A Winning Combination

The Congress party’s coalitional arrangements with most of its allies are under severe strain.Lalu is a loyal ally at the Centre, but the RJD’s incompetent, corrupt government in Bihar has damaged the Congress party’s credibility. Ram Vilas Paswan has proved to be a difficult and unreliable ally. The Left parties spare no opportunity to put down the Congress and use their leverage to keep vital decisions in limbo. The NCP is busy cutting the roots of the Congress party in Maharashtra and elsewhere. Mulayam Singh Yadav is openly warring with the Congress. The TRS and the Congress are heading for a messy divorce in Andhra. The only state a Congress ally has performed well and enhanced the credibility of the party is in J&K.

Hitherto all J&K chief ministers used to be derided by Pakistani leaders as Delhi’s puppets and stooges. They projected only pro-Pakistan secessionist outfits as the "true representatives" of Kashmiri opinion. For the first time in decades, the Pakistani establishment has had to acknowledge the legitimacy of the elected government of J&K by inviting Mufti and PDP chairperson Mehbooba Mufti to Islamabad, thus tacitly recognising that their party has been successful in representing the aspirations of a large spectrum of people of J&K. This has given India an unprecedented advantage in dealing with Pakistan as well as the world community in attempting to bring about an enduring settlement on Kashmir. The Centre could not have launched its peace initiative with Pakistan if the situation in J&K had remained volatile.

Many in India think Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s ‘healing touch’ policy is only aimed at winning over estranged Kashmiri Muslims through more humane and democratic methods. But his ‘healing touch’ is also aimed at reducing corruption, providing a responsive governance, and fostering a process of dialogue across political divides, as well as revitalising the economy of the Valley by reviving tourism and investment. There are not many CMs who can claim that the state government has provided 50,000 new jobs through a fair process based on merit, as does Mufti. These include recruitment in the police, school teachers and engineers. In a country where government jobs are openly auctioned, this in itself is creditable. The fact that 10 lakh tourists, mostly Hindu, from various parts of India visited J&K this year shows Mufti’s ‘healing touch’ is also directed at repairing the economic, cultural and emotional bonds of Kashmiri Muslims with the rest of India.

The experience of last three years proves that the battle for peace, justice and a secular polity can only be won when combined with good governance. The palpable change in people’s mood is evident in many concrete ways. Earlier, there used to be endless hartals and bandhs against human rights abuses by security forces and the callous attitude of the then government in dealing with people’s grievances. Today, hartals on such issues has gone down dramatically. People now come out to demand civic amenities and development work rather than secession, pointing to the foregrounding of a development agenda. The voter-participation in various elections is going up steadily. In several constituencies, 70-80 per cent of the electorate voted in the ’04 municipal elections. Human rights abuses by security forces have been brought under check. Lapses have been acknowledged and amends expeditiously made, including some face-to-face apologies by army commanders and the prompt payment of compensation money, mostly delivered to the victim’s family by a senior member of the government. Contrast the success of Mufti’s methods with the Andhra government’s messy handling of the Naxalite challenge, and you realise the importance of sagacious leadership in running a democracy.

Unfortunately, a section of the Congress feels deeply perturbed and unhappy at PDP’s growing credibility. They believe this will reduce their party to playing second fiddle for ever, as they are forced to do in Bihar, vis-a-vis the RJD. They overlook the fact that the Congress’s fortunes have improved after it allied with the PDP. By forging a new democratic agenda for J&K, Mufti has also generated increased goodwill for his alliance partner. Although state Congressmen use every opportunity to humiliate him, Mufti dexterously deflects attention from acrimony by emphasising in all his public meetings the valuable support he has received from the prime minister and UPA chairperson, as well as from Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L.K. Advani when they headed the NDA government. He manages to do this without appearing a puppet of the Centre because he conveys the impression that there is a national consensus on redressing the legitimate grievances of Kashmiris. This counters the secessionist propaganda that the Indian government intends to treat Kashmir as its colony. Consequently, Kashmiris have been coming out in the thousands to attend the public meetings of national leaders of both the Congress and BJP. Few leaders dared visit the Valley in the ’90s because of fear of attacks and the embarrassment of facing deserted streets or hartals.

Mufti is performing a delicate balancing act as a credible champion of Kashmiri rights without being anti-India. He has built a non-confrontational relationship with the Centre without appearing Delhi’s stooge. This is a winning combination for India. Congress should remember that Kashmiris turned against India because they felt they were denied the opportunity of self-governance by puppet chief ministers appointed by the Centre, many of whom won elections through blatant rigging. Recently, Congress cadres have come to suffer from an additional liability. By convincing themselves that without constantly paying homage to Sonia Gandhi their political future is unsafe, most of them have developed the habit of attributing all major decisions to the party supremo. It is unlikely that Sonia Gandhi expects or respects such slavish behaviour and her colleagues don’t realise how this harms both their leader and party. They may get away with such duplicitous behaviour in the rest of India, but Kashmiris are touchy about being told that decisions concerning them are all taken in Delhi.

Many senior leaders of the Congress admit in private that even though Sonia Gandhi’s historic decision to let Mufti lead the government after the2002 election led to a lot of heartburn in her party, Mufti has delivered far more than promised. He has virtually pulled Kashmir back from the brink. While the Congress is understandably reluctant to pull up those allies which have brought it a bad name, it should at least treat with respect an ally who has brought credit to the party and got people to express their political aspirations through democratic means — thus strengthening India’s hands in negotiating a just settlement of the Kashmir issue with Pakistan. Mufti’s continuance as CM is a necessity — in the interest of India as well as in the enlightened self-interest of the Congress.