Mainstream political parties as partners in the manifold tragedy of Kashmir Representing Delhi in Srinagar, but sadly not the other way round has been a spectacular betrayal by the mainstream parties to the people of Kashmir The low and ignoble levels to which politics has been allowed to stoop in India and in many parts of the world forces the question “who is the most dangerous creature on the planet”? Some rarest of rare exceptions apart, it’s obviously the modern day politician, including especially those who have managed to occupy centre stage in India, both now and in the past, dispensing politics of the most devious kind from the pulpits of power. To quote Markanday Katju, ‘they are unscrupulous scoundrels who trade human grace, dignity and blood for votes’. The recent local body elections having been foisted in J&K by this brand of snollygosters have thrown up candidates who have won either uncontested or by polling a measly 8 out of a total of 9 votes cast in a constituency. The fact that they don’t have to contend with the facade of accountability to the voters who haven’t even come out to vote makes for yet another phase of extremely dangerous times waiting to unfold in Kashmir. What sort of a democracy is being played out in the state where 95% of the electorate in the valley had boycotted the polls? This deadly cocktail of deceit and perfidy has been made that much deadlier by our own traitors who have thrown in their hat in the ring to promote the cause of our tormentors who are feting themselves on the blood of Kashmiris!
The hypocrisy in their ranks cannot get starker as the mainstream politicians are seen to flip flop between representing each of the two capitals in the other, depending upon whether they are on or away from the seat of power in Srinagar. The predictable noises being raised by the party apparatchiks from one of these political parties in Srinagar are merely a replay of what has been the favourite line as espoused by the other party – the difference being that what suits one while being ensconced on the hot seat suits the other but only later when savouring the fruits of power – and ditto when out of power! To wit, consider how the PDP supremo is conducting herself now after losing power that she used to do exactly when she was in the opposition in her previous innings, having earned the sobriquet of rudali as a result of her commiserations with those who had lost their dear ones in armed confrontations between the security forces and the militants. Contrast this with that unsavoury ‘toffee’ comment that she had made as CM when some young boys were killed during firing by the government forces upon civilians a couple of years ago. And not long ago, recall how the senior Abdullah had hailed the role of Hurriyat as the genuine champions of the freedom of Kashmir while, even as only some weeks later what he had said elsewhere amounted to a volte face on that position. Recall that famous autonomy resolution passed by the state assembly in 1999 when he was at the helm as the CM. and submitted to the Central govt. headed by A B Vajpayee for discussion in the parliament which, however, chose to reject it with utter contempt and distain. The indignity and humiliation that was thus meted out to him as his govt. should have caused him to put in his papers as a mark of protest at this treatment which obviously was ham-handed and over the top. The uncanny similarities between the two mainstream political parties in J&K and how New Delhi treats them when they dare to stand up, should not be lost on those who may wish to look at the two parties differently. Their lack of enthusiasm to do their bit in resolving the K-issue on the one hand and a failure on their part to provide good governance in the state on the other have merely helped exacerbate the deadly cocktail of violence that has turned this place into a towering inferno! Of a piece with this monumental betrayal of our mainstream political leadership in the J&K state, we have this latest piece of news involving ‘promises vs performance’ where the MP’s representing Jammu and Ladakh are known to have performed better in the parliament by highlighting the issues of their people than their counterparts from the valley who have been found wanting on that count. Incidentally, that should also serve as a lesson for those smaller parties in the state who are in awe of New Delhi and who now owe allegiance to a party which, for all it has achieved in Kashmir in these past few years, has turned it into a living hell.
Apart from this, we in Kashmir are left to contend with the double whammy involving a long regime of misgovernance by our political leadership made worse by this crop of generally unconcerned and ill informed gaggle of top bureaucrats who are dispatched to Kashmir as top government functionaries to dispense governance in the state. Leave alone the bureaucrats, we now have the state governor whose latest utterances do not inspire much optimism in his understanding of Kashmir or the Kashmir problem, or else his flip flop on the nature and the genesis of militancy in the valley would have yielded space to action on the ground in terms of concrete measures to stop this killing spree involving young Kashmiris at the hands of the security forces. Along the same lines, one is treated to a never-ending series of nauseating monologues of balderdash mouthed by these old, retired, jobless, moth eaten ‘Kashmir watchers’ including some army generals who are called upon to discuss Kashmir on sundry news channels where they betray an atrocious lack of understanding of the K-issue. It is an endless regime of utter nonsense being fed to the ‘nation’ by these uninformed uncouth politicians and their lackeys/spokespersons. An idea of a lack on their part of the historical perspective on Kashmir may be had from how they look at the origin of the K-problem being left as an ‘ugly legacy as a result of silly and inept handling’ of it by Pt. Nehru, as they put it. Their plea that ‘it was Pt Nehru who could have clinched the issue once and for all by forcibly taking over the entire state of J&K without the need for bringing the UN into the picture’ strains credulity. Of a piece with this line of thinking is their grouse that ‘there was absolutely no need for article 370 being included in the Indian Constitution, if Nehru had so wished’.
