Avoidable races among J&K politician
MEN , MATTERS AND MEMORIES

By M L Kotru

The raging battle between Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for the Democratic ticket to contest the November US Presidential election against the ‘Republican nominee Sen. John McCaln is turning out to be a bit of cliffhanger. The Democratic aspirants are tearing each other, and consequentially their party as well into shreds. I had seen the beginnings of the tussle between the first woman ever and the first Afro-American ever for the Presidential ticket in its nascent stages more than a year ago during a longish visit to the US.

Gender and colour aspects apart, the Democratic aspirants are fighting on the same turf, for essentially similar values. Never, not even once, has anyone expressed any doubt about where their heart lies: in the well being of the US and the American way of life. Agendas may differ but at the heart of their campaign lies their commitment to the betterment of their country and its people.

Unlike in India, the world's most populous democracy, the effort is more to unite the country, to enable it to prosper and to allow the people to get their share of sunshine. The American politicians, like our own, do make promises but the fear of public scrutiny and accountability at the bar of public opinion ensures that they do deliver on some. Unlike ours, who use every election to further divide the people, to add to their fears about their (people's) future and the future of generations to come. Rare indeed is the Indian vote-seeker who takes pride in his Indianness. The rest of the world may speak well of us, our growing economic strength but our politicians for the most part are doom and gloom men. The choice on offer is vote for me or face doom.

With these prefactory remarks I must turn to the ominous noises emanating from Kashmir. Short-sighted mainstream politicians in Jammu and Kashmir are rolling up their sleeves for fresh elections to the State Assembly later in the year. It is the ominous noises they make that cause worry. The people at large, even in the long troubled valley, have over the past two years developed an interest in peace and exploring avenues of improving the quality of their lives. The slowed down militant activity, largerly flowing from the Indo-Pak peace process of the past few years, has contributed to the valley's return to a semblance of normality though the regrouping militant organizations in Pakistan and the POK have threatened to resume the ‘jihad’ in Kashmir.

A valley developing interest in peace and stability doesn't exactly fit into the Jihadi plans.

In fact a step-up in militancy, in the context of the newly forged and clearly (fragile) PPP-PML-N in coalition in Islamabad is something that suits the separatists in the Valley. The moderate separatists, having accepted the so-called Musharraf plan to resolve the Kashmir issue, find themselves in a piquant situation. The mainstream political parties headed by Mufti Sayeed's People's Democratic Party which shares power in the State with the Congress Party, has stolen the Hurriyat's plank lock, stock and barrel. Indeed to go by what the PDP leadership, including the Mufti and his daughter, Mehbooba have been publicly stating is a jump or two ahead even of the Hurriyat, even of the Musharraf self-ruling zonal plan. Mehbooba wants a Regional Council of Jammu and Kashmir Assembly and the POK Assembly to get together to work out a joint mechanism for the economic transformation of the divided State. Her father has already said he wants a common currency for the two halves of Kashmir, adding he would take up the issue with the Prime Minister. A senior Minister in the State and senior PDP leader, Tariq Hamid Qarra, had in fact spoken of common currency weeks before the Mufti mentioned it. On that occasion the Deputy Chief Minister, Mr Muzaffar Baigi, another senior PDP leader, had snuffed out the controversy, acknowledging that this would be unacceptable under the Constitution.

I don't want to read much more than is necessary into the controversial Mufti proposal considering that in the battle of the ballot even the National Conference leader, Omar Abdullah has laterly been towing the Musharraf line which would on the face of it go much beyond the provisions of the Autonomy Bill which his father, Dr Farooq, had successfully piloted in the State Assembly as the Chief Minister of the State.

There are many other straws in the wind suggestive of developing competition among the Valley's mainstream parties to strike postures of equidistance between New Delhi and Islamabad. This is frought with grave consequences. For one thing, it draws a wedge between the Valley and the Hindu-dominated Jammu region, not to mention Buddhist Ladakh. I am not sure how many Jammuites or Ladakhis, for that matter, would like to be saddled with a common currency for the POK and the State.

What is probably prompting Mufti Sayeed and his party to strike such adventurist postures is the growing resentment among some of his senior party men against what some uncharitably have described as the authoritarian ways adopted by the Mufti and Party President, the Mufti's daughter, Mehbooba Mufti. One of the founders of the party and a former Minister in Mufti's cabinet has already been thrown out of the party which has only added to the anger among many other partymen some of whom have indeed set afloat moves to form a separate front. For once even senior Congress party workers in the valley are emboldened to mount a direct attack on the PDP with which they share power in the State. They are accusing the PDP leadership of playing opportunistic politics. Hunting with the hounds and running with the hare.

The Valley politics apart, the pre-election posturing by the mainstream parties is bound to sharpen the divisions between the Valley and Jammu. The Congress party may be hoping to gain a firmer grip on the Jammu electorate as a consequence of the kind of politics being played by its alliance partner in the valley. To me it appears that it may help BJP more than it does any other party.

The coalition headed by the Congressmen Ghulam Nabi Azad has announced a slew of measures to woo the valley including its latest, which promises jobs for 70,000 educated unemployed youth. The PDP has lost no time in claiming credit for its after all it is part of the Government. The PDP, the Congressmen rue, has made a virtue of taking credit for all the ameliorative schemes announced by the Azad-led Government and yet has no hesitation in carrying on a negative campaign against the Government of which it is a part. The National Conference too has steeped up its vilification campaign against the State Government, the PDP its primary target, for very obvious reasons. Its chargesheet against the Government and the PDP is a wide-ranging one, corruption and nepotism its highlights. Fortunately for the National Conference the dissidents within the PDP appear to be strengthening the NC's case. And the PDP isn't helping its cause any by its fulminations against the ‘‘obstructionism’’ evidenced in New Delhi's approach to the peace process.

It's nobody's case that the peace process, initiated by Vajpayee and carried forward by the Manmohan Singh led UPA, and the former military dictator and now the civilian President of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf, has failed. The process has seen many initiatives taken, most notable of these the various confidence building measures. That New Delhi is willing to move forward along the path of reconciliation worked out by the two sides and the upcoming Islamabad visit by Pranab Mukh- erjee is an acknowledgement of it. It now remains to be seen how the prevailing political dispensation in Islamabad responds to Mukherjee's visit. The Prime Minister, for his part, has made his position clear during this recent visit to Jammu.

What can't be forgotten is that Pakistan is ruled by a an odd coalition of which the People's Party and the Nawaz Muslim League, with a long history of past antagonisms, are the main pillars. A lot will depend on the view the two parties take of the initiatives taken by the previous military dispensation. Another factor that cannot be overlooked is the renewed calls for Jihad in Kashmir emanating from various militant groups including of course the Jihadi Council headed by Salahuddin from Pakistan. One can only hope that Pakistan Government doesn't allow the militants to renew their acts of terror in the State and that it utilizes the upcoming visit of the Indian Foreign Minister to give a forward push to the proposals which Islamabad and New Delhi have assiduously worked on for the past three years.

It is this hope that makes it incumbent on the mainstream political parties in the valley not to take extreme positions which have in them the potential to sabotage the process, of which they have been a part. Election fever does force politicians to take positions which they know to be unworkable. Mufti Sayeed having been a part of the process of reconciliation and his party being part of the coalition that has ruled the State for about five years, faces greater responsibility on this count alone. One cannot overlook the constructive role he has played, in the past, particularly as Chief Minister, for three years, with the ‘‘healing touch’’ as his mantra to bring peace and stability to the State, I hope the Mufti hasn't lost that touch.