Not What People Want to Hear

Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed has lavished abundant praise on the Prime Minister Narendra Modi.  Speaking to reporters after the cabinet meeting in Jammu, Mufti said he was grateful to central government for its support which, in his words, has been beyond expectations. CM has also reiterated his deep appreciation for Modi. “I have seen so many Prime Ministers but Narendra Modi is totally focused,” Mufti said. Earlier also, when  Modi government was under attack over the growing intolerance in India, Mufti was the only non-BJP leader who gave a secular certificate to the PM. He called Modi “inclusive, toofan ka aadmi and not communal”. CM also hailed the one-time settlement package of Rs 2000 crore for PaK refugees as well as separate packages for Kashmiri Pandits and the victims of 2014 flood in Kashmir.

However, when asked about his stand on holding talks with Pakistan and the separatist leaders and the need to address the external and local dimensions of Kashmir, Mufti chose to answer in generalities “Let us first do our job by uniting ourselves,” Mufti said. He added that the resolution efforts on Kashmir were an “evolutionary process” and that his job was to make things easy. And he once again referred to his earlier tenure in office from 2002-05 when a sustained Indo-Pak engagement restored peace along LoC from Keran to Kathua, culminating in the re-opening of Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road.

Such statements may have played well in parts of Jammu but  are unlikely to resonate in Kashmir Valley where an opinion contrary to what CM has said holds sway. Though Modi may have made some reconciliatory noises during the  ongoing parliament session, PM is far from re-assuring India’s minorities, least of all the majority in J&K. The loose canons of his party, some of them holding top government positions, continue to make the outrageous statements and they are not taken to task for that.

And if the CM’s answers on the resolution efforts about Kashmir are any guide, the PDP seems to have all but reconciled to the new unhelpful state of affairs on this score. The coalition with BJP has obliged both the parties to enter into a political and ideological trade-off whereby both the parties have tactically stepped back from their contentious agendas on the state. This has turned the governance into a barren, bureaucratic exercise. More so, in case of PDP which seems more or less subsumed under the overarching new political dispensation in India led by Modi. PDP’s own ideological stance or the political outlook seem to count for little. Modi has so far demonstrated that he is his own man on both domestic and foreign policy and will not go by or at least be a little accommodative of the political position of his coalition partner in Kashmir. Despite Mufti’s public urging, the PM didn’t extend a hand of friendship to Pakistan during his recent speech in Srinagar. And the continuing freeze in the relations between India and Pakistan gives little hope that the dialogue will resume anytime soon. This has created uncertainty about the prospect of a bilateral engagement geared towards finding a solution to Kashmir.

Sensing this state of affairs and his own marginalization as a player in the process, Mufti has adopted a very low-profile. While this seems the only option available to him but the approach is a big let down to his core constituency in Kashmir and a significant section of population in Jammu and Ladakh. More so, when PDP has mobilized the support for an alliance with BJP over the same objectives which are now being played down by its patron and J&K Chief Minister.

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