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Journalism of Courage
The game of musical chairs has come to an end in J&K, with Congress President Sonia Gandhi, much against the wishes of her party colleagues and New Delhi, conceding the post of chief ministership to Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, the chief of People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
In the process, she has extracted her pound of flesh by not only dictating the provisos of the common minimum programme (CMP), but also ensuring that the mantle of the co-ordination committee will be in the hands of Ghulam not-so-Azad, whose position would be akin to that of George Fernandes in the National Democratic Alliance at the Centre.
Sonia Gandhi has killed two birds with one stone. First, by yielding the CM’s position to the PDP, she has shown magnanimity and generosity which will indubitably earns her some brownie points. Second, she has effectively been able to ensure that the radical programme PDP wanted to implement is toned down to suit the interests of the Congress. The charter of 31 points mutually agreed upon, has 17 points devoted to the restitution of peace and normalcy and curbing corruption. However, the issue of devolution of power for the state finds no visible mention.
In doing so, the Congress chief may have upset the rank and file in her party in the Jammu region but things are not so gloomy — it will have the deputy-chief minister’s post. The people have more reasons to feel forlorn by the way the father-daughter duo of the Mufti clan has been regionalising the issue of chief ministership. A large section of Congressmen in the state apprehend that Sayeed may recommend dissolution of the state assembly after the completion of his three-year tenure, depriving the Congress of the chance to head the government.
Meanwhile, Omar Abdullah, the poster boy of the National Conference, is not likely to spend all his time reading Robert Ludlum. He and his golfer dad will be waiting for the right opportunity to topple the Congress-PDP government. National Conference strategists believe that the present government has emerged more out of compulsion rather than an agreed set of convictions. Farooq Abdullah’s well-known disdain for the Congress combined with his decision not to carry on as the caretaker CM — even after a request to do so from Atal Bihari Vajpayee — reflects his don’t-care-a-damn attitude.
BJP, his partner in politics, has also much at stake with elections to nine states to take place in the not too distant future, and the Gujarat polls just around the corner. The party — contrary to the public postures — could make things difficult for Srinagar. Much eventually depends upon whether the PMO — where Sayeed’s pilot (read Amarjeet Singh Daulat, a former RAW chief) is on a deputation and is still very active on Kashmir — will extend an olive branch to the PDP or whether the home ministry, lead by L.K. Advani, will prevail.
The ‘third-front’ within the coalition government, which has an agenda more extreme than even the PDP, would not like to be left behind and would act in a manner that would make its presence felt. Many believe that this constituent of the coalition would be the tactical irritant. Watch out for Ghulam Sofi, the proxy candidate of the People’s Conference, who would certainly play a crucial role in the negotiations with the All Party Hurriyat Conference. The new coalition government hopes to achieve a ‘broad based consensus’. But, quite obviously, its ‘political will’ would be tested to the hilt when it opens direct channels of communication with the APHC, and other sections.
It is quite clear, therefore, that the PDP chief will assume the role as head of the new J&K government under very difficult circumstances. After all, what he has inherited from Farooq Abdullah is a grim legacy of misrule and militancy. We earnestly hope that he takes all his coalition partners into confidence at all times, and avoid any serious ‘family squabbles’ in the days ahead. The hopes are many, the stakes are high and the world is watching.
(The writer is an editor of the web-newspaper,‘The Kashmir Telegraph’)
