K.N. Pandita
Home Minister and Prime Minister, both have indicated that J&K statehood status could be revived in due course of time. Walking an additional step the PM said it could happen sooner than later. Their statements came when a new political party is on the anvil in Kashmir.
It can be variously interpreted such as political rhetoric to keep Kashmir stakeholders in a state of limbo; a ploy to covertly facilitate stabilization of the newly constituted Apni Party or it could mean to tone down the criticism of sections of national and international media writing viciously against reorganization of J&K and related matters.
Restoration of statehood to J&K is a commitment by implication. A demand for restoration is not blasphemy. Revival of statehood is technically workable. Nevertheless, the caveat in the official commitment is that environment has to be conducive.
The somewhat reassuring statements of two top leaders come at a time when a new political party (Apni Party) in Kashmir Valley draws New Delhi’s attention.. We are not privy to what transpired in their New Delhi interface. Nevertheless, political pundits agree that procrastination of political stalemate would be inadvisable if not counter-productive. Therefore the inevitable meltdown is noticeable and PSA relaxed.
Apni Party carries both positive and negative aspects with it. On the positive side, one can appreciate its initiative of breaking the stalemate and opening the prospect for political dialogue. It means breaking the jinx of terror stalking the valley since 1990. It also means forcing suspension of the politics of ambivalence by taking shelter behind the terror syndrome and hence the doublespeak. Nobody can say whether those who bade farewell to their original political parties and jumped onto Altaf bandwagon also left behind the old can of worms. New Delhi must find out whether these old faces in new avatar are on a mission of hunting with the hound and running with the hare..On the negative side, it is obvious that power rests with the masses of people. Apni Party’s grassroots status is ambiguous until the occurrence of pro-party rallies in the valley. That is the yardstick of Indian democracy. A massive support of the masses of people is the crux of the narrative. To say that appetite comes with eating is a crude and fragile argument.
The question is whether the people of the valley want to get rid of the stranglehold of traditional self-seeking politicians? Will the new party succeed in taking the masses of people back to the normal state of rational social behaviour from which they have been surreptitiously derailed? The success of the new political party lies in its ability to make people invest in politics sans chauvinism. Looking in retrospect, the last genuine public leader in Kashmir was Bakhshi Ghulam Muhammad and after him “the deluge”. All of his successors were fake and Congress saw to it that fake leadership in Kashmir prospered.
Apni Party leadership has New Delhi’s blessings. What are the parameters of understanding between the two? That equation notwithstanding, the core question is of intra-Kashmir equation. It is yet premature to speculate about that though NC proxying through Apni Party is what the political punditry suggests. That is why a former Pandit bureaucrat is included in the team.
In the context of restoration of the statehood, the crucial narrative was the phrase “conducive to the general atmosphere.” The term conducive can be interpreted variously. A state of turmoil is “conducive” to militant ideology. Will the antagonistic and disruptive elements in and out of Kashmir allow Kashmir to wriggle out of a state of turmoil and disruption to return to normal life? We, therefore, assume that the formidable task before the Apni Party will be to bring about metamorphosis of a frozen and fossilized mindset, particularly of the teen-aged generation of Kashmiris. For three decades in the past Kashmiris have been prepared and trained how to manufacture chaos and confusion to the society. The policy of previous regimes was to make them adepts in those machinations.
These are the dimensions of a new political initiative. There is one more pressing question. What were the reasons for breaking the statehood of J&K and reorganizing it? Home Ministry evades a direct answer. No. cast-iron reason is forthcoming. Let us not forget that J&K enjoys the highest income per capita in the country. Likewise, the number of the state employees vis-à-vis the population figures of Kashmir Valley shows the highest intake percentage.
The truth about re-organization is that PDP-BJP second coalition dragged the state to the brink of disaster by ruthlessly pursuing the policy of regional discrimination. They openly encouraged disruptive/separatist forces. Only the writ of the Jamat-i-Islami was covertly running in the state. It had penetrated the core of administrative machinery. PDP shrewdly made its BJP coalition partners the Lotus Eaters who were psychologically paralyzed after throwing a few crumbs to them. Days before the hammer stroke fell on August 5, an understanding of sorts had been forged among PDP, NC, Congress, the Left and other fringe groups, all having trained their guns at New Delhi. Time will tell what sinister plans crossed their heads.
Is the Home Minister convinced that that ominous scenario has faded away and now he will be received in Srinagar with bouquets? If not, then why would he want to ride the J&K statehood tiger? Would he not wait to assess the output of 186 lakh crore rupees investment package for J&K? We need to note that after Farooq’s release from house arrest, Nabi Azad rushed to meet with him, and Farooq lost no time in calling at the residence of Mehbooba Mufti. What is this body language? We hope the Home Minister has given good thought to the content of the Gupkar Declaration made in a joint resolution of all mainstream political paraties of the erstwhile state. The declaration, inter alia, said that any tampering with Article 370 will be declaring war against the people of Kashmir. Thus along with proxying through AP, Farooq & Co have chartered their political agenda.
Restoration of statehood is one of the demands in the valley. However, priorities have to be worked out. Kashmir watchers are of opinion that the task of rationalizing the criminalized, fundamentalized, indoctrinated and polluted minds of the dissident and separatist segment in the valley under relentless propaganda of our adversaries supersedes all other tasks and priorities.
(The writer is the former Director of the Centre of Central Asian Studies, Kashmir University)
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