Shadow-boxing

It is ironical that parties as poles apart as the National Conference and the Bharatiya Janata Party on the issue of autonomy for Jammu and Kashmir, have to bear most of the burden of resolving that thorny issue. Chamanlal Gupta, BJP MP from Udhampur and union minister for civilian aviation, undoubtedly spoke for his whole party a few days ago when he asserted that autonomy for Jamp;K would weaken the country and encourage its enemies. Yet more autonomy is what appears to be needed for the survival of the political dispensation in the state. Gupta who criticised Farooq Abdullah for reviving the question is being inaccurate, of course. The autonomy issue does not need to be revived, it never died; it has merely been ignored. Now it is back in focus demanding the Centre8217;s attention. The BJP regards even the allegedly truncated form of autonomy enjoyed by the state at present as bad in principle and dangerous because small concessions feed the appetite for more. Hence its long-standing demand for the abolition ofArticle 370 which grants Jamp;K special status.

Its coalition allies compelled the BJP to defer that issue in 1998 and it was conspicuously absent from the 1999 manifesto of the National Democratic Alliance which the BJP adopted. The compulsions of governing Jamp;K appear now to be pushing the BJP further and further away from its original 8220;core8221; agenda. A set of autonomy proposals sent to the Union government by the Jamp;K chief minister require the Centre not merely to uphold but to reinforce Article 370 and give it more concrete effect than it has had so far. This is tough on the BJP, to say the least. It is confronted with what Farooq Abdullah describes as a choice between azadi meaning secession and autonomy within the framework of the Constitution. The Vajpayee government8217;s first tentative response has been to say it will set up a ministerial committee to examine the Abdullah proposals. To the people of Jamp;K, long used to the doublespeak of politicians, that may sound suspiciously like the death of the proposals. So the Union government ought todeclare that it will approach the question with an open mind and in good faith.

Other governments at the Centre have procrastinated and dissembled and run away from the problem. It would not be surprising if the BJP did the same and the Vajpayee government has all the excuses it needs in the escalation of cross-border terrorism and the tense situation on the border. But it is unlikely that the Centre8217;s dilemmas will be resolved by deferring the question indefinitely and Farooq Abdullah8217;s dilemmas will probably get worse. He fought the last elections promising more autonomy and must make a serious effort to deliver on his promises or risk losing credibility and political ground to hardliners in his own party and worse, to the likes of the Hurriyat Conference. That is an outcome no one will welcome. The clock may not be ticking as yet but Abdullah is definitely under pressure on several fronts, from 8220;friends8221; like Chamanlal Gupta for poor governance, and from the opposition for imposing a heavy price on ordinary people as a result of the intensification of the battle against terrorism.The tragedy is so much hinges on the symbols of autonomy whereas meaningful things like the development of local self-government institutions are neglected.