The Hindu : Congress pilgrimage to Srinagar

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Wednesday, May 28, 2003

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Congress pilgrimage to Srinagar

By Harish Khare

The Congress conclave will hopefully produce the words and the body language to impress on the Kashmiris that a regional leader can have autonomy and dignity under a big tent.

IN A few days from now, the Congress Chief Ministers will be gathering in Srinagar. This show can potentially be a significant occasion for the party as well as for the Indian polity. Just as the immensely popular film, "Kashmir Ki Kali", once integrated Kashmir in our cultural imagination, the Congress conclave can inversely bring India back into Kashmiri political imagination. It will also be an opportunity for the Congress leadership to prove to the Kashmiris as to the rest of the country that it has what it takes to be the principal political instrument of a pan-Indian constitutional state order.

As it is, the BJP, for all its pretensions to be the new alternative to the Congress, forfeited its all-India claims when neither the Prime Minister nor the Deputy Prime Minister put in an appearance during the last Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir. For the Congress, the conclave can only be an act of religious pilgrimage (ziarat), bordering on a journey of penance.

After all, it was Indira Gandhi, who, in an act of vengeance, dismissed the Farooq Abdullah Government in 1984, thereby beginning the process of political disengagement between New Delhi and Srinagar. The immediate provocation for her anger was Dr. Abdullah's activism in the oppositional politics; the young and impetuous Chief Minister had invited all the Congress rivals to Srinagar for a show very much similar to the one that is going to take place this week.

As the then Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, the late B. K. Nehru has pointed out in his remarkable memoirs (`Nice Guys Finish Second') that the very presence of so many Indian Opposition personalities in Srinagar had heightened the Kashmiris' interest and involvement in mainstream politics. This symbolic process of integration was suddenly and rudely interrupted by Indira Gandhi's imperious impulses. By peremptorily dismissing a "ruler" of Kashmir, however flawed and unworthy of the office, Indira Gandhi unwittingly posited an antagonism between the Indian state and the Kashmiri "aspirations".

Now another Mrs. Gandhi has got an opportunity to make amends. The "Chief Ministers' Conference" is designed primarily to create a prime ministerial halo around the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi. Not a wrong endeavour in itself. The format has got formalised as a ritual, meant to firm up internal power equations.

Nonetheless, any party that rules as many States as does the Congress is perfectly within its right to stage these kinds of political spectacles. However, care would need to be taken to ensure that the conclave does not bring, wittingly or unwittingly, any kind of humiliation on the current "ruler" in Srinagar.

As it is, the dominant view in the AICC establishment is that Mufti Mohammed Sayeed survives at the mercy of the Congress. This durbari mindset does not tolerate any kind of autonomous thinking or behaviour on the part of State level leaders. This Big Brother approach comes naturally to the Congress establishment. But it is worth remembering that in his last Chief Ministerial innings, Dr. Abdullah lost the game when he opted to play the jester in the Vajpayee-Advani court in New Delhi.

Mr. Sayeed has a historical obligation to correct the imbalance and to restore the autonomous dignity of the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir. Only a "ruler" who stands tall — and who is seen as standing tall, irrespective of prejudices in New Delhi — will get respected by the people in downtown Srinagar. In the Mufti's case, this is as much relevant for the North Bloc overlords as for the AICC potentates.

To the extent Kashmir is and will remain essentially a political rather than a geo-strategic problem, three tasks devolve themselves on the Congress. First, to showcase Indian federalism — or, in this case, the Indian "connection", if you will — as a governing arrangement that is indeed pro-people. Hopefully, the Congress will find the verve and the verse to make the point to the people of Kashmir that sensitive and humane governance is possible, feasible and is being practised in at least some of the party-ruled States.

The conclave will go a long way in winning the battle for hearts and minds if the Congress congregation is seen as setting bench-marks for good governance — pro-people use of state resources and initiatives — which Mr. Sayeed should be encouraged to emulate. In particular, the Congress Chief Ministers can showcase Indian democracy per say as an accountable governing order.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the people of Kashmir have known their "rulers" from Sheikh Abdullah through Bakshi Gulam Mohammed to Farooq Abdullah only as whimsical, autocratic and megalomaniac masters; the Congress Chief Ministers' conclave will be a historic opportunity to correct this image. The message has to be that power is to be exercised not for personal glory of the ruler or for his family's benefit but for the welfare of the common man. For the rest of the country, this may appear as rather obvious and trite, for the people of Kashmir it would be nothing short of a conceptual breakthrough.

A sub-text of this showcasing of Indian democracy can be making a case for the moral usefulness of a pan-Indian political party. A federal party is not necessarily a bad bargain. True, regional sentiments, pride and parochialism are not to be easily wished away, but only an all-India party provides the internal corrective mechanism against an errant and erratic "regional ruler".

The Kashmiris have seen for themselves how an unanswerable and unsupervised Dr. Abdullah — be it circa 1984 or 2002 — frittered away the popular mandate. The same has been the case with other regional parties such as the AGP in Assam or the Akali Dal in Punjab or the RJD in Bihar; without any kind of accountability, the regional "heroes" end up being local Neros. The Congress conclave will hopefully produce the words and the body language to impress on the Kashmiris that a regional leader can have autonomy and dignity under a big tent.

The second task that the Congress must perform in Srinagar is to show the flag on behalf of Indian secularism. Without in any way being seen as wanting to overwhelm Mr. Sayeed's People's Democratic Party, the Congress has to use its leverage and association in the State's coalition to convince the people of Jammu and Kashmir that the BJP does not represent the views and thinking of the majority of the people of India, even though the saffron party may be ruling at the Centre.

At the Guwahati conclave in April 2002, the Congress president had asserted: "We must reiterate our conviction that Indian civilisation is a celebration of diversities. We must emphasise our commitment to the fact that all those who live in this country are equally — and I underscore equally — entitled to the protection of law, irrespective of the community they belong to."

These fine words got lost during the Gujarat campaign when the Congress flinched under the BJP onslaught that it was countenancing Mufti Sayeed's release of "terrorists". The Congress necessarily needs to convince the Kashmiris that Indian secularism is not a strategy of electoral convenience but a matter of principled commitment and convictions.

And, lastly, the Congress leaders must appreciate that the people of Kashmir are desperately trying to cope with defiance, deprivation, dislocation and disorientation of a decade-long insurgency. Despite an obsession with azadi, they are also looking for a way out of violence.

The Congress conclave can help the Kashmiris see for themselves that bargain and compromise are the essence of democracy and invariably produce honourable solutions to the quest for identity and autonomy.

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