BLUNT BUTCHER
JAMMU: As results of by-elections to the high profile Anantnag Assembly Constituency would be trickling in any time from now, the deceptive Kashmir politics is all set to witness a new discourse. It is not just winning or losing of elections; it is certainly beyond than that.
The 2014 Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir witnessed high pitch and emotive campaigning, which horribly left the two distinct regions polarised on communal and regional lines. The polarised elections benefitted arch rivals who became allies due to numbers constraint in the Legislative Assembly. Rest is history and testimony to the fact that politics makes strange bed fellows.
If Mehbooba Mufti retains the seat (left vacant due to death of former Chief Minister and her father Mufti Mohammed Sayeed) for her PDP, it will be victory of an untraditional and calculated risk she took at the peril of her personal standing in politics. In a State, mired in deceit and deception, calling spade a spade is uncommon and full of danger. Such a misadventure has potential of committing political suicide.
Raking up separatist and anti-India passions, especially during elections, has been a fashion and short cut to success for politicians believing in electoral politics in the Valley. History is replete of instances how they injected Pakistan sentiment among people by displaying rock salt and wearing green aprons. Browbeating New Delhi has been favourite pastime for many politicians to derive benefits. This syndrome has been and continues to remain in foreplay even now.
In such a deceptive scenario, going against wind is unimaginable. Mehbooba Mufti seems to have broken the ‘tradition’. She did some frank speaking in the recent weeks, knowing well how it could impact her crucial election. This is something unheard in even Indian politics where rhetoric and falsehood takes centre-stage during elections.
Just a couple of weeks ahead of the elections, precisely on June 1, 2016 Mehbooba Mufti told Legislative Assembly, quote unquote, “Friday was a blessed day and it was blessed because people would assemble at one place to offer prayers together, discuss issues of society and try to prevent whatever wrong was happening in society. Those who taunt me and accuse me of being anti-Muslim have turned blessed Friday into a stone-throwing day. A respectful citizen will think 40 times whether I should offer prayers at Badi Masjid (Jamia Mosque) or Pather Masjid or any other. He is frightened whether he will be hit by a stone. He can even lose his life. It is not only you (Opposition), many others (separatists) have been issuing fatwas that I am anti-Muslim. Kashmiriyat is that we should safeguard our religion and stay together. Our Islam is not what they (separatists) say you have to do (protests and stone pelting) on Fridays.”
Has any politician, Chief Minister especially, been so forthright in saying so ever before? The statement was in tone with her earlier commitment with regard to return of Kashmiri Pandits to the Valley on the face of stiff resistance from separatists and even mainstream National Conference over earmarking of land for constructing transit accommodation. Mehbooba Mufti said on 29th May 2016 that she will get back KPs so that they can live together with the people in Kashmir. She said that her father, Mufti Mohammed Sayeed believed in the idea of India.
Mehbooba Mufti’s next take came in the form of snub to Hurriyat Conference on 22nd June 2016 when she lashed at them while speaking in the Assembly, “I am surprised that (Muslim) preachers talk so big about Article 370 (in their sermons). What is Article 370? It is of significance only if we are at peace. What are they talking about safeguarding Article 370… They are looking for something else. It is we (pointing towards MLAs) who have to protect it. It is our shared inheritance and nothing in it will change. I also belong to the family of preachers. We have to strive for protecting the environment and the water bodies. For years, we dumped our garbage in River Jhelum and it retaliated by dumping it back in our homes for 10 days (by floods). But we still did not learn any lessons.”
Normally, no Kashmiri politician would have mustered the courage to speak out truth and to show mirror to daydreamers, who believe in Azadi being just round the corner but Mehbooba Mufti did it. This is significant and also in the interest of Kashmiris, who have witnessed martyrs’ graveyards getting rehabilitated during past two and half decades in pursuit of illusions. If such a realisation has dawned on the Chief Minister, it will certainly lead to a new and positive political discourse in the Valley, making an end to flourishing enterprise of separatists, who have making merry while selling dreams.
In this backdrop, the electoral verdict in Anantnag will either be rejection or endorsement of what Mehbooba Mufti has been saying in recent weeks. In case she wins, the pseudo mainstream politicians will be compelled to redraw their strategy, as pro-separatist and anti-Indian stance will not win them elections anymore.
