Dr. Farooq Abdullah: The Peter Pan of Indian politics

Despite now being classed as an octogenarian politician, Dr. Farooq shows no sign of political maturity

Javaid Trali

Politics, according to Webster, is “the science and art of government”. Though it is generally viewed as something that encourages corruption; however, its dictionary synonyms are “discreet, provident, diplomatic, wise….”

So if politics is the art of doing a ‘thing’ wisely, then wisdom also lies in knowing when not to do a ‘thing’. If politics is about raising an issue, then it is also about knowing when to let it go. There is certainly no room for overdoing anything in politics because there is a very thin line separating politics from idiocy and imprudence. No wonder, the dictionary antonyms for ‘wise’ are imprudent, foolish, thoughtless and silly!

National Conference President Dr. Farooq Abdullah, and for that matter, every single person active in the arena called politics will have to make a choice – as to which side of the line they want to be on. Do they want to be counted among the wise, or otherwise?

The choice is entirely theirs. However, if they choose the former, which is what politics is all about, then they will have to rethink how they develop strategies and tactics, and more specifically public utterances.

Unfortunately, this is an area where senior Abdullah is found wanting. He has always had this tendency of getting worked up to the extent of being reckless, which has also earned him the Kashmiri nicknames.

Farooq Abdullah has so many pluses to his credit. His biggest strength lies in his oratory, which makes him a darling of the media. He is seemingly never short of issues and most of the time comes up with perfectly fantastic expressions which not only ensure his presence in the news space, but also keep his adversaries on proverbial tenterhooks. But this also makes his fans and supporters uneasy, perennially.

Of late, like in the past, he has attracted huge praise for “taking a stand for the people of Jammu and Kashmir”. After his recent assertions on how he and his political adversaries now-turned-colleagues and the common people in Kashmir feel about the abrogation of J&K’s special status, and how strongly they believe that the constitutional arrangement must be restored, Abdullah did signal that he has all the qualifications for heading the political amalgamation that may well be called as the “Gupkar Declaration — I and II and now “Peoples Alliance for Gupkar Declaration’”.

In his interaction with Karan Thapar, Abdullah was very impressive, mixing anger, insult and frustration in an appropriate measure with the political resolve to fight for the restoration of J&K’s pre-August 2019 status in a peaceful and legal way. So while he attracted praise for his political craft, his assertions also struck a chord with a huge audience across India, exposing them, perhaps for the first time, to the ‘other side’ of the Kashmir picture,  which had thus far got very limited media coverage.

But Farooq Abdullah is Farooq Abdullah – his biggest undoing is being who he is. Like an unguided missile, he recklessly shows complete disregard to various sensitivities and goes on trampling over every visible and invisible red-line often in his over-enthusiasm. This is exactly what he did when he said that Article 370 will be restored in J&K with China’s “support”.

Now whether this statement, as alleged by the ruling BJP, is seditious or not can be debated some other time, but it is certainly not in good taste for a huge majority, including his own colleagues in politics and those who feel strongly about Kashmir and its people and share good empathy with/for them.

And there are reasons for it. India and China are engaged in a violent face-off in Ladakh for months now. The situation in the eastern part of the Himalayan cold desert is so tense that both countries have amassed a huge military arsenal in the region for a possible flare-up and escalation into a full-blown confrontation. Despite several rounds of talks at military and diplomatic levels, the logjam has continued and is already spilling over into the fast-approaching winter, which adds to the physical, material and psychological costs for the country, whose resources are already overstretched because of the COVID-19 pandemic and pandemic-induced economic slowdown.

For India, the dragon is clearly the aggressor, who is continually refusing to abide by and adhere to the already agreed border demarcations and management protocols. A few months back, India also lost 20 of its troops to the Chinese aggression in the region (Galwan heights) while scores of others were injured.

In such a charged-up atmosphere, Farooq Abdullah’s assertions about the possibility of Chinese “support” for the restoration of Article 370, is outright provocative, overly insensitive, and politically very unwise.

In politics no issue and its articulation, how-so-ever important it may seem, yields desired dividends if its votaries are not sensitive enough to put it to cost-benefit analysis before speaking on it. This is why the political leaders are advised to make careful choices on how far to go with an issue — when to say what, to whom, where and how in as much as they need to know when not to say what, to whom, where and how, and most importantly why. The success or failure of their politics lies in mastering this very art.

Kashmir has in the past too paid a very heavy cost for lack of such acumen among its political leaders. There was a time when Kashmiri separatists had a good chunk of sympathizers within the Indian mainland, including among its intelligentsia.  But once the former relegated itself to a mere pawn in the hands of the neighboring country – exclusively and blindly supporting and executing its diktats – it did not take long for the Indian mainstream to recalibrate its priorities vis-à-vis Kashmir.

That China is not happy with the reorganization of Jammu and Kashmir or India developing military infrastructure along its borders with it is known and easily understood. So there is nothing new in Farooq Abdullah saying so. Now one may most respectfully ask: what was the need for talking of Chinese “support” forcing the restoration of Article 370? More so because previously Abdullah himself had pledged to fight for restoration of J&K’s special constitutional arrangement in a peaceful, democratic and legal way from within the system.

If at all National Conference president wanted to make some point by showing his belligerent defiance of the BJP-ruled Centre, he should have done it inside the Parliament of which he is a sitting member. Even if the ‘umpire is partisan’ as he alleges, as an MP he has certain privileges which he could avail to verbalize his and party’s ideas. But outside, he is today not just the National Conference MP or its party president; he also represents those who have pledged allegiance to the Gupkar Declarations.

Farooq Abdullah should be given a chance to explain his impulsive behavior. However, one can still guess a few possible reasons for it.

One, as an unguided missile he certainly does not know when to and where to stop and why? In that case, he is not a politician in the real sense. Recall the antonyms of ‘wise’ cited at the beginning of this article!

Second, he is a habitual rabble-rouser, a political jester and charmer, who derives pleasure in hell-raising and doesn’t really give a damn about its impact anywhere, not here not elsewhere. In that case, he cannot be taken seriously!

Third, he is one among that breed of politicians who don’t want resolution of issues. All they want is to generate as much heat as possible just to keep the “Kashmir issue” pot boiling.

One can go on and on like this but in that case, it will be the author overdoing his ‘thing’!

One last thing, and certainly a friendly counsel for all: Ever wondered why masterpieces of philosophy and scientific statements are no longer than a few words — like E=mc2, for instance? “It is basically a determination not to detour around reality.” And reality how-so-much ugly must be confronted, for then only could one strive to have ugliness make way for the beauty.