Pass the buck — Kashmiris have seen this game for long. Mehbooba, Abdullahs must change tack

This article was originally published by ThePrint on December 09, 2020.

JAVAID TRALI

Jammu and Kashmir has the infamous distinction of being one of those very few places where ‘politics of deceit’ has been normalised by politicians of all hues. The politicians here have mastered the art of lying and befooling people, apart from external-scapegoating. Instead of owning responsibility for the development and well-being of the region, and reviewing their own shortcomings, they apportion and put the blame on the political ‘other’, including some of their own. However, mostly it is the Union government that comes under attack. No wonder, ‘Centre ki chaal’ or ‘Dilli ki chaal’ has become a cliché for all Jammu and Kashmir politicians.

After the abrogation of Article 370 and 35A, for long, having held the belief that they were untouchable and could get away with anything, Kashmir’s mainstream political leadership was left stunned. The majority of leaders were caught off-guard, and after the initial sabre rattling, went into a state of disbelief. Due to their detention, they were spared from explaining to the people what had happened.

A year later when they were finally allowed to walk free, they resorted to the age-old trick of passing the buck, and not owning any responsibility for their collective failures over the years, which include mis-governance and mainstreaming of massive institutional corruption among others. Cobbling together of what is now known as the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) was needed, but more for the political survival of its constituents than for any other reason, including the professed claim of fighting for “restoration of the lost dignity of the J&K people”. The blame-game in the Valley has reached a new crescendo.

Why the blame game won’t work now

Today, blaming the Centre, or more specifically the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), may seem politically expedient for the local leadership, but the people, having looked through them and their deeds over the years are way too mature to read the political machinations.

Take the example of former chief ministers Farooq Abdullah, his son Omar Abdullah and their foe-turned-friend Mehbooba Mufti. Their pitch of strong regionalism has always been the loudest, they and their party leaders’ anti-Delhi or anti-BJP rhetoric the shrillest. But isn’t it a fact that they are the ones who have, in the past, forged alliances with the same party?

These very politicians enticed the BJP to come and test its political fortunes in J&K, especially in the Kashmir Division where the party had a negligible presence. Now if the BJP has, after years of its investment here, emerged as a formidable player, why are they united in pitting against it? Why don’t these regional players look at their own weaknesses and deficiencies for losing political space and appeal to a national party? Have not these politicians been guilty of using the same communal and divisive political messaging that they accuse BJP of?

In the past one year, the State action has been directed exclusively towards the militants, while during the rule of these regional leaders, the civilians remained at the receiving end of the State action. The civilian killings and blinding during the agitations of 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2016 serve as well-documented evidence.

Mehbooba, Abdullahas and the BJP

Mehbooba Mufti’s insensitive “toffee and milk” taunt directed towards the innocent youth who received bullets and pellets during the height of 2016 agitation is an open wound, too fresh in the minds of the people who take her current shrill pronouncements with a pinch of salt. One may recall it was senior BJP leader and then Home Minister Rajnath Singh who flanked Mehbooba Mufti during that 2016 press conference. Rajnath saved the day for her with his deft handling of what, otherwise, was not only insensitive, but also an immensely immature and irresponsible remark not befitting a chief minister.

Have the people of J&K forgotten the summer of 2008, when stone-pelting was mainstreamed in the Amarnath land transfer agitation? The agitation was started and given communal colour by none other than Mehbooba Mufti to attain political one-upmanship with her then coalition partner Congress. The protests furthered the divide — not just between J&K and the rest of the country, but also between the Jammu and Kashmir Division.

Omar Abdullah’s abject failure as chief minister during the 2009-2010 unrest is another grim example of poor local leadership. And what happened to the commission his government had set up to probe those killings? Farooq Abdullah had his own ‘dealings’ with the BJP. He traded off the autonomy resolution passed in June 2000 with a thumping majority by the J&K legislature for his son’s ministerial berth in the NDA government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee and also for his personal aspiration of becoming the Vice-President of India.

Their complicity in promoting and patronising a culture of nepotism, favouritism and corruption in the erstwhile state and its after-effects is for all to see. Can anyone name a single institution in J&K that has not been a warehouse of popular frustration for the sheer reason that politically influential and connected people have sat over the heads of the deserving and talented people? Even the colleges, universities and other such institutions that prepare the workforce for the future are not spared. Take the example of Islamic University of Science and Technology (IUST). A cursory look at the profiles of its teaching and non-teaching staff, including even those in Class-IV jobs, would lay bare the political meddling in job recruitments at this varsity.

The appointment of a prominent separatist leader’s grandson Anees-ul-Islam Shah to a much-coveted post in SKICC (Sher-i-Kashmir International Conference Centre) at the peak of civil unrest in 2016 shows the PDPs secret understanding with a certain political thought and camp. Today, the PDP chief may want to defend her youth wing leader Waheed Parra as being “innocent”, but no one can deny how political favour and support during elections was returned by way of accommodation in government institutions in her tenure. Government records are there as testimony and a cursory look at them will unravel this knot. Of course, a thorough probe, if carried out, will lay bare many more dishonest, fraudulent, or illegal practices.

The Pakistan card

We wonder if the separatists, especially those who were not jailed, assessed their politics over the last 16 months. Why is it that they, despite calling shots for close to three decades, were left powerless all of a sudden? How could a State that had all along been mollycoddling them and willing to engage, suddenly decided to demolish them?

Here is a simple explanation, something that would make sense even to an average Kashmiri. The separatists have been doing someone else’s bidding, in spite of their claim of being representatives of the Kashmiri people. They never really cared for the people. Instead, they took dictations from their masters in Pakistan and did everything to secure their interests.  Refusing every single engagement that the central government has offered, the separatists have insisted on Pakistan representing the Kashmiris at the discussion table.

It should suffice to say that if all it takes to resolve the suffering of the common Kashmiri is for India and Pakistan to talk, then India will do it of its own volition, as dictated by its expedient national interests, and not under the pressure of a third party.

India and Pakistan are two sovereign countries. They may have political assets here and there, but dialogue is a prerogative of their respective foreign policies. It does not matter what Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq or Mehbooba Mufti think and want. By harping on ‘hold dialogue with Pakistan’, Mehbooba is showing a red rag to a proverbial bull, and creating needless baggage, not only for herself and her party, but also for the PAGD. It would be interesting to see how her other PADG partners react to her pro-Pakistan posturing and the resultant impact on their collective fortunes.

This article was originally published by ThePrint on December 09, 2020.

Views are personal.