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National

A loveless marriage ends

Praveen Swami

Power was the glue which held the Congress-PDP alliance together

NEW DELHI: Will see you all next weekend at the inauguration of the new arts museum, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad confidently told journalists on Sunday evening. He might yet keep that appointment but he almost certainly won’t be cutting any ribbons.

Last month’s political conflagration in Jammu and Kashmir, which ended with Mr. Azad’s resignation ahead of a confidence vote he was certain to lose, had all the elements of classical tragedy: hubris, the flaws of the principal characters, and the inscrutable workings of historical forces.

Troubled allies

Both the Congress and the PDP have claimed their alliance and its final rupture was based on principles. But power was in fact the glue which held these improbable allies together and the force that finally tore them apart.

In 2002, when the two parties allied to form a history-making coalition government, both agreed to share power for half of the six-year term of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly. The former Union Home Minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, thus realised his long-unfulfilled dream of becoming Chief Minister of his State.

When the Congress’ turn came around in October 2005, though, Mr. Sayeed was less than enthusiastic about keeping his end of the deal.

Congress leaders in New Delhi seemed content to allow Mr. Sayeed to remain in office. It was not until Congress MLAs from Jammu threatened to rebel that the party was given its turn and Mr. Azad came to power. But the rebellion also set the tone for the region and religion-based antagonisms which repeatedly burst into flames during his tenure as Chief Minister.

Just what were these tensions about? In the 2002 elections, the PDP registered significant gains in southern Kashmir, while the Congress did well in Jammu. As such, the parties’ constituencies were divided around regional and religious faultlines. An alliance made sense, since neither had any interest in encroaching on the constituency of the other.

However, the PDP’s efforts to expand its constituency soon set the parties on collision course. PDP strategists had cast the party as the sole authentic political voice of the Kashmir valley, but knew these claims were tenuous. In the 2002 elections, the PDP took just 14.64 per cent of the vote in those seats it contested, and just 9.28 per cent State-wide.

Its principal adversary, the National Conference, took 28.18 per cent of the vote and won 24 seats.

In order to break the National Conference’s control of rural Kashmir, the PDP moved aggressively to expand its social base , the orchard-owning rural elite, along with urban traders, professionals and government servants. Long the backbone of the Islamist movement in Jammu and Kashmir, these classes saw in the PDP the prospect of achieving at least some of their objectives through democratic means.

From the outset of Mr. Azad’s rule, the PDP postures and the Congress responses to them sundered Jammu from Kashmir, and Hindu from Muslim.

Drawing on Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf’s proposals for Jammu and Kashmir, the PDP called for self-rule. While the PDP eventually came out with a policy document suggesting it meant nothing other than the devolution of power to regional elected bodies, the language fuelled Hindu-chauvinist anxieties in Jammu.

In the course of a bitterly-fought series of by-elections in 2006, Ms. Mufti described killed terrorists as mujahideen, or holy warriors. On one occasion, Ms. Mufti provoked a furore by repeatedly waving a green handkerchief signifying support for Pakistan at a rally.

Soon after, in the spring of 2007, Mr. Sayeed wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, demanding that New Delhi consider demilitarising the State. Not surprisingly, New Delhi flatly rejected the demand. Mr. Azad, for his part, acidly called for politicians supporting the demilitarisation idea to renounce their own escort. High drama followed as Ms. Mufti returned her official bullet-proof vehicle although, as her critics gleefully noted, she continued to use the security detail assigned to a party colleague.

Matters came to a head last month, when the PDP backed Islamists opposed permission granted to the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board to put up temporary shelters for pilgrims — a decision the party’s Ministers had earlier agreed to. Mr. Azad at first refused to make concessions; later, the PDP withdrew from the coalition even as efforts to seek a via media were under way.

Is this the end of the loveless Congress-PDP marriage? For now, yes — but a reconciliation is not impossible. Jammu and Kashmir’s coming election could conceivably throw up a situation where a second Congress-PDP alliance became inevitable. If so, the State can only hope its leaders will prove as effective at putting out the communal flames now sweeping the State as they did in setting off the conflagration.

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