Even though only five legislators attended the press conference of the rebel PDP MLAs on Saturday, it seems the efforts to form a new government comprising the alliance of the defectors of the PDP and some other party is on course. One of the rebel legislators has said they have the support of 51 MLAs and that the government will be formed “at the right time”. If these words are to be taken seriously, then the state government could be formed anytime in the near future. Apparently, everything seems to be hunky-dory and democratic with such potential turn of events. A large group of legislators leaving a party, and making a government with the support of a third party. But it is hardly so, in the context of Kashmir. Such developments in Kashmir have invariably not been democratic in nature but done at the behest of New Delhi. History of the past seven decades is replete with such intermittent interventions which in turn have undermined the faith of people in the democracy as it operates in Kashmir.
For example, the abrupt withdrawal of support to Mehbooba by the BJP has already been connected in the public memory to the New Delhis familiar recourse to toppling governments in the state, beginning with that of the legendary Kashmiri leader Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah in 1953. The government of Sheikh, then the Prime Minister of J&K, was summarily dismissed in 1953 for his alleged hobnobbing with the US government in pursuit of an independent Kashmir. This has since bred a popular discourse that New Delhi inherently doesnt trust Kashmiri parties with handling the state of affairs and that it would rather prefer manipulating the democracy in the state than allowing it a free run.
But the current situation is more complex albeit in some of its aspects it is of a piece with the Centre’s attitude towards the state. An example from the past that comes closest is the withdrawal of support to Sheikh Abdullah by Congress in 1977. Sheikh had returned to the political mainstream just two years before that. Another example, and it is not about pulling out of the support, is the summary dismissal of the Sheikhs son, Dr. Farooq Abdullahs government in 1984. That time the government fell when a breakaway group within National Conference defected to form a government with the Congress support. But while on both these occasions, Kashmiris supported the incumbent parties and their anger was directed against the centre, this time they have celebrated the fall of the government. The reason is obvious. Mehbooba herself ditched her core politics in the government. But this would hardly mean that people would rally to the support of the rebels if and when they form the government. The prevailing indifference shows that the people in whose name all this is being done arent involved and cant care less.
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