[Reader-list] Op-ed from Daily Excelsior

[S. Jabbar]

Running with hares, hunting with hounds
MEN , MATTERS AND MEMORIES

By M L Kotru

Mehbooba Mufti, daughter of the former Chief Minister, Mufti Sayeed and
President of the People's Democratic Party was very predictably, the first
to claim "victory" for her party when the Kashmir Government virtually
washed its hands off the messy land allotment in Baltal to the Amar Nath
Yatra Board. It was her party's withdrawal from the Congress-led coalition
State Government that had forced the hand both of the newly appointed
Governor N.N. Vohra and Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad.

She could we well have taken credit for the immensely damaging consequence
of the agitation, the massive public protests in the Valley, its principal
ingredient, namely, bringing to the fore the largely dormant extremist
Hurriyat faction of Syed Ali Shah Geelani and the less strident moderate
faction led by Mirwaiz Farouq. What one saw on TV and read in newspapers of
the emotion-charged protests which the two Hurriyat factions and assorted
other separatist groups unleashed in the Valley for nearly a fortnight
recalled to mind the missing holy hair agitation of an earlier era. The
"mo-e-muqaddas" agitation was indeed a spontaneous popular outburtst against
the sudden disappearance of the Prophet's hair from the Hazratbal Shrine
which ended only when the holy hair made an equally dramatic reappearance.
Attempts were made even then by religious bigots to give the crisis a
communal colour but unsuccessfully.

Unlike in the case of the Baltal forest land crisis, which acquired hundred
percent communal overtones, although both the separatist and mainstream
parties did their best to present it as a manifestation of Kashmiri Muslim
sub-nationalism. They called it "nationalism" but any honest observer will
tell you that it was nothing but an expression of Islamic sub-nationalism.
The Baltal episode was projected day after day as an attack on the Muslim
character of the Valley, the few proposed prefabricated camps for pilgrims
on the disputed land dubbed as an attempt to put a permanent Hindu footprint
in the inhospitable mountain range.

It is good in the end though that the State Government, on the request of
the Governor, ex-officio chairman of the Amarnath Shrine Board, has ended
the so-called land deal and instead chosen to conduct the yatra itself as
was the case before Farooq Abdullah set up the Shrine Board in the year 2000
with the Mufti later conveying his concurrence by taking over the cash rich
Muslim waqf Board, for many long years headed by the late Sheikh Abdullah.

Mufti did have differences with the former Governor, Retd. Lt. Gen. S.K.
Sinha over the duration of the yatra, which he extended to two months from
the earlier fortnight without giving much thought to its implications. But
the die had been cast and Sinha, typically of him, decided just prior to its
retirement to ask for some 50 hectares of forest land to put up
prefabricated camps for pilgrims on the Baltal route. Mufti's man in the
Government who was also the Forest Minister was the first to acquiesce, with
the Cabinet including another PDP leader and the Deputy Chief Minister,
Muzaffar Baig agreeing to the proposal at a Cabinet meeting. Once the
protests started, Baig, rather disingenuously, claimed that he was
blackmailed by some Jammu Ministers who threatened to block the construction
of the Old Mughal Road to the Valley, a scheme long under implementation.
The Mufti saw the crisis snowballing and promptly expressed his total
disapproval of the forest and allocation. He must have been a worried man
seeing the Hurriyat factions initiating a well-orchestrated Valley- wide
agitation.

Other separatist groups too had joined the fray and anti-India, pro-Azadi
and pro-Pakistani slogans became the order of the day. Mufti who had in the
past walked away with the moderate Hurriyat agenda had to act quickly which
he did ultimately by withdrawing his party from the coalition. Mufti has a
much greater stake in pursuing, at least for the record, what is called
mainstream politics. His daughter after a recent visit to Pakistan has, of
course, made it her business to flaunt the trip at her every public meeting
and how she was assured there of a dignified (read autonomous) dispensation
for the Valley.

The father is still hopeful of having an imprint in Jammu but the party as a
whole must remain heavily dependent on the Valley. And it is here that it
feels threatened by a rejuvenated National Conference, the single largest
party in the State Assembly. Umar Farooq's unequivocal support to the demand
for abolition of the land allotment order may indeed have proved to be last
straw on Mufti's back, forcing him to withdraw from the ruling coalition.
The Mufti has by and large been running with hares and hunting with the
hounds.

