OH ! THEY HAVE AN AGENDA

Prodding and prompting are not synonymous. Prod­ding gets on one’s nerves as against this prompting stirs the thinking process. I admire prompting by friends on the social networks but am averse to prodding. On the exposure of the examination scandal involving Edu­cation Minister, Peerzada Muham­mad Syed, some friends on the social network persistently prodded me to write against the ‘tainted minister’ detailing all his previous scandals. At the same time, prompting by some friends made me conscious about the catastrophic impact of the scandal on the future of educational system in the state.

The scandal did provoke plethora of columns, some seeking intervention of the Congress Chair­person but with skepticism reigning supreme, I was amazed if my writing about the scandal would make any difference. Having an understand­ing of the Congress politics vis-a-vis Jammu and Kashmir from the day the party set up its unit in 1964 in the state with a set agenda of extending many central laws to the state that included Article 356 etc, with all certainty I believe that the people of the state at no point of time have been its concern. It has all along been “loyalty” towards the ‘family’ that has overweighed the ‘image’ or the ‘performance’ of its ministers in the state. The fact of the matter is that after Mufti Mohammad Syed siding with V.P. Singh and bidding adieu to the Congressthe ‘tainted minis­ter’ has been the face of the Con­gress in Kashmir valley.In all pow­er, sharing arrangements whether it is 1987 NC-Congress coalition or 2002 PDP-Congress combine or the 2008 NC-Congress partnership the minister in the dock has been part of the cabinet. The ‘exam-gate’ is not first of its kind of scandals involving the minister that attracted the head­lines and filled up opinion pages, the indictment of the minister by the Jammu and Kashmir State Account­ability Commission and exposure of the Panchayat Ghar Electrification Scandal during the PDB-Congres coalition had been more ‘ferocious­ly’ reported in the press, The media outcries and deafening outbursts by the opposition were dismissed as un­heard by the Congress leadership, in Delhi. The minister might have been as good as an embarrassment to the then Chief Minister as it is humiliat­ing to the scion of the Abdullah fam­ily—who like his predecessors seems having taken it with a pinch of salt. I will not be surprised if the Congress high command after the Assembly Elections in various states insists on rotational chief minister and proj­ects ‘exam-gate’ minister as its chief ministerial candidate. Expecting the vox pop guiding the policies of the Congress Party in Jammu and Kash­mir or attuning them with the public sentiment would be tomfoolery but crumbling of institution, decaying of systems and plundering of resources should be the cause of concern to all and sundry in the state.

In the bizarre scenario that has been, obtaining in the state there seems no light across the tunnel. The people who strode across the corri­dors of power for their non-perfor­mance have largely lost their stand­ing. Seen in right perspective, so far giving voice to the public concerns about the rot and decadence that has set in public institutions are concerned there is no credible voice around. Out of desperation an old time journalist wrote on his wall on the face book—‘Geelani Sahib and Mirwaiz Umar’ need to come for­ward and steer the state out of mo­rass. In the given political scenario with most of the leaders engaged in electoral politics largely suffering from credibility crisis for their non deliverance the question that haunts the public minds is who is going to fill up the space.

It seems that All Parties Hurriyat Conference headed by Mir­waiz Muhammad Umar Farooq is girding its lions to fill up this space.

It seems that All Parties Hurriyat Conference headed nu Mir­waiz Muhammad Farooq is girding its lions to fill up this space. In its meeting on Tuesday the ‘Executive Council’ of this multiparty combines decided to move beyond the agenda as contained in its Constitution viz right to self-determination for the people of the state as guaranteed in the UN resolution or ‘negotiated set­tlement of the sixty three year old dispute to the aspirations and urges of people of the state. Believing that it is high time for highlighting the eco­nomic; and social issues confronting the people and telling the interna­tional community that the non-res­olution of the Kashmir problem was affecting the common person’s life the multiparty combine seems geared to redraft its agenda. The en­visaged agenda is likely to include campaigning against: the systematic and unabated loot of the water re­sources by the Government of India agencies like the NHPC; environ­mental degradation and plundering of forest wealth; for opening of tradi­tional trade routes that connected the state with the Central Asian States before 1947; deliberate attempts at eroding educational system in the state and making cross border trade more meaningful. Fighting against the orchestrated Religious discours­es targeted at creating and widening sectarian divide in the majority com­munity.

I am not going to debate here whether the new agenda could be construed as diversionary politics that could infringe the major narra­tive. It will be equally premature to suggest that if the APHC for seeing its agenda implemented finally grad­uates to electoral politics that would require it changing from a conglom­erate into a political organization with its basic units all over the state. I am not also going to draw a parallel between the post 1971 phase of the Plebiscite Front and the APHC that had seen the Front instead of articu­lating demand for plebiscite focusing on economic and social issues and finally graduating to electoral poli­tics first through proxy candidates then direct participation. Not con­tradicting the APHC leadership that the new agenda would strengthen the major narrative the question arises that if this conglomerate was going to take the new agenda beyond rhetoric and launch an effective movement for seeing its agenda translated into reality…the year 2013 will be year to watch the APHC in its new avatar ar­ticulating public issues.

The author is a noted writer and col­umnist