Tarun Upadhyay
“We must obey the time” said Othello in William Shakespeare’s play Othello. There is a view that it’s different from the other Shakespearean plays with deep focus on personal lives and shades of its characters
Tassaduq Hussain Mufti, cinematographer of the movie Omakara, a Hindi adaptation of the same play by Vishal Bhardwaj, seemed to have internalised these lines. By taking oath as a cabinet minister he makes a formal entry into the political stage of Jammu and Kashmir.
Like Othello, a moor, Tassaduq too is an ‘outsider’, with cosmopolitan mooring, having lived in US and Mumbai, is trained to keep an eye on things which just fit the frame.
It’s difficult to guess if 45-yr-old son of late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed is a reluctant politician. He told media after taking oath that he is a free man and is here on his own free will. Though, politics surely wasn’t his first frame.
Congress president Rahul Gandhi contested his first parliamentary election in 2004 at 34 . His contemporary in state politics Omar Abdullah took a successful dive in the politics at the age of 28 and became chief minister when he was just 38-yr-old.
“It is a new place for me and I am not entirely comfortable. But it’s a challenge and I have fought challenges throughout life to be where I am today,” he told on starting political campaign for bye-poll of Anantnag parliamentary constituency in 2016, left vacant after the resignation of his sister Mehbooba Mufti from the parliament.
The statement itself reflect the challenges he faces and in it lies the cue too. Either pre or post Trumpism ‘fair play’ does find resonance in American way of life. His American mooring surfaced when he called for postponing the bi-elections citing turbulent ground situation as one of the reasons. The result of election, if had been held, is a toss-up. That elections haven’t been held till now if reflect his concerns also mirror the challenges facing him.
He acknowledges the simmering discontent among youth of Kashmir. Tassaduq did try to engage with them. At the height of the turmoil in the valley last year he pushed his party’s cadre to reach out to them.
Discontent in the valley is an interplay of many factors. A perceived, manufactured or real sense of being denied fair-play is always simmering there. Off late its has been consistently surfacing in violent form since 2008 leaving hundreds dead.
A section in the valley continue to question the ‘legality’ of the State government. The State government, though integral and constitutional part of India, is also its face. Like rest of the country, in J&K the fair-play in governance hasn’t only been corroded but eroded to a large extent. It’s not for nothing that it continues to be the most corrupt state.
The grouse of common person for basic needs is channelled to fuel anti-India sentiment and is also twisted as a failure of India to address the ‘sensitivities’ of the Kashmiris.
The failure of the State to fully tap and exploit the potential of its natural and human resources not only strengthens the ‘siege’ mentally especially in the Kashmir but stokes the simmering lava.
The recent success of the J&K youth, especially from Kashmir, in cracking All India Civil Services has not only broken the mental and merit barriers but in the process has opened up them to the inclusive and fair-play of India and its state.
A widely travelled person, Tassaduq has opted to head the tourism ministry. To call Kashmir the ‘Paradise on Earth’ sounds not just cliché but excludes the other regions of the state. Calling J&K as the most ‘beautiful’ part of the country does sound parochial and naive, though it surely has unique geographical diversity.
In 2016, just about 4 lakh tourists, bulk of it before the start of unrest, visited valley. The figure for 2017 , though not out, is likely to be on the lower side.
According to the World Bank data on tourism in 2016 Guam attracted 15 lakh tourists, Jamaica 21 lakh , Macao 15 lakh and Sri Lanka 20 lakh.
They are very small countries much smaller in scope and scale than J&K. It can’t be doubted that peace is an important factor to bring in tourists. However, it’s not the only contributing factors. It’s not the case that the entire valley, leave alone Jammu and Ladakh, is up in flames 24X7 for 365 days.
Winter brings in high end tourists around the world but we simply don’t have the infrastructure for it. Winter tourism just doesn’t mean Phalgam, Gulmarg and frozen Dal lake. They are important but there are many others places too like Zanskar, Chaddar road, Sarthal, Bhaderwah-Chamba road, Kisthtwar-Zanskar track.
Tassaduq has his task cut. In the parlance of movie editing the first cut is called the suicide cut. It sends nervous moments to all. But if the shoot has been done with conviction and passion the editing makes the frame more beautiful.
The frame for Tassaduq is people, politics and governance. It’s rolling now.
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