Author: Rupa Sengupta
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: June 10, 2004
"You can contain violence by fighting
violence, but if you really want to get rid of violence you have to get
to the root of the violence and that root is the alienation of the people."
No, that isn't Pakistan's Pervez Musharraf holding forth on the "root causes"
of violence (read terrorism). That's PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti talking,
in a BBC Hard Talk interview in 2002. This was the tete-a-tete that got
her into a bit of a spot with national integrationists, not a very popular
tribe with advocates of exclusivist Kashmiriyat. She had put India and
Pakistan in the same boat, saying 'let us alone' on behalf of Kashmiris
to both, unless they could 'help' in constructive ways.
Memory serves me right, believe
me, when I say the lady had conceded that the BJP-led NDA had overseen
the freest and fairest poll in Kashmir's history. This, despite Mr Tim
Sebastian's unenlightened goading about 'Hindu hardliners' and poll-rigging.
Evidently, his knowledge of the traditional saboteurs of Kashmir's electoral
process left much to be desired.
Mehbooba was, however, fastidious
about how she referred to her country's Government: "Government of India"
or "they", as if this disembodied seat of power had nothing to do with
her personally. Technically, she couldn't be faulted. But the implied abyss
between 'Centre' and 'State' was hardly geographical, or even emotional.
Its ambivalent import could not have been lost on Western listeners. Particularly
not BBC, which insists on calling J&K "India-administered Kashmir".
Mehbooba had a few nasty things
to say about security personnel-perpetrated "atrocities" (she called it
"state terrorism" in times she had to be less GOI-friendly). These she
identified as the 'root' of Kashmiri alienation. Given 2002's political
circumstances, one could hardly have expected her to dwell on a 'root cause'
that is a matter of historical record, and which put her own father off
in 1987: The Nehru-Gandhi-led Congress's subversion of democracy. The PDP
had come to J&K's helm with the culprit's aid, after all. How could
she admit who had given a non-descript Kashmiri called Yusuf Shah the misguided
zeal to morph into the "supreme commander" of the Hizbul Mujahideen?
Mehbooba also used the forum to
say the time for the "stick" in Kashmir was over. J&K would be nursed
back with much-needed "carrots".
There can be no argument about strife-torn
J&K needing a "healing touch". The problem arises when a well-intended
policy begins to look suspiciously like the coddling of separatist forces,
accompanied by the demonisation of those combating them. Mehbooba has always
given the impression of using winning- hearts rhetoric as a cover for sympathy
with the militant's cause. This perception has been reinforced by the PDP's
conduct following a recent terrorist attack in Lower Munda on the Srinagar-Jammu
highway.
An eye-opening news report dated
May 27 points to the callous indifference of J&K's PDP-Congress regime
towards the victims of the blast. This attack killed 29 people, including
family members of the targeted BSF personnel. The details need mentioning.
J&K's helmsman Mufti Mohammad
Sayeed apparently did not think it worth his while to attend the ceremonial
military honours for the deceased soldiers. His Cabinet members took the
cue. The injured in hospital were not, it is said, visited by a single
representative of his Government. Such visits-the report points out-are
"standard practice across the nation after major tragedies involving military
and police personnel". Five survivors were later shifted to Safdarjung
Hospital in New Delhi. But Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil was nowhere
to be found to hold their hand (he woke up later, perhaps only because
the report in question pricked his conscience or left him red in the face).
Wreath-laying for Lower Munda's
slain was left to mandarins and securitymen. No one from New Delhi's newly-coronated
United Progressive Alliance is said to have shown up. This, despite the
fact the terrorist strike coincided with its rise to the national helm.
One would have thought it would have served as a reminder of the fact the
anti-terror war was a major challenge for the new regime. Demonstrating
solidarity with security forces should have been the natural corollary.
Coming back to the report, the PDP
seems to miss no opportunity to rail against the lapses of the security
forces. But it sheds few tears over terrorist depredations. The Lower Munda
carnage-which also killed women and children-went uncondemned. As revealing
is that the Mufti is rather pointedly absent at functions honouring Central
forces personnel killed in J&K. Nor, it seems, is he very willing to
communicate appreciation for successes in anti-terror operations. Last
year, when BSF jawans killed a Jaish-e-Mohammad commander accused of plotting
the Parliament attack, they didn't get his pat on the back.
A few last nuggets. Some Kashmir-watchers
allege the PDP keeps mum on terror assaults, especially those the Hizbul
Mujahideen takes proud credit for, courtesy cloaked bonhomie with Hizb
elements. The report quotes CPI(M) MLA Mohammad Yusuf Tarigami decrying
the party's 'inconsistent' standards: "You cannot ... refuse to condemn
the killing of women and children simply because they are related to people
in uniform." As for the BSF, there is widespread demoralisation among its
officers about being treated as "mercenaries", by the very Chief Minister
"whose life they defend".
Such a damning portrait will most
likely fall as water off the PDP's back. More so, since the Government
at the Centre has the Congress as big brother, the regional party's partner-in-insouciance.
The two seem to see eye to eye about playing to the communal galleries
(recall the Congress's initial thumbs-up for the obnoxious J&K 'Daughter's
Bill', now slated for redrafting). Since the UPA's arrival in New Delhi,
national security-related discourse itself has mutated. Mr Atal Bihari
Vajpayee had painstakingly built terror-targeted India's reputation of
speaking softly but carrying a big stick. The UPA's common minimum programme
suggests the stick isn't wanted; internal security and terrorism are projected
as the bee-in- the-bonnet of the (Hindu) communal devil.
The language of the disarmed dove
has been officialised-with hyperactive cooing. The message from the top
is: "Short of secession", any sop for Kashmir is grantable. Mr Manmohan
Singh said as much to the K-word fixated Pakistani General. The latter
returned the compliment by telling Mr Natwar Singh-when he mentioned the
Shimla accord-where to get off. As for separatists, their 'alienation'
is sought to be assuaged by the promise to uphold "the letter and spirit"
of the ghettoising Article 370. The PDP extracted the pledge, and is kicked
about the Centre's vision of "soft borders". Emasculation of men in uniform
being the Mufti regime's policy, guntoters-in-disguise may easily pass
through. But that's a small price to pay, so long as J&K and PoK hug
each other and the PDP laughs all the way to the votebank-and the fiefdom-in-the-making
beyond.
Predictably, the Mufti is charged
with reluctance to give too much of a free run to Amarnath yatris (citing
security reasons!). As with the J&K Permanent Resident (Disqualification)
Bill, this too shows how the mental barricades of Kashmir's rulers can
threaten to become physical ones for all Indians branded 'outsiders'.
Union Home Minister Patil, on his
part, stands with open arms on the eastern front: He wants "humane" treatment
of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants. All that hapless aliens do when crossing
over, says he, is search for livelihood. The hospitable host must blink
at well-recorded economic pressures, social unrest and demographic change
in border areas. We are especially sworn to silence about the security
dimensions of the problem. The reds (save Bengal's Buddhadeb?) smile benignly
from the wings. What better way to make palatable the bitter pill of the
Congress-Left's pursuit of captive 'alien' votebanks -in West Bengal, Assam
and elsewhere- than humanitarian sugarcoating?
The PDP is part of this big happy
family, but with its honour intact: Mehbooba declined a berth in the Central
Ministry, citing workload. But it is not confounding that her party should
now rally behind the Congress-led "Government of India". Call it stakeholding
in a soft state.
