Intro: By offering support to PDP, Omar has launched a shameless game of vote bank politics with an eye on the re-polls should they come by as in the case of Delhi.
In the aftermath of the fractured mandate of the Assembly Elections in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) the path of political uprightness is there for all to see. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that has received a decisive mandate in the significant Jammu region of the state has to be a part of any coalition government that is structured over there; with it can join any interested party from the Kashmir region where there are as many as three contenders.
The sectarian, partisan and communal mindsets of the Kashmiri leadership have come to the fore through their attempt to keep the BJP away from the government by all means possible. It is quite evident that
there are many “hidden separatists” in the Valley.
In a bizarre move, the former Chief Minister of the state, Omar Abdullah, has written to the Governor offering support of his party, the National Conference (NC), to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). Omar made this move after getting back from London where he would have conferred with his father, Farooq Abdullah, who is the patron of the NC; it can, therefore, be surmised that senior Abdullah, has sanctioned this
ploy and may well be the architect of the same.
More intriguing is the fact that Omar has made the offer not directly but through the Governor and that too in the form of a written letter. It indicates that he was quite sure of the offer being rejected but wanted to place it on public record. It becomes quite evident that Omar is pandering to the separatist tendencies of a particular constituency of the Kashmir Valley. The message that he is trying to send out is, “The NC is ready to go to any extent to maintain the dominance of the Kashmir Valley and the Muslim majority over the Hindu minority, but the PDP is not ready to do so.”
The top leadership of both NC and PDP is quite amenable to work with the BJP. They have experience of working at the national level and fully understand the political implications of not doing so. The problem is arising from the few voices of dissent within their parties that can cause a split and thus trigger an internal crisis. It is this blinkered approach that has initially caused the face-off and is now leading to weird actions like the letter by Omar Abdullah to the Governor.
It is well known that “there are no permanent friends or permanent enemies in politics” but the proposition put forth by Omar goes beyond the surreal. Since its inception the PDP has faced nothing but ridicule from the NC and has given back to the party in equal measure, hence there can be no common ground between the two. It is only befitting that the PDP has out rightly rejected this outrageous proposal; it shows that in some quarters of the Kashmiri leadership there is a sense of morality prevailing.
Both NC and PDP, on the other hand, have worked in concert with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) of which the BJP is the main entity. The NC has even been a part of the NDA and Omar Abdullah served as a Minister of State in Atal Behari Vajpayee led NDA government. Similarly, the PDP also had a good working relationship with the NDA during its earlier stint of governance in J&K. The ideology of the BJP has not seen a shift since the days when these parties were working in concert with the BJP-led NDA government. Why then are they finding it difficult to align with the BJP in J&K? Surely, they can invoke that success to move forward in a similar manner at this stage.
For both NC and PDP, the time is apt to take the best decision at the moment which counts. For Jammu and Kashmir, the best decision for the moment would be for either the NC or the PDP to align with the BJP to form a government in the state and then put in all that they have in service of the deprived people. If, on the other hand, if the parties go for a political misadventure of the nature that Omar has embarked, such a course will cause political and social instability and lead to sever security implication.
Jaibans Singh (The writer is Editor www.defenceinfo.com and an expert in J&K affairs)
