Mufti Mohammad Sayyed- the gerontocratic politician who was twice Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir- passed away yesterday. Born in 1936 in the town of Bijbehara, Sayyed graduated from the Aligarh Muslim University in 1959 and went on to become a politician. He received his break in the Democratic National Conference- a breakaway group of the National Conference headed by Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah. With no real political clout or patronage, Mufti deftly and adroitly rode on the very small political niche and space as an adversary to the National Conference. This was recognized by the powers that be at the Centre who promptly elevated him as a leader. His initial political career was defined by the nature of politics that defined Kashmir then- a web of intrigues, coercion and manipulation- designed to first squeeze and shut out the National Conference from the political scene and then prop up other politicians. Sayyed became the Congress partys stalwart who kept the party alive in Kashmir till he , disillusioned with the party after the Rajiv Farooq Accord, joined the Janata Dal.
The Janata Dal made him the Home Minister of India but this brief stint in power at the Centre was marred by the kidnapping of his daughter. This was in the late eighties (1989 to be precise)- a period when Kashmir imploded and exploded under the onslaught of widespread and broad based insurgency and militancy. The years 1990-1996 were times of hibernation for mainstream politicians including Sayyed in Kashmir. It was in 1996 when the state managed to hold elections in Kashmir that Mufti started making a comeback. Gradually but inexorably, Mufti staged a political comeback, ultimately floating and forming a political party, the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) which led to a duopolistic political structure in J &K. He became Chief Minister in 2002 under a power sharing agreement with the Congress for three years and in 2015 became CM again. But the scythe of death cut short his term and Sayyed passed away.
Insofar public perception about Mufti is concerned, he is remembered as a small time politician who rose to power through his political acumen and alacrity with due and necessary patronage by powers that be at the Centre. In other words, he is remembered as Delhis man in Kashmir. This perception, however, was about to be altered in Kashmir after his party, the PDP won 28 seats in the Assembly elections in J & K. Weary of politics and the political class in general, and fearful of the emergence of right wing forces in the country, which the PDP campaigned against and presented the BJPs rise as a threat to Kashmir, plus the anti incumbency against the National Conference-Congress coalition government, the fragmented vote of Kashmir went largely in favor of the PDP. But Mufti Sayyed, contrary to the stance of his party chose to ally with the BJP. Here, people felt was a chance for Mufti Sayyed to redeem himself and build a legacy, but Mufti, in the eyes of Kashmiris had squandered this opportunity.
Whilst we do not claim to pass judgment on people, including public figures, and history and historians are best positioned to do that, but historically, from the perspective of mainstream politics, starting with a bang and then collapsing with a whimper has been somewhat of a theme. It needs to be stated here that Mufti never claimed or pretended to be anything other than a committed Indian patriot, but he could have played a role in shaping to some extent, the political future of Kashmir. But, he did not. He too got trapped in the vortex of power politics and chose to play the game, so to speak, rather than do something larger than himself and something substantive. God knows better what Mufti had up his sleeve, if he were to continue as Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir but extrapolating from his past and especially the past few months, it appeared to pedestrian and run of the mill.
If at all, judgments of political figures are to be made, generalized retrospective ones are the easiest to make. But again this is contextual. In Kashmir, judgments about public figures are never easy given the convoluted and complex nature of politics and public life here. In milieus like Kashmir, where overall sentiment is charged and gyrates to a certain theme, and where politics gets implicated in embedded structures of power, playing the game becomes the default option of many if not most politicians. Was Mufti any different? And was his approach to politics right or wrong? We reserve this judgment to history and posterity.
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