The defining image of Kashmir’s new mainstream politics is the Asif Zardari-Mehbooba Mufti press conference in Islamabad. The event in one stroke showed how the People’s Democratic Party had finally managed to change the very basics of political discourse inside Kashmir. It had not only replaced the National Conference from its traditional Kashmir-centric turf but occupied the entire moderate separatist space as well. The emergence of the PDP as a force had an interesting beginning. After years in the wilderness, former Union home minister and one-time Congress leader, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, returned to the Valley with a new party and a fresh agenda, hoping to dislodge the ruling NC. Mufti knew that the Congress and its national agenda would never succeed in the Valley. He and his advisors also understood that there was scope for a Kashmir-centric politics, especially as his arch-rivals of the NC faced a serious credibility crisis. In Kashmir, Farooq Abdullah’s rule was deemed as imposed by the Centre rather than chosen by the people. The continuation of the NC’s alliance with the BJP-led NDA, despite their rebuff on the autonomy resolution, had further undermined the party. In fact, Farooq’s strong public rhetoric against Pakistan and open war with militants had added to this perception. This vacuum was immediately filled by Mufti’s new party and his daughter, Mehbooba Mufti, started projecting the PDP as a political group that not only feels the pain of Kashmiris but is also ready to stand up for them. Mehbooba started visiting the families of slain militants, joining the mourning. Then the PDP raised the issue of human rights, an agenda seen as exclusively separatist. The Centre encouraged this new mainstream political dispensation with an eye to the 2002 polls. The aim was two-fold. The post 9/11 world situation had put Pakistan on the backfoot and the line dividing terrorists and freedom fighters had been blurred completely. This international rejection of violence as a means to fight for political aspirations had provided an opportunity for New Delhi, leading to a belief that a “free and fair” poll process was the only way forward. The fairness of the poll process was being gauged by two factors — the participation of the moderate Hurriyat and a change of guard in Srinagar. The Hurriyat was split over the issue of proxy participation while the PDP emerged as a reliable replacement for the NC. The Muftis, however, moved beyond replacing the NC. The PDP took on all the taboos associated with mainstream politics in the area. The party started publicly sympathising with militants, demanding the release of separatist prisoners and an unconditional dialogue with the Hizbul Mujahideen and the Hurriyat. Its poll manifesto promised that the PDP regime would become a bridge between India and Pakistan and help resolve the Kashmir dispute. The major subject of its public speeches was the “dignified return of our boys living in jungles to their homes”, referring to the militants as “our boys”. Then the party also promised a “healing touch policy” that included zero tolerance to human rights violations, disbanding the Special Operations Group — an unpopular anti-militancy wing of the JK Police — and a major rehabilitation package for militant families. When the PDP took charge in alliance with the Congress, it started encroaching on the moderate separatist agenda.Though the PDP helped a direct dialogue between the Hurriyat and the Centre, its agenda began to make moderates irrelevant. The opening of travel points across the Line of Control has been a success story for the PDP leadership.The PDP’s political manoeuvring was at its best when it emptied the NC of its autonomy plank by rephrasing its political message, and taking it a step forward to term the solution as “self rule”. The party never explained its self- rule formula fully but provided aspects of it in instalments. Mehbooba talked about a cross-LoC constitutional institution like a regional senate in Islamabad, while her father supported the idea of Indo-Pak dual currency in Kashmir. And as the pitch of the poll campaign gets shriller, the PDP is already determining the political discourse, with its main opposition, the NC, and the separatists reacting to its rhetoric.The PDP’s Kashmir-centric politics, however, places more emphasis on perception than on political action. The Centre never initiated dialogue with the militants. The Centre-Hurriyat talks failed. The demilitarisation demand didn’t bear fruit and the Centre didn’t even agree to relocate the troops from agricultural land. The party didn’t leave the government but created a new issue with a stronger populist rhetoric, further pushing the border between mainstream and separatist politics. Only time will tell whether this brand of PDP politics will work in the 2008 elections.muzamil.jaleel@expressindia.com
