Pahalgam terrorist hit
Anil Anand
Strange are the ways of the Congress. Strange are the ways of a set of its leaders who have the knack of fishing in the troubled waters to humiliate their own leadership simply for the purpose of either self-aggrandisement or settling petty political scores. It does not matter to them if that goes against the grain of national unity or the party’s own much-needed but elusive cohesiveness.
As the nation stood rock solid with the Congress taking the lead in offering unconditional support to the Narendra Modi Government to act against Pakistan, in whatever manner it thought fit, in the wake of gruesome terrorist attack in Kashmir’s picturesque Pahalgam, these leaders seemed to have a different idea. Notwithstanding the clear stand taken by the Congress Working Committee (CWC) in its meeting held on April 24, 2025. Subsequently, the unequivocal support given to the Government by the party president and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi. These leaders chose to go their own way.
The shouting brigade, if one might like to call it, was led by Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and included high profile diplomat turned politician Shashi Tharoor and above all Jammu and Kashmir Congress chief Tariq Hamid Karra straight from the theatre of action Kashmir. Barring Mr Tharoor who had a different take and presumably gave some benefit of doubt to the Government on issues such as intelligence failure that facilitated the terrorist strike, the other two took a clear stand against “waging a war against Pakistan”. This all was in contravention of the party’s stand which forced the party to disown and stated that this was not the Congress’s view which was reflected in the CWC resolution and stand taken by Mr Kharge and Mr Gandhi at the all-party meeting.
In this episode Mr Karra stood out. As reflected in this paper on dated April 27, 2025, he was more emphatic than Mr Siddaramaiah in “advising” India and Pakistan to not go for a direct action. “I request both countries, as a Kashmiri, to keep their cool. We are not in favour of war; both countries should sit together and find a way out,” he was quoted having said.
Under the normal circumstances and had the Congress high command not taken a clearcut stand and offered a carta blanch to the Modi Government to take whatever action, it deemed fit, there could have been a justification in the two Congress leaders opposing any possibility of war which is the least desirable. Under the circumstances they only helped the BJP in finding an alibi to divert attention from the core issue-the terrorist strike. And in turn corner and blame the Congress for spoiling the national unity.
What has really raised the heckles in the AICC corridors is a contradictory voice emerging from Jammu and Kashmir (read Kashmir) which was the epicentre of the latest terrorist hit. The seriousness was not only in the context of going against the party’s stated stand, but also in relation to the contradictions that emanate out of the diversity of Jammu and Kashmir regions per se.
This diversity has taken a different dimension after the national political discourse acquiring a communal and religious polarising affect. This has become more serious and sensitive in the context of these two regions of the hilly state. Unfortunately, the Congress leaders in the two regions have not properly grasped the exigencies of the situation and instead are busy in settling their personal agendas.
For Congress trying hard for revival in the now truncated Union Territory, with its mainstay being the Jammu region which, of late, has become the BJP stronghold, stirring such a controversy was least expected. Naturally, Mr Karra’s stand created panic among the party rank and file in the Hindu-majority but homogeneous Jammu region where the party, unlike in Kashmir, has been in direct contest with the BJP, having lost all the recent electoral battles including Lok Sabha and Assembly precisely due to inner-sabotage and mismanagement. In Kashmir the Congress plays a poor third fiddle to National Conference and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The ground realities are that the Congress, still having party infrastructure in Jammu region, has better chances of revival given a proper strategy, than in Kashmir. The more significant part of the strategy is to find a conciliatory tone between Jammu and Kashmir narratives. There is no denying the fact that Jammu narrative has to be developed keeping an eye on the BJP’s strategy in regard to its hyped nationalist and religion-based politics. And the BJP found in Mr Karra’s observations a ploy to drum up nationalist-patriotic and religious sentiments while targeting the Congress.
The J&K Congress chief’s observations have put a spoke in conciliatory efforts between the two regions. The biggest effort in this regard had come in the form of Mr Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra which has been systematically eroded by mismanagement in the party affairs and undesirable utterances as is the current case.
Having already faced a series of electoral defeats in Jammu and Kashmir, the party leaders, particularly in Jammu region, are wary of the fact that more poll reversals will push the Congress to an Uttar Pradesh-like situation. In that event it will be a BJP (in Jammu region) versus the Kashmir-centric parties in Kashmir line-up, with a pan-India Congress ceding its space. That is why the serious concern attached to the suo motu observation by Mr Karra.
Jammu has all along honoured the Kashmir region’s sentiment, even in the good old days when the party was strong in Jammu area. The reciprocation from the other side has been missing. His observation on Pahalgam massacre is being viewed in this context. It is in this light that a public sentiment is emerging to let the leaders of Jammu, and Kashmir take decisions related to their respective regions. Of late, there is a growing feeling that Kashmiri leadership not well-versed with the political dynamics and leaders of Jammu, is heaping their decisions.
The leadership of the two regions should act to strengthen the organisations in their respective areas without any interference from either side with a clause of accountability attached to it. This will place the party in a better way to meet the challenge posed by the BJP. In an emotionally surcharged situation reasoning becomes the first casualty. And the current situation is no different. Rather than haranguing on the merits and demerits of a war, Mr Siddaramaiah and Mr Karra could have kept things simpler by toing the party’s line. And thereby preventing providing a handle to the ever-ready BJP to strike.
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