POLITICAL DIARY

New Delhi, 14 August 2008

Kashmir And National Turmoil

Prisoners Of Lok Sabha Poll

By Poonam I Kaushish

Two months is indeed a long time in politics. Till yesterday, for the Congress-led UPA Government, India was shining. The Indo-US nuclear deal was sealed, the Left baggage discarded, the Opposition BJP had inflicted a self-defeating goal and the nation was winging its way to victory. Notwithstanding the terror blasts and the spiraling prices. Chhoddoh kal ki baatein it hummed to the party-poopers, wet blankets and the ever-cynical, the UPA was all ready to ride the crest of an euphoric naya daur. Till Amarnath changed the political dynamics of India for all times to come.

Today tragically the country is under siege. Questions abound. What went wrong and who was to blame? The State Government? It’s myopic Governor? The regional parties in J&K? The Centre afflicted by its moribund minorityism? Or the ‘majority’ obsessed Opposition which had once again upped the Hindutva ante?

All stood guilty. The causes and reasons might differ. Nonetheless, the political foreplay, the fuelling of communal passions and religious fervour coupled with the prostitution of the State’s authority and Constitutional propriety indulged by one and all has set the Kashmir clock back to pre-Independence India.

Alas, there is no Gandhi, Nehru or Patel to brook some sense in the swirling bloody medley of violence. No leader who could step back and take up cudgels that the time had come for myopic partisan politics, played by petty netas to take a back seat and be replaced with statesmanship. All are busy reveling in inciting peoples’ angst and serenading sectarian casteist and communal sentiments. All prisoners of their vote-banks and the ensuing Lok Sabha poll.

Which begs yet another question. What kind of secularism do we practice? Do we truly believe in the secular character of the State? Is it insulated from religion? Aren’t all religions per se secular?

Even as the ‘communal’ Saffron Sangh bellows from roof tops that the so-called ‘secular’ parties actually practice pseudo-secularism by promoting minorityism, think and ponder: The people of Jammu have as much right on the Amarnath land as also the rest of the State as their brethren in the Valley and elsewhere in Kashmir. They too have a stake in the State’s economic development and prosperity.

None can deny that the Kashmiris, too have played a lead role in providing the logistics and ensuring the safe passage of the Amarnath yatris for over 100 years. The same applies to the other Hindu shrines including Vaishno Devi. How does a mere 100 acres take away their religiosity? Or their Kashmiriyat? Or change the demography of the Valley?

It is the easiest to apportion blame on the regional players. Mufti and Mehbooba’s PDP and Farooq Abdullah’s NC. True, they played Kashmiriyat to the hilt. But then being a regional outfit could one expect them to play any other card? How would they garner votes? And keep themselves in the business of politics and survive. They have made no bones that they stand for Kashmir, the Muslim Kashmiris and them alone. Also, known is their Pakistani tilt which has been played whenever it has suited them. It is the Centre’s foolishness to expect them to voice nationalistic feelings of Hamara Bharat Mahan.

In fact, Mehbooba, Farooq and the Hurriyat’s Mirwaiz Umar Farooq made plain where their loyalties lay in a television debate last week. All stated in uncertain terms that the Amarnath land controversy only symbolized the larger Kashmir issue and the uprising for aazadi. Is the Centre deaf to this cacophony? Or is it merely playing ignorant so as not to upset its minority vote-bank apple cart. The Congress has still not spelt out its thinking on the issue.

Clearly, the Centre has much to answer for. Questionably, if Hurriyat hardliner Geelani and Mirwaiz Farooq were under house arrest, how did they lead the funeral of a compatriot? Did the Centre recommend to the Governor to let them proceed? How did thousands of people participate in the funeral and march to the LoC if the entire Valley was under the blanket of curfew? Are we to surmise that there is a total breakdown of law and order in the State? Or, that the curfew call was just to hoodwink the people that the Centre was coming down heavily on the pro-Pakistani parties.  

Where was the Iqbal of the State? The shining authority that ensures respect for law and order? Who dare to openly take on the Administration? Remember, during the British Raj nobody could even touch a policeman for fear that the might of the Empire would come crashing down his head.

Sadly, the continuing violence has exposed the writ of the Governor and the Centre does not run in J&K. In fact, the State’s Iqbal has been reduced to zilch, requiring the army to restore law and order.  Not only that. The all-Party meetings called by the Centre have ended with politicians talking at each other instead of with each other and arriving at a peace prescription.

Predictably, the Congress has accused the BJP of dividing the State between Hindu Jammu and Muslim Kashmir. Yet so busy was it in ensuring the safe passage of the nuclear deal in the Lok Sabha that it paid scant heed to the Amarnath controversy. More. According to a senior leader the Party is happy that the issue has diverted the public’s ire against the spiraling prices.

Even today instead of finding a way out of its self-created mess the Congress is debating on whether it should hold early Lok Sabha poll to halt the BJP’s ‘Hindutva’ aggression on  Amarnath. So busy is the Congress playing its minority card that the Party has till date not pulled up its erstwhile ally PDP and the Abdullah’s NC for their pro-Pakistani and pro-aazadi tirade. Recall, Omar Abdullah’s speech on the nuclear deal in the Lok Sabha when he raised the ‘communal temperature: “hum apni zameen ke liye larain aur marte dum tak larenge.”  Instead, Sonia Gandhi was seen leading her brood in congratulating him. Did she fail to comprehend the import of his words? Or was she applauding a future ally? Moreover, none has the inclination to ponder over that the first casualty in the on-going strife is that the State elections will be deferred.  

Worse, the issue has exposed the Congress’ weak-kneed feet of clay. It is pussy footing on the rabid anti-national outpourings of not only the Kashmir parties but also its other regional allies -- Laloo’s RJD, Mulayam’s SP and Paswan’s LJP. Scandalously, the Government remained a mute spectator as the trio applauded the lifting of the ban on SIMI. It’s another matter that the Supreme Court reimposed it.

Clearly, the Congress chose to look the other way primarily to keep its flock together for the forthcoming Lok Sabha poll and make a serious bid to form the Government in 2009. Sadly, the Centre is more worried about what effect the violence in J&K will have on its minority vote bank, rather than whether it is the beginning of the end of Kashmir being lost from India forever. 

As for the BJP, it is no better. It is only interested in capitalizing on the Amarnath yatra and reviving its Hindutva call, which it had put on the backburner since it formed the NDA. In fact, its cadres had got disillusioned with the Party and started viewing it as the Congress’ B-team. Today, instead of helping the Government douse the communal flames, the Saffron Brigade is demanding delimitation of the constituencies in the State by stating that Jammu, which is bigger than the Valley should get more Parliamentary and State Assembly seats.       

What next? Sonia and her Congress would be well advised to take a leaf out of Indira Gandhi’s book. The Iron Lady would have used the might of the State to crush all terror—be it by militants or separatists or the so-called blue-blooded nationalists. Why can’t there be a leader or a Party which thinks beyond vote-bank politics? Can we expect the Kashmir flames to light up a truly secular national inferno. --INFA  

 (Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)