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Politics without vision

The controversy triggered by the People's Democratic Party's decision to demand the sacking of Jammu and Kashmir Deputy Chief Minister Muzzaffer Hussain Beigh might turn out to be a storm in a teacup. At its core the PDP's decision to demand that Mr. Beigh be jettisoned from the Council of Ministers is the outcome of nothing more serious than a personality clash. PDP president Mehbooba Mufti has made no secret of her dislike for the ambitious lawyer-politician. Mr. Beigh, in turn, believes that he, rather than former Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Saeed's daughter, is best equipped to lead the PDP. The initial stance of Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad was that the PDP ought not to interfere in his assignment of portfolios to Ministers. But the central leadership of the Congress has, in effect, overruled him by announcing that "it is an internal matter of the PDP... [and] we do not interfere in it." All parties know the room for manoeuvre is limited. Had this coalition arrangement collapsed, the Congress might conceivably have found a willing partner in the National Conference, which is politically in the ascendant. Congress leaders know that the PDP, which has no reach outside the Kashmir Valley, is no threat to their own political interests. By contrast, the National Conference would be as much a competitor as a partner. Therefore, in balance, it suits the interests of the Congress to accommodate the PDP's demand and not let the coalition sink at this juncture.

If J&K were not the site of India's most fraught conflict, the action — or inaction — of the State's political principals would matter relatively little. None of the major parties has put together a coherent document on its vision for greater federal autonomy for the State before the committees set up by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to examine the question. PDP leaders are yet to inform the people of the State what the content of their calls for `self-rule' might be. For its part, the National Conference has issued unworkable calls for the restoration of J&K's pre-1953 status, which would deny the State's residents the protection of the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Indian Constitution, the right of appeal to the Supreme Court, and the constitutional role of superintendence, direction, and control of elections by the Election Commission of India. No serious public debate has taken place on a plethora of other issues. If the principals have opinions on how terrorist violence might be mitigated, how a ceasefire might be brought about, or how a dialogue with the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen could be put in place, we have yet to be told of them. Politicians in Jammu and Kashmir have long lamented, with some justification, that New Delhi ruled by fiat and machination. Now, however, credible mechanisms are in place for the State's democratically elected leadership to forge a workable vision for the future. So far, few have shown either the willingness or the resolve to do so. The costs of politics without vision are mounting by the day.

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