NC, BJP gainers in the Lal Chowk stand-off

Omar has no worries after gaining AICC support to hard stance

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Jan 25: Mainstream opposition party, BJP, as well as the separatist