I cannot fathom why he did not object to Farooq Abdullah's dispensation
setting up the Amarnath Shrine Board when he was Chief Minister in 1983.
Instead as I have earlier said, he set up a State Waqf Board as a sort of
Muslim counterpart, installing his own men on it. Nor did he really restrain
the former Governor, the head of the Amarnath Shrine Board, who over a
five-year period took too many high-handed decisions.

N.N. Vohra by comparison has a better chance of succeeding in bringing the
various groups together. He has vast experience as a bureaucrat, having
served for some year as the Home Secretary, as the Centre's interlocutor
with Kashmiri groups etc. What he must realise quickly is that even the
mainstream parties have lately started developing interests which may not
necessarily be in accord with New Delhi's interests particularly with regard
to the Valley.

I am not letting out a secret, the fact is that every mainstream party is
positioning itself to derive maximum advantage whenever the so-called
autonomous regions come into existence. That is why one has in the recent
past heard some of the pre-eminent mainstream politicians speaking of New
Delhi having backtracked with the former Pakistani dictator, now civilian
President-in-disgrace, Gen. Musharraf repeated his out-of-the-box plans to
resolve the dispute on several occasions during the last three years.

If you wish to see the Musharraf plan through the Valley politicians eyes it
adds up to the creation of self-ruling autonomous region with a joint
Indo-Pak mechanism in place. Asif Zardari too has spoken of autonomy when
Mirwaiz Farouqcalled, on his recently but the major political Pakistani
political voice, Nawaz Sharif's, has pooh-poohed the Musharraf plan.

None of this though dampens the spirits of the myopic Valley leadership. It
sees autonomy for the Valley as the next best to Azadi, a first step as it
were.

Some readers of this column have complained against my reference last week
to the subsidy offered by the Union Government to Muslims going for Haj. The
idea was not to hurt anybody's sentiments. I mentioned it asking the
question why should Kashmiri Muslims object to the construction of temporary
pre-fabricated huts for just two months to enable pilgrims to reach the
Amarnath cave from Baltal. So far as the Haj subsidy goes many of my Muslim
friends say it is un-Islamic for any Mussalman to accept subsidy of any
kind, airfare, lodging included, to be able to perform Haj. Islam enjoins
upon every Muslim to perform Haj at least once in his life time but my
understanding of it tells me that performance of Haj is mandatory for those
who can afford it; you can't borrow or steal to make the pilgrimage. I
repeat, I had no intention to hurt any of my Muslim friend's feelings.

Lastly, a word for the Governor N.N. Vohra. His roles, official and
unofficial, involving close contacts with a wide spectrum of leadership in
the State are too well known to be ignored. While this baggage which be
brings with him to his new office can have its uses it should in no case
serve as anything but a reference point. I am aware of his close contacts
with some of the dramatis personae but these too need to be set aside for
the present. What is needed just now is to resort the confidence of the
people, both in the Valley and in Jammu.

The aspirations of people in various geographical zones of the State need to
be constantly addressed, not one at the cost of another but in real concert.
I don't know as I write whether Ghulam Nabi Azad will be able to cobble
together a working majority during the next few days but what concerns me is
that the cobwebs of mistrust, assiduously woven by self-centred State
politicians these past few years, are swept aside. In face to face
conversations the Kashmiri politicians can be real charmers; only you can't
be too sure what to make of those smiles they flash at you constantly.

New Delhi's new man in Srinagar must above all make a mental note of the
off-the-cuff remarks made the other day by Baitullah Mehsud, the Taliban
chief of the NWRP and virtual ruler of Swat. As his Taliban continued to
take postshots at the Pakistan establishment he made the interesting
statement that he was not going to strike at the "beautiful city of
Peshawar". "It's not Srinagar". The Pakistani militants and some of their
Kashmiri counterparts based in that country haven't quite given up their
Jihad. In the backdrop of the upcoming elections in the State; the yatra
agitation should be deemed as a prelude aimed at arousing the local Muslims;
it also provides ideal ground for the Jihadis to go in for a strike in the
Valley. You must also remember that the political leadership in the Valley,
bar the National Conference, is working overtime, overtly and covertly, for
the Valley's separation from the rest of the State. That is the nearest they
can come to Azadi.