K N Pandita  

As the new Governor of Jammu & Kashmir, Satya Pal Malik must prioitise his tasks. Crucial among them is to provide for a clean administrative system

In all probability, stalemate in J&K is in  heading towards an end. Legislators, hitherto hibernating in suspended animation, are gearing up for resumption of normal function of law-making. Political scenario now unfolding in Srinagar and New Delhi shows that stakeholders were silently working on a formula to break the impasse. It seems that good wisdom prevailed and re-alignment of forces is round the corner. Political parties were given adequate time to cobble a Government that is capable to deliver. Analysing the sequence of events, we notice that the Union Government upheld the dignity of the office of the Governor by allowing NN Vohra complete three months of extended term. He demitted office gracefully.

Hopefully, from her nearly three years' stint in office, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti must have learnt at least one far-reaching lesson viz, no covert conciliation or espousal of anti-national elements is going to separate the State from the Indian Union. The hardcore of her vote-bank carved out of radical ideologues was the last arrow in her quivers that is now standing exhausted.

Not only that, owing to her political shortsightedness and flawed conviction, she gradually and recklessly paved the way for the disintegration of the PDP, a party which she had built with tacit support of Jamaat-e-Islami. Cracks in the party became visible soon after the PDP-BJP coalition Government fell. She lost the strength which otherwise she would have made use of in projecting her party, to retrieve her image. The question of horse trading, an inevitable consequence of suspended Assemblies, did not arise for her when she found her herd in total disarray.

For National Conference (NC) chief Omar Abdullah, too, there is a stark lesson: That he cannot extract unjustifiable concessions from New Delhi by dramatising situations and handing out subtle threats to known or unknown adversaries. He seems to be euphoric about a fair chance of returning to power, something for which he has an inscrutable penchant. However, he needs to realise that sometimes his unpredictable waywardness can become ruinous for him. Now that he is again pandering to nationalist politics after brief honeymooning with a faction of the Hurriyat, he will be faced with the challenge of re-building his and his party's credibility along old parameters. One is tempted to argue that old parameters have collapsed and there is no escape from looking at Kashmir politics through the prism of pragmatism.

These realisations of current politics in Kashmir by mainstream parties have to be counted as signals for a positive change in Kashmir's political scenario after three decades of violence and blackmail. In 1975, when Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah returned to power after signing the Accord with Indira Gandhi, a correspondent asked him what the achievement of his long years of political exile was. He quipped that for all those years, they had done only awaragardi.

Farooq is known for his whimsical statements and comments. It is difficult to assign him any specific category in the game of politics. Nevertheless, he has never been ideologically comfortable with the Jamat-i-Islami or the Ahle-Hadith factions. True, these rabid communal groups did succeed in diluting some of NC's constituencies in previous election, yet Farooq retains the capability of retrieving the lost ground with some meaningful input when he means it.

NC and the BJP have the history of working in unison at the Union level. Farooq's recent statement that while the nation has progressed and moved forward, the State of Jammu & Kashmir remains stagnant, at least gives the impression that the stagnation must come to an end. He candidly holds the separatists and the Jamat responsible for the sordid phenomenon of destruction. Maintaining the pace of development in the State with the rest of the country is possibly only when there is peace and the State's relations with the Union are smooth and congenial.

The credit of fostering a re-think of ground situation in the State should actually go to the Jammu BJP electorate that sent in a solid team of the national mainstream party to the State Legislative Assembly. For the first time in the history of the State, Jammu has played the crucial balancing role. Its results will be known after some time. Good deal of spade work has been done behind the curtain during the last couple of months to bring about political stability. The BJP's top leadership was throwing subtle hints to that effect intermittently. One can find the rationale in Modi Government taking Farooq into confidence while contemplating a thorough shake-up in the ground situation in the State in general and Kashmir Valley in particular.

A new chapter in current Kashmir politics opens with the appointment of new Governor Satya Pal Malik, who has essentially a political background and is not a bureaucrat or a retired Army officer. His friend Farooq was the only Kashmiri leader present at the airport to receive him. The new Governor has to prioritise his tasks. Restoring the rule of law and denying politicised and polarised bureaucracy the freedom of defiance with impunity, thanks to the intransigence of PDP's pro-Jama'at proclivity, is of immediate importance.

Entire State Administration must go through a purge of anti-national moles that have created networks and dens. Clean administrative system is largely dependent on improving and strengthening of democratic institutions like Panchayats for which elections are overdue. Developmental works have come to a standstill and public services have become farcical owing to widespread corruption. Yet another area that must receive the attention of the new Governor and the in-coming Government both is that discriminatory treatment of Jammu and Ladakh regions has to be done away with. Disgruntled Jammu and Ladakh are the source of instability of the State and no Government, with the well-being of the entire State at its heart, can afford to become a prey to regionalism.

(K N Pandita  is former Director of the Centre for Central Asian Studies, University of Kashmir)

DISCLAIMER:

The views expressed in the Article above are Author’s personal views and kashmiribhatta.in is not responsible for the opinions expressed in the above article.

Courtesy: Pioneer: Saturday, 25 August 2018