For their better understanding and information, a few important snippets of history are in order. The ineluctable fact remains that much as he might have so wished, he had neither the locus standi nor the justification to do so as was dictated by the logic of the partition. No doubt he had inveigled the then tallest leader of Kashmir Sheikh Mohd Abdullah into acquiescing in to the annexation of Kashmir to India which as per the partition plan was supposed to merge with Pakistan. Of course the Sheikh did cave in, but only after getting Nehru to agree to a quid pro quo in the form of the above stated promises, including a pledge for letting Kashmiris decide their own fate through a plebiscite in the state which was promised to be conducted within five years after the annexation. Under these circumstances, Nehru obviously couldn’t have done better than do what he actually did insofar as his deep but irrational desire to annex Kashmir to India was concerned. It is a different matter though that in doing so, and then by reneging on what he had promised, he had merely ended up sowing the seeds of a gigantic political crisis in the state, and by implication, in the entire region that unfortunately doesn’t seem to show signs of ebbing away any time soon. How pathetic that despite his skulduggery in somehow manipulating the annexation of Kashmir with India- which, they should know couldn’t have been achieved through legitimate means – Nehru is being ridiculed by the Sangh Pariwar ‘for not having done enough to clinch the deal’! They don’t seem to know enough to understand that he surely couldn’t have done better than what he actually did to achieve the impossible task of annexing Kashmir to India, albeit purely on a temporary basis. For all there is to it, all this goes to expose the myth of infallibility of Pt. Nehru as a statesman insofar as his dubious role in enacting the annexation drama involving Kashmir is concerned. Which is why he has ended up courting controversy on both sides of the divide: on the one hand, Sanghis castigating him for what they perceive as a docile role he had played in this drama and, on the other, being seen as the real villain of the piece by all Kashmiris, and rightly so, for the simple reason that he did all this in a manner that couldn’t have been other than devious in intent, even as he had no compunction in betraying them by going back on his promises. That, however, should not be allowed to take away from Nehru’s signal contribution to the country on so many other fronts, including in education, science and technology, economy and foreign affairs. It’s a pity that the current Sangh-inspired leadership at the Centre is unwilling to take note of these momentous contributions of Pt. Nehru which it can’t even begin to conceive of.
This woeful lack of a sense of history on the part of the Sanghi think tank is also evident in its awful understanding of a whole lot of other issues involving the history, whether modern or medieval, which is being manifested in many ways including this stupid thirst for trivia involving renaming of cities, towns and heritage symbols. A direct consequence of this misplaced understanding of history has been a climate of intolerance in the country which has manifested itself in cases of lynching of members of certain communities on the one hand and of demonising and harassing of Kashmiris throughout mainland India, on the other. Contrast this with the manner in which people from other states and from other faiths seeking livelihood in Kashmir are treated by the locals that bespeaks the spirit of tolerance and mutual coexistence that is so central to the ethos of Kashmiris. Some days back as I was returning home in the evening, a 65-year+ looking old man walking on a pair of crutches was desperately looking for a ride outside the university campus and as I stopped my car, he quickly jumped in and began to profusely thank me for the gesture. From his accent I could quickly gather that he was from outside the state and, as indeed it turned out, he was here as a professional beggar who had been coming here regularly for the past 10 years. Upon being asked why did he have to come here all the way from his native place in U.P. for begging, he said “Yahan ke log bahut rahamdil hain aur gariboon ki khoob madad kartein hain. Apne haan ya tou log daetain hi nahin ya agar daetain bhi hain tou mushkil se ek-dou sikke ya ziada se ziada ek-dou rupay!”: ‘Here people are compassionate and are always keen to help the poor. Back home, they don’t spend on the poor, except in rare cases where you get a maximum of Rs. 1-2 as charity’. As he said, he earned to the tune of 18,000-20,000/- every single month during his 6 month stay in Kashmir and that that was enough for him to look after his family back home. Further it had been through these earnings that he had also managed to marry off three of his children in recent years.
The point is that whether it is the beggars, the artisans, labourers or small/big time businessmen coming here in their tens of thousands from different parts of India, they find this place the safest among those in India where they go to work, regardless of their caste, creed, faith or religious denomination. This thought is invariably shared also by a whole lot of tourists who keep visiting here both from within India and abroad. Lo and behold, it is these kind hearted, compassionate Kashmiris who are branded as communalists, traitors and desh drohis in the rest of India and treated with such indignity. What a pity!
Prof. M A Sofi, Department of Mathematics Kashmir University Srinagar , can be reached at aminsofi@gmail.com
