, on October 4, when the entire Opposition in State legislature is cornering the Congress-National Conference coalition on the LPG slab, the Gandhi scion arrives in Srinagar amid media speculations that he is likely to work out with the Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister a formula for empowerment of Panches and Sarpanches even as the elder Abdullah and father of J&K Chief Minister proudly declares to the media that his son and the Nehru-Gandhi son are “on the same page”.
So, that is it! By a strange quirk of fate, Rahul Gandhi’s Kashmir iternary got linked to the destiny of Kashmir Panches and Sarpanches for whose clan Rahul’s father Rajiv Gandhi had so painstakingly worked out 73rd and 74th amendments of Indian constitution. What could have been more tragic for Rahul than to find himself torn between his commitment to his father’s ideals on the one hand and to his friend’s chief ministerial conceit on the other hand? The fall-out of this ironic predicament of Rahul’s is that even though in the rest of India he acts as the torch-bearer of his father’s biggest prime ministerial achievement in the form of 73rd and 74th amendments but while in Srinagar he is constrained to play it down.
Interestingly, even before Rahul could settle down to work out the serious task of ensuring security cum empowerment for Kashmir Panches and Sarpanches which was ostensibly the most important purpose of his Kashmir visit, the father-son duo of Farooq and Omar had swept him off his feet with bonhomie and hospitality marked by Farooq Abdullah’s proud recall before the Sonamarg rally about the close association shared by three generations of Abdullahs and Nehrus from Sheikh-Jawaharlal to Farooq-Rajiv and then Omar-Rahul. And, while Farooq Abdullah reminded the Sonamarg crowd how his father Sheikh Abdullah had joined hands with Jawaharlal Nehru in the interest of Jammu and Kashmir, he conveniently forgot to mention that his son Omar had held the hand of Atal Behari Vajpayee in whosever interest!
But, the most innovative message left by Rahul Gandhi was that he had discovered in Leh a Panchayat model which deserved to be followed in the rest of the country. So that proves Farooq Abdullah’s point……that the two friends, Rahul and Omar, are on the same page. While Omar believes that his Panchayat model is superior to 73, 74 amendment model followed in the rest of the country, Rahul apparently concludes that Leh Panchayat model is superior to even what is envisaged in 73,74 amendment model.
Finally, Rahul came and went. But the Panches and Sarpanches of Kashmir are reconciled to continue suffering the same plight. And the common man continues to be a soft militant target even though the Chief Minister dares militants to attack him. While no militant dare harm a CM who is protected by ‘Z’ security, Umapathy cites the poetic simile for unprotected Panches and Sarpanches “…..Mere Qabile Ka Har Fard Qatl-Gah Mein Hai!”
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