Why Mehbooba Mufti should part ways with the BJP now?

Rollback  was a  term which came in vogue at the fag end of the Cold War. The term and the attendant practice gained traction when Ronald Reagan was President of the United States.  Rollback essentially meant a strategy of forcing change in the major policies of a state, usually by replacing its ruling regime. The parallel maybe both exact and inexact in terms of the political condition that obtains in Jammu and Kashmir contemporarily. It is inexact in the sense that the Cold War is over but it may be exact in terms of the relationship between the BJP and the PDP after Mufti Muhammad Sayyed’s death. There is nothing concrete by way of evidence to infer that there is a bit of a ‘cold war’ going on between the alliance partners. But we can adduce the nature of the relation from media reports and the silence maintained by the PDP leader, Mehbooba Mufti. We understand this is speculation and we will not go into any further. However, we would like to put some perspective on the contemporary political condition in the state and suggest that Mehbooba Mufti use this condition to part ways with the BJP. Here “rollback” becomes pertinent: Mehbooba must use the opportunity to force change in the state’s politics and the ruling regime- all for the good of the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

Our suggestion is not reflexive; neither is it impulsive. It is predicated upon the nature of the far right Hindu nationalist party, the BJP and its allied organizations, the RSS and the VHP, the idea of India they have in mind and the agenda that flows from this. All these have implications on the nature of Jammu and Kashmir’s politics, its past and future. The BJP seeks to foist a majoritarian agenda on India. The Idea of India that flows from this is that India’s essence is “Hindu” and that the Indian polity and society should reflect this. Capture of state power and use of this power to correspond to this agenda is central to the ideology of Hindutva propounded by the BJP and its allied organizations. If we take a step back in time, majoritarianism and the agenda inherent in it, was one catalytic cause for the partition of British India. India and Pakistan emerged from this partition as separate nation states. While Pakistan was formed on the basis of religion, the tiny Western incubated intellectual elite upon whom governance of India was thrust upon chose to go against making India a Hindu Rashtra. These western educated intellectual elite led by Nehru foisted upon India a certain idea that was secular and liberal where minorities had equal rights. Whilst the extent and nature of reification of this Idea of India can be debated, it stands to reason that India –in theory- was largely secular, liberal and democratic. The Hindu Far Right was never comfortable with this idea of India. It wanted and desired the ingress of “ political Hinduism” on India.

What implications flow from this on Kashmir?

From the standpoint of the two nation theory that became the predicate for the partition of British India, Pakistan , being a Muslim state, staked a claim on Kashmir; India, on the other hand, chose to boast its secular and liberal credentials and its claim on Kashmir rested on the premise that Kashmir represented the secular character of the country. The BJP and its allied organizations, the RSS and the VHP, incubating in the post independence history of India, had a different view. It want(ed) to incorporate/assimilate Kashmir into India as part of its Hindutva agenda.  While “secular parties’ that governed India for most of its post independence India could be held to be guilty of ‘incorporating fully or merging Kashmir into the Indian Union by stealth and subterfuge, the BJP’s stand is pretty much clear and open on this.

All this is well known but it has a searing resonance on contemporary Kashmir. The BJP has an overwhelming national mandate to govern. The party, making deft use of all forms of media, campaigned on the theme of development and reform but this theme has been held by many to be an attempt to obscure its real agenda: imposing its Idea of India on the country. 

The BJP’s ascendance to power coincided with the PDP gaining most of the vote share and seat share in Kashmir and the BJP doing the same in Jammu. If we may speculate, the late patron of the PDP, Mufti Muhammad Sayyed, may have fallen for the “developmentalist” agenda trotted out by the BJP and had a certain vision for the state of Jammu and Kashmir that would cannibalize the alliance for political and developmentalist ends. Nothing can be stated with certainty about this given that Mufti Muhammad Sayyed is no more. 

However, what can be stated with certainty is that the BJP will never countenance any deviation from its agenda. It can for tactical reasons “play the game of power” but will never compromise on its core ideology. The past record of its governance especially in Kashmir may be testimony to this. The much touted funds to Kashmir were not released, there’s been no development to speak of in Kashmir; in fact, and polarization has taken place in the state and the state is again on the cusp of deep political uncertainty.

In terms of public opinion in Kashmir, the massive “PDP wave” prior to elections has ceded to antipathy and apathy towards the PDP. People questioned and continue to question the merits of the PDP’s alliance with the BJP. While understandably,  Mehbooba Mufti would be grieved and grieving given her father’s passing  away, and it may be a tad churlish to make suggestions of a political nature to her, but time and tide wait for no one. And time and tide suggest that she should take the political uncertainty foisted upon the state by virtue of her father’s death as an opportunity to rescind the political bargain with the BJP as soon as possible. This suggestion must not be seen as  hint at forging an alliance with some other party but to seek a fresh mandate and go for re-elections.

This decision carries a risk. Mehbooba’s party may lose a few seats here and there but in the longer term, it  would be beneficial for both her and her party, the PDP.  By pushing back the advance of the BJP from Kashmir, Mehbooba can assert both her authority and re-connect to the people in an idiom that is organic; not unreal and artificial. The losing of a few seats may be an acceptable risk to Mehbooba. What may be preying and weighing on her mind is her father’s legacy. Parting ways with the BJP could imply negating the legacy and questioning the decision of her late father. But there’s two factors and themes that lend themselves to some thought for Mehbooba. The BJP did not stand by its bargain for the past year. And second, no one knows for sure what Mufti Muhammad Sayyed’s agenda was regarding the alliance with the BJP. He is no more and he has taken the secret(s) with him. Who knows what he would have done under a different set of conditions? Last, but not the least, the burden of leadership has now fallen on Mehbooba Mufti. Maybe God has a design here by way of testing her. The whole saga reminds me of a saying attributed to Einstein who because of his belief in science attributed happenings in life to “cause and effect”. Apparently, on his death bed, Enistein has been cited as saying and sighing,’ Subtle are the ways of the Lord

“- a clear cut acceptance and acknowledgement of God’s intervention in the world. Let Mehbooba then view the whole sage as a test and rise to the occasion. This would mean jettisoning the BJP now- a time when it would carry import and be consequential. Delaying and dilly dallying may not be worth it. As they and to repeat, time and tide wait for no one.

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