TALES OF TRAVESTY
DR. JITENDRA SINGH
The most interesting highlight of the current budget session of the Jammu & Kashmir Assembly is that more than the budget, it is the non-budget issues which have taken up most of the House time and the debate which has invited the most vociferous participation could be easily titled as “Who mourns Afzal Guru the most ?’’
The competitive mourning between the two socalled mainstream albeit Kashmir-centric political parties, namely National Conference (NC) and People’s Democratic Party (PDP), had infact taken off well before the Assembly session began with the NC chief minister claiming ignorance regarding any information to hang Afzal Guru and the PDP President Mehbooba Mufti accusing him of telling a lie to the people of Kashmir. However, the coincidence of Assembly session provided a high profile platform for the debate to reach a crescendo with Mehbooba Mufti cornering Omar Abdullah over the death of a Baramulla youth in the aftermath of Afzal Guru hanging and Omar Abdullah in return breaking down in the House to vindicate his helplessness because of the constraints of CM chair held by him and PDP leader Muzzaffar Beg retaliating by retorting that there is no fevicol fixed to the chair and therefore offering to tender his own resignation as MLA if only the CM also quits his chair to relieve himself from the pressure of chief ministerial responsibility.
Another quixotic dimension to this whole issue of Afzal Guru is that seeing the liberal outpouring of sympathy for Guru coupled with unconsolable flow of tears in the J&K Legislature, one sometimes feels tempted to believe that the sorrow of the Hon’ble MLAs and MLCs possibly surpasses that of Guru’s next of kith and kin including his wife and son.
Many years ago, at a condolence meeting to mourn the death of famous Urdu writer Rajendra Singh Bedi, a fellow litterateur Ali Sardar Jafri had remarked that if only Bedi knew how many eyes would go moist over his death, his thought of death would have been different. One wonders how Afzal Guru would have thought of his hanging if only he knew that the entire ruling party as also the entire principal Opposition party of J&K Legislature would be shedding tears after his hanging albeit without taking a stand before his hanging.
But the most painful paradox which seems to be causing a deep heartache to the entire J&K ministry including the Chief Minister is that they find themselves helpless and are unable to do anything about it because the “chair” of office holds them back or as they put it, ‘‘Majboori” of the chair. Now, it is for others to judge whether the chair is holding them or they are holding the chair ?
Meanwhile, it is a legacy of 65 years of Kashmir’s political culture of duplicity which inspires these skillful men at the helm to be on the side of New Delhi while hanging Afzal Guru and to be on the side of fellow native Kashmiris while denouncing the hanging of Afzal Guru. And, as the common man watches with amusement this relentless mutual competition to prove ‘‘Who mourns Afzal Guru the most ?’’……Guru himself watches from the skies with Umapathy lamenting on his behalf , ‘‘Mere Sogwaron Mein Aaj Mera Qatil Hai !’’
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