The Hindu Business Line : The challenges in J&K

Today, the people of Jammu and Kashmir need a chief minister with good administrative skills, integrity and a modern outlook, who can speedily take the State on the road to development. When the sentiment of the country is so anti-Pakistan, he will have to do some tight-rope walking when it comes to meeting the demands and aspirations of the Kashmiris, says RASHEEDA BHAGAT.

The voters have clearly refused to allow sympathy to be confused with choosing a candidate who can effectively represent them.

The biggest winner in the Jammu and Kashmir election is the electoral process, democracy, and the people of Jammu and Kashmir. They braved threats from separatists and went out and voted in far larger numbers than the previous election. So when the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh’s first response to the electoral leads on Sunday was that “it does not matter who wins or who loses… the winners are democracy and national integration,” he hit the nail on the head.

After six years in hibernation, the baton passes on to the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference, which, like the 2002 election, has emerged the single largest party with 28 seats but far short of the simple majority of 44 required in a House of 87 seats.

Even before the final tally was out, the NC President, Mr Omar Abdullah, made it clear that his party would not like to have an alliance with the BJP. He added that unlike the last time his party would make a bid for forming the government in the State; though the NC had emerged the single-largest party last time, “we took the results as a vote against incumbency and chose to sit in the Opposition.” But this time around, even though the two regional parties — the NC and Ms Mehbooba Mufti’s People’s Democratic Party (PDP) — have done much better than the two national parties — the Congress and the BJP which got only 17 and 11 seats, respectively — the mandate is clearly for change.

Even though the PDP-Congress alliance had worked rather well for most part of the J&K Assembly’s tenure, the parting was bitter as the Ghulam Nabi Azad government was brought down by the PDP withdrawing support on the Amarnath land issue. For the BJP, of course, the harvest has been rich as it has dramatically improved its tally from a miserable lone seat in the last election to 11.

But the signals from this election have been mixed. The two parties that launched a high-decibel campaign on the plank of religious fundamentalism — the PDP in the Valley by kowtowing to the separatist and hardline elements, and the BJP by whipping up a religious frenzy over land being denied to Amarnath pilgrims — have indeed improved their count. But blatant attempts to exploit communal sentiment have backfired, as is manifest in the defeat of Ms Kirti Verma, the wife of the protestor who committed suicide over the Amarnath land issue. The voters have clearly refused to allow sympathy to be confused with choosing a candidate who can effectively represent them in their day-to-day issues and problems in the Assembly.

Coalition government

The Jammu and Kashmir electorate has once again thrown up a hung Assembly, a feature that is becoming more and more common even in State elections, while it seems to have become a permanent feature in the Lok Sabha elections.

Even a State such as Tamil Nadu, which used to swing wildly between one Dravidian party to another by giving a huge mandate to one that was the flavour of the season, had in the 2006 election not given an overwhelming majority to the DMK, even though the Front headed by the DMK had a more than comfortable majority. In more ways than one, this kind of result takes away the comfort factor from the winning party which often runs amok, drunk with power, and delivers an inefficient, often corrupt, and, at best, an indifferent administration to the State. Until it is given a rude jolt by the voters who decide to use their votes as weapons to rule out ineffective or corrupt governments during the next election.

But Jammu and Kashmir is different from other Indian states in more ways than one. The issues are different, and in an area that is ridden with violence, extremism and meddling from Pakistan, even holding an election is a triumph and, hence, we had so many phases of polling.

Now that the people have spoken, after turning up in large numbers to cast their votes, defying calls from the Hurriyat and militants to boycott the elections, this troubled State deserves a stable government for six years and all the help required from New Delhi, to do so.

Now that the NC patriach, Dr Farooq Abdullah, who was projected as the chief ministerial candidate of the party, has bowed out in favour of son Mr Omar Abdullah, whom the Congress would prefer as the chief ministerial candidate, it looks almost certain that an NC-Congress coalition will be sworn in. Surely, a grateful Congress High Command vividly would remember the passionate speech Mr Omar had made in the Lok Sabha during the July trust vote over the Indo-US nuclear deal.

Much to the discomfort of the BJP, and glee of the Congress, he had thundered that his party had suffered enough by allying with the BJP once, and did not want to repeat that mistake ever again.

No smooth sailing

However, the sailing is not going to be smooth for such a coalition, if it fructifies; Ms Mufti is still pressurising the Congress to cobble up a coalition along with its 21 seats. But such a coalition, which is extremely unlikely, will hardly work because it will be dependent on the independent MLAs and smaller parties for survival. So we should soon see an NC-Congress arrangement in place. But from Day 1, such a coalition will find the going tough as it will have two formidable parties in the Opposition.

An emboldened BJP, which has been clearly given overwhelming support by the people of Jammu in a bid to get Jammu a much better share of resources, administrative attention, etc than it has hitherto got, will zealously bat for the Jammu region.

The PDP, on its part, will get even more hawkish when it comes to representing the Valley, particularly in playing to the gallery vis-À-vis violation of human rights, police and army excesses etc, “justice for the people of Kashmir”, etc.

The younger Abdullah has to make a clean break from the past record of his party which has had any number of corruption charges thrown at it.

Today, the people of Jammu and Kashmir need a chief minister with good administrative skills, integrity, a modern outlook that can speedily take the State on the road to development, and adeptness at deflecting the invective that will constantly be hurled at the State from Pakistan’s direction.

For who, better than a J&K chief minister, can understand the full import of former US Secretary of State Madeline Albright’s description of Pakistan as an “international migraine”! And, he will constantly have to also remember that he represents not only Kashmir but also Jammu and the often forgotten Ladakh.

In an era when the entire country is on a terrorism alert, post-Mumbai-havoc caused by Pakistani terrorists, and when the sentiment in the country is so anti-Pakistan, Mr Omar Abdullah will have to do some tight-rope walking when it comes to meeting the demands and aspirations of Kashmiris on a softer border with PoK, trade across the LoC, etc. The last demand has gathered force in the aftermath of the huge financial loss caused to the fruit traders of the Valley following the blockade on the Jammu-Srinagar highway during the Amarnath yatra imbroglio.

This will be his biggest challenge — convincing people in the Valley that he favours people-to-people contact, cross-border, trade, etc when the entire mood in the country is to cut off all ties with Pakistan till it brings the master-minds behind the Mumbai carnage to justice. His plight will give a more poignant echo to the adage “Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown!”

Response may be sent to rasheeda@thehindu.co.in

More Stories on : Politics | Rasheeda Bhagat

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Stunted growth

Global crisis and commodity prices

Pakistan’s financial quagmire

The challenges in J&K

Strong action needed