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Lessons from Kashmir

Hubris, errors of judgment, and fatal flaws of character destined the Congress-People’s Democratic Party coalition regime in Jammu and Kashmir to a premature end. But the State’s elected representatives will have walked away from the newly renovated Assembly building in Srinagar having learned three important lessons. First, they will have seen that actions and consequences are inexorably linked. In the course of the still-unfolding conflagration over the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board, both the Congress and the PDP practised incendiary politics and pandered to communalism. Both have paid the price — and are possibly in the galling situation of seeing the National Conference and the Bharatiya Janata Party walk away with the electoral spoils they fought for. Secondly, the State’s parties will have learned that Big Brother cannot and will not protect them from the consequences of their actions. New Delhi’s decision not to use the coercive tools and inducements at its disposal to rig the outcome of the confidence vote marks a welcome maturing of official policy towards J&K. Finally, the crisis has shown that the State’s multiple political groupings will have to find means to collaborate across regional and communal fault lines. The alternative is a communal conflict that will be impossible to contain, with major consequences for India’s position on Kashmir.

Over the last two decades, political formations across India have learned the same lessons in much the same way. Not a few people deserve a share of the credit for allowing democracy in J&K, interrupted by the two-decade jihad that tore it apart, to mature. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, for one, resisted the temptation to govern the State by proxy. Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, too, could have made up the numbers he needed by buying the support of PDP and Panthers Party splinter groups. To his credit, he chose not to do so. Governor N.N. Vohra played by the constitutional book, another welcome departure from the unhappy traditions of political life in the troubled State. Mr. Vohra told politicians that he intended to follow the guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court in the Bommai case. He did the right thing by inviting the National Conference, the single largest party in the State Assembly, to form a government. With that party declining the invitation, Governor’s rule has become inevitable. The State will soon get into election mode. The major parties must now look to the future, and cooperate with the Election Commission in holding free, peaceful, and clean elections.

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