BITTER FOES TURN FRIENDS TO FORM GOVT IN KASHMIR

BITTER FOES TURN FRIENDS TO FORM GOVT IN KASHMIR

BY VIKAS KHANNA

Politics makes strange bedfellows!

Just two months back, they were at each other’s throats, hurling innuendos, running each other down in the full public glare.

But all that is buried now as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party has entered into an unholy alliance with Kashmir’s regional People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to form what is being touted as a stable government. It remains to be seen how the two political parties with very little in common will be able to provide a clean, efficient and stable government. Modi himself had launched a vitriolic attack on the PDP leadership accusing the “Baap-Beti” government of presiding over corruption during its previous rule.  PDP, too, had replied back in the same tone spewing venom. But in its bid to expand base in the Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir, the BJP seems to have no qualms to shake hands with its opponents. Otto von Bismarck had rightly said that politics is the art of the possible.

Moreover, both the parties don’t see eye to eye on several contentious issues, including Article 370 which gives special powers to the Jammu and Kashmir government and Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA). The BJP, which had made its campaign centre around the scrapping of the Article 370, would have to beat a hasty retreat as there is no way PDP or for that matter any Kashmir-based party, in this case, National Conference (NC), would ever agree to it. The survival and future of these two regional parties hinges on Article 370 and any tempering with this special statute would alienate them with the masses. It is an article of faith for them.

As far as AFSPA is concerned, the two parties can reach some sort of agreement. Partial withdrawal of the Act from some of the areas in Kashmir, where no militant incident has happened for the last few years, can be implemented. In fact, the former chief minister Omar Abdullah too favoured revocation of the act, but faced stiff resistance from the army. The army has genuine fears that anti-national forces may try to revive militancy in the areas if they vacate. While militancy has largely been contained in the state with almost all the local groups neutralized, it is the Pakistan-based militant outfits which continue to make their presence felt by launching incessant attacks to keep the fire of militancy burning. The success achieved through years of painstaking efforts can just not be allowed to be wasted. Nothing should be done to compromise national interests.

PDP’s another major demand for resumption of immediate talks with Pakistan and separatist leaders can again partially be met with Modi government making renewed push to revive the stalled talks with Pakistan. The newly appointed foreign secretary S. Jaishankar has been tasked to undertake visits to SAARC nations as part of Modi government’s neighbourhood diplomacy. But it is the talks with the splintered Hurriyat groups which are not going to happen anytime soon. For, New Delhi continues to see them as proxy of Pakistani leadership.  In any case, they have lost their significance over the years. The success of successive state elections is a telling commentary of the gradual decline of the separatist groups whose election boycott calls have been met with derision.

The formation of the coalition government, however, spells good news for the state where governance has suffered since elections threw a hung assembly. The PDP patriarch Mufti Mohammed Sayeed is all set to be new chief minister for a full six-year term. It will be incumbent on both the political parties to provide good governance otherwise both stand to lose credibility when elections happen next. For, the staunchest supporters of both the parties have still not digested the marriage of convenience. The cadres of both the parties will find it difficult to convince the voters about the strange union if they failed to deliver on the promises.