Anil Anand
Apart from the numerically, in terms of number seats, significant states such as Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Haryana, West Bengal, Gujarat and down south Tamil Nadu, the one area which has more politico-strategic significance than merely the numbers game, can prove to be the real test for Congress’s revival plan. If they have any?
The recent crushing defeat in Haryana civic elections, close on the heels of disastrous assembly poll outcome for the party, the cry for the Congress revival should not only get shriller but the party’s top brass must sit-down and mull over the strategy to rediscover itself. Given the diversities and the governing factors that vary from state to state and Union Territories (UTs), there certainly cannot be a single strategy at work. The common refrain, of course, should be to revitalize the organizational network through infusing younger element at the entry and other stages and create a leadership pool which should be a blend of youth and experience.
This holds good for Jammu and Kashmir also as a starting point. But beyond that the political, regional, religion and caste complexities of the subdued UT, the only Muslim majority state/UT, struggling to get back the statehood, implore the Congress to adopt multi-dimensional and a strategy different from other states.
What is the way forward for the Congress in Jammu and Kashmir?
Notwithstanding the fact that the party is part of the ruling alliance with National Conference and CPM, even though providing outside support, this could at best be a point of solace without adding any material benefit to its revival. This six-month old arrangement has not given any political mileage, leave aside the administrative dividends, to the Congress, for reasons needed to be dug out by the top brass.
All this while, apart from those who presided over the party’s debacle in assembly elections particularly in Jammu region, once a Congress stronghold, all are desperately waiting for a revival plan in its entirety and not a piece-meal or cosmetic treatment. Nothing has happened so far except for the central command appointing a new AICC in charge.
The party’s top brass must acknowledge the need to focus attention on Hindu dominated Jammu region, which interestingly is also heterogenous unlike the Muslim homogeneity of Kashmir, to get back its lost bastion. After all it was in this region that BJP has been scoring electoral victories, three Lok Sabha, civic and assembly polls, through absolute polarization of votes on religion basis with Modi-factor proving to be decisive.
Despite facing strong anti-incumbency for non-performance and ignoring the interests of Jammu region, the party (BJP) handsomely won majority of seats in this region in the just held assembly polls, through playing emotive communal card. It was through the emotive slogan of providing first “Dogra-Hindu” chief minister, that the BJP caught people’s imagination this time.
The final outcome was that Jammu found itself in a position of total loss as a non-BJP government came to power wherein Congress has to remain a ringside spectator. The reason for this was the party’s rout in the assembly elections thereby ending up sending not even a single MLA to the assembly from the vast plains of the region or the Hindu dominant areas. It won half-a-dozen seats in Kashmir Valley piggy-riding the National Conference.
What does this imply for the Congress strategists apart from a thorough probe into causes of debacle?
The message is loud and clear that the road to the party’s revival starts and passes through Jammu region for reasons ascribed above. Recapturing the lost ground or pocket-boroughs in Jammu will be comparatively easier through deft moves at rejuvenating the organization. Even a semblance of retrieval in this region will make finding feet in the Valley easier rather than the vice versa.
Even while the party network was systematically weakened in Kashmir, that is true to a great extent for Jammu as well, with stalwarts such as late Mufti Mohammed Sayeed and Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad either running the organization whimsically or at the end quitting the party with their respective band of established leaders and influential workers. Those who followed them were no match to their political stature though they matched their seniors in whimsically running the Congress affairs.
All this while, despite erosion with the Mufti and Mr Azad parting ways and some middle rung leaders stepping into their footsteps adopting the same whimsical approach, the Congress, despite repeated electoral losses, has survived in Jammu region though not electorally. One reason has been that despite BJP’s ascendancy, Congress has been the only alternative as Kashmir-centric National Conference and Peoples Democratic Party have minimal presence in Jammu region and not a preferred choice of the voters in areas where BJP has gained.
This backdrop strengthens the case to adopt a Jammu-centric approach as a way forward to revive the party. At the centre of this approach should be the plan to get back the Congress’s share from the broader Hindu vote bank which the BJP has not only been able to consolidate and electorally exploit in its favour. The right selection of candidates in the assembly elections through giving proper representation to dominant communities that form part of the Hindu-samaj would have prevented the BJP from making a clean sweep. But that opportunity was lost. How and why? It needs to be probed and responsibility fixed with an eye on the alleged sleeper cell of the BJP.
A major problem in the current party set up of Congress in Jammu and Kashmir and which has become an irritant in Jammu, is the total concentration of power in the hands of Kashmiri leadership whereas the intact political base lies in Jammu segment. Right from PCC president, Congress Legislative Party leader, chief whip to representation in the Congress Working Committee or the AICC set up, barring two AICC secretaries and Youth Congress president, the entire approach is Kashmir focused. The lone Muslim MLA from Jammu was ignored to be appointed as a chief whip. Instead, a Valley MLA who joined the Congress merely days before the elections, a previous PDP leader, was preferred over him.
That also shows the biased, towards Jammu, mindset at work. When it comes to Jammu this bias cuts-across religion and caste.
There is a strong case for proportional representation with Jammu getting its due share. The structure has to be designed in such a manner so as to strengthen the party in both the regions without causing any ill-will or rancour. After all Jammu (Congress leaders and rank and file) never had any problem with the Kashmiri leadership all these decades.
Rather than fallacious, failed and hackneyed dictums, the Congress strategists should develop a new narrative. The focus should be to meet the challenge posed by the arch-rival BJP. The Kashmiris did it through the ballot as they had a viable alternative in National Conference. On the contrary, Congress offered the Jammu region to BJP virtually on a platter.
Time has come to have a Congress president from this region which is not only in the wider interest of the party but also for rediscovering itself in Kashmir where Congress currently has no space. It is a tie between National Conference and Peoples Democratic Party with Congress playing a poor second fiddle to either.
Someone experienced and belonging to a dominant caste among the broader Hindu framework should be the preferred choice. He or she should be backed up by a team having the true representative character wherein the Kashmir should also have a proper say.
A resolution should also be found to a rather paradoxical situation which has been prevailing in Jammu and Kashmir, from the Congress perspective and which has, of late, become the party’s bane in Jammu. Due to a missing mechanism of collective leadership, a weak Jammu leadership and a dominant ‘K’ factor at play, the issues related to Jammu region are also mostly decided by the Kashmiri leadership.
The Jammu leaders either have no say or prefer to fall in line for personal pecuniary gains. There is a growing feeling in the local Congress quarters that since political and social milieu of Jammu region is entirely different from the Valley, the Jammu leadership should have bigger say on deciding Jammu-centric issues. As it is, under the prevailing culture, Jammu leadership have little or no say on deciding matters related to the Valley.
Why this dichotomy or bias?
Reversing this situation and striking a critical balance should be one of the main planks of the revival plan. It has to be done in a more harmonious manner rather than creating an impression of pitting one region against the other, which has been the policy of BJP as well as the Kashir-centric regional parties. Personal ambitions of the leaders, their track-record, and capability to deliver, should be viewed with a magnifying class for a proper and meaningful assessment before arriving at a conclusion.
The borderline should be that Rahul Gandhi’s efforts at regaining traditional Muslim-Dalit support should have the back up of other sections of the society. This is a combination that could be workable at national level, apart from the Jammu region.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
