It is politics, stupid

Over the past week, National Conference president Dr Farooq Abdullah has made several statements which have generated some controversy. Abdullah set the ball rolling by reiterating his well-known opinion that the only solution possible to Kashmir was that Pakistan keep its part of Kashmir and India its.  The television channels egged on by a compulsive need for a daily dose of outrage latched on to the statement to create some prime time ruckus. The anchors were all fire and brimstone. But this hasn’t stopped Abdullah from repeating the same opinion over and over again. He said the same thing on the occasion of the birth anniversary his father Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah.

This time, however, adding that India and Pakistan should grant autonomy to the parts of the state under their respective control. He also cited the instances from the history when this arrangement was contemplated by the leaders of the two countries. Similarly PDP president Mehbooba Mufti has made a pitch for a return to the former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s policy on Kashmir. Speaking at Hindustan Times Leadership Summit, Mehbooba expressed hope that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi will “come around” to his NDA predecessor’s approach to Kashmir and Pakistan.So, as is clear from these statements, there has been some familiar talk and suggestions about the resolution of Kashmir by two top mainstream leaders. One batting essentially for the status quo with a dash of autonomy thrown in and another seeking a replication of Vajpayee’s policy on the state.  Such observations never fail to make news, generate some controversy and be noticed by the people of J&K. More often than not, this instant media and public attention has become the sole function of these statements.

Though both PDP and NC have their respective settlement formulae for Kashmir and most of their politics revolves around them, the parties hardly pursue the objective once in power. That is, despite their pretensions and the protestations to the contrary.  NC in its six years in power offered a sterile, bureaucratic governance. The party all but shelved its demand for autonomy, now effectively its election-time agenda. Similarly, PDP president may time and again invoke Vajpayee’s policies on Kashmir, the harsh truth is that PDP has acted helpless when it comes to hold BJP to its commitment on this score in Agenda of Alliance.There is now little doubt in the minds of people that PDP and BJP have struck a political and ideological trade-off to smoothen the operation of their coalition government. PDP would not demand a movement towards resolution of Kashmir and BJP would not oblige it. If this proves anything, it is that the Kashmir-based mainstream parties have little role in resolution of Kashmir. But  from their legitimate role at one end of the Kashmiri political spectrum and as basically the parties meant to govern the state, the mainstream parties feel the need to traverse a lot of gray space, sometimes  even making an adventurous foray into the opposite end, in their constant bid to relate and make themselves relevant to Kashmiri political scene.

This demands dexterity and deftness to straddle the un-bridgeable divides. And also the imagination and creativity to adjust complexity and coalesce contradictions. And it is here that they often trip. Because, the challenge here is not the slickness of performance but to retain the credibility as they do it. And it is here that both NC and PDP miserably fail.

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