Author: Hari Om
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: February 8, 2006
The views of the People's Democratic Party
(PDP) chief Ms Mehbooba Mufti asking the Union Government to "empower
people of Jammu & Kashmir (read the Valley's Muslims) so that they can
shape their future themselves" deserves to be read carefully.
She has even gone to the extent of condemning
those who have been opposing the idea of self-rule for the State: "I
don't know why people are raising hue and cry over this proposal (of Pakistan)...
I don't see any wrong in accepting right proposal of Pakistani President."
She has, in effect, not only extended unflinching support to the self-rule
idea but also coined a new slogan: "Apne log-Apna raj". The meaning
is crystal clear and needs no further elucidation.
That she wants New Delhi to withdraw from
Srinagar and recognise Pakistan as the most important factor in Jammu &
Kashmir is something that should not surprise anyone. For sometime now, she
and her party have been talking of economic independence of the State, joint
control of Pakistan and India over the State's power projects and demilitarisation.
She is also well-known for her withdraw-Army-from-the-State and "give
the people of Jammu & Kashmir breathing space" formulation, as also
for her over two-year-old dubious suggestion that "India should not interfere
in the affairs of Jammu & Kashmir".
Those who wish to understand what Ms Mehbooba
Mufti and her party stand for have to examine those factors which motivated
her to resign from the Congress and inspired her as well as her father Mufti
Mohammad Sayeed to set up the People's Democratic Party some seven years ago.
And they would do well if they also take note of the fact that she resigned
from the Congress despite the fact that she was the leader of the eight-member
Congress legislature party in the Assembly even though six of the eight members
hailed from Jammu and Ladakh. They have also to go through what she said on
the so-called Martyrs' Day in 2003, 2004 and 2005 (July 13).
Interestingly, her father too - like Mr Omar
Abdullah's father - is maintaining a very low profile, especially since November
2, 2005, when he reluctantly handed over the Chief Minister's chair to Mr
Ghulam Nabi Azad of the Congress. In fact, he is keeping himself away from
public and watching the developments from his habitat.
Ms Mufti, like Mr Omar Abdullah, is doing
the job methodically. It is no wonder that it is she and she alone who is
speaking, talking all politics, dealing with media, touring different parts
of the State (especially the Muslim-dominated areas) and addressing public
rallies to enlist people's support for what she and her party vouch for.
It is clear that whatever the top-ranking
leaders of the National Conference and the People's Democratic Party are doing
and saying are not in the best interest of the State and the Indian nation.
By extending unflinching support to the Pakistani ideas of self-rule and demilitarisation,
which are as sinister as they are well calculated, they have proved beyond
any shadow of doubt that they are there in Kashmir to propagate and advance
the Pakistani line and prepare the people for a full-scale campaign against
India.
It is good that the Union Government has rejected
outright the Pakistani proposals. Any ambivalence on our part would mean precedence
of politics of subversion over national interest. That would also be victory
for Pakistan.