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Betweem militants and electoral
politics: Studying a party that traversed along the razor's edge
WSN Bureau
 Srinagar:
For a number of militant aspirational movements, the rise of the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kashmir was an interesting
subject. The Muftis who formed and ran the PDP, and still do, were
able to walk the razor's edge in the thin space between an armed
movement and an aspirational politics. They could talk to both
sides, still seemed credible, and did enjoy the mass support.
However, now that the PDP has been routed out, it will be worthwhile
to study its fate. All the more so for the Sikhs who saw many
outspoken, radical faces doing well at the elections at one stage,
sending some worthy names to the Parliament, but soon also watched
these people being edged out.
Today, small time journalists do an Atinderpal Singh a favour if
they publish the former MP's press release. And Simranjit Singh Mann
is all too often not taken seriously by the Indian media, not even
when what he has to say is something most sincere, and really
discussion worthy. Studying how others slip can make the community
learn good lessons.
In the December Assembly polls last year, the PDP walked away with
21 seats, second only to National Conference’s 29. But just four
months later, it lost all six Lok Sabha constituencies in Jammu and
Kashmir, raising questions about the future of a party, which in
just over 10 years changed the political landscape of the state.
The party now has reason to be very afraid. Unlike the 80-year-old
NC, it does not have the kind of grassroots-level following the
rival party does. After all, the PDP is essentially an electoral
party forged in haste to encash the anti-NC wave, winning by default
in 2002 as the only alternative to NC. But what distinguished the
PDP subsequently was its ability to consolidate its political
credibility during its years in power.
Now, after the drubbing in the parliamentary polls, is the party
over for PDP? The party’s president Mehbooba Mufti doesn’t agree.
“We haven’t lost by huge margins. In Anantnag and Baramulla
constituencies, we ran up close to the winning NC candidates,” said
Mehbooba.
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Now that the PDP has been routed out, it will be worthwhile to
study its fate. All the more so for the Sikhs who saw many
outspoken, radical faces doing well at the elections at one
stage, sending some worthy names to the Parliament, but soon
also watched these people being edged out. |
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The party’s chief
spokesman Naeem Akhter is cautiously optimistic. “The PDP does face
definite challenges. For instance, in Baramulla, separatist leader
Sajad Lone’s entry into the fray took votes away from us. We have to
seriously think about overriding this factor,” said Akhter. He also
insists that the PDP has some advantages over the NC. “We have
acquired an individual identity with roots in the political
aspirations of the people. We do not go against public sentiment for
the sake of power, which the NC is notorious for.”
But it is the party’s metamorphosed agenda that has made it a
political pariah for its only possible mainstream ally in the state
— the Congress. And this is what greatly reduces its chances of
forming any future state government. The PDP’s self-rule document,
released in the run up to the Assembly polls, had called for a
drastic redefinition of Kashmir’s relations with New Delhi in a
broader politico-economic framework involving Pakistan. The document
calls for a constitutional restructuring, dual currency, roll-back
of Central laws applicable to the state and an elected governor. The
centrepiece of the governance structure under self-rule is the
cross-border institution of Regional Council of Greater Jammu and
Kashmir. This council, the party says, will replace the Upper House
of the Legislative Council. The regional council will have members
from J&K and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir as well as the nominees of
the Governments of India and Pakistan. This did not go down well
with the Congress.
In New Delhi, the PDP is generally perceived to have drifted from
the mainstream. The party now finds itself in a serious dilemma: its
posture has been taken at its face value and what may have been
merely a handy political gambit is being seen as an unpalatable core
ideology. After all, this is what NC veteran Ali Muhammad Sagar
blames the party for: “The PDP has perfected the art of
supply-and-demand politics. It supplies the political slogans
tailor-made to public demand. There is nothing which can be called a
core ideology”.
But Naeem Akhter would have none of it: “That PDP has not gone back
on any of its positions in any situation. It is the NC that backed
away from its autonomy resolution. The party bartered it away for
power after passing it with a landslide majority in the Assembly”.
Akhter added, “The PDP has proved its mettle in several elections,
even expanding its base in Jammu, where we took two seats in the
Assembly polls,” Akhter says. “The NC should realise that it is no
more the sole arbiter and the PDP is no longer a fluke.”
5June 2009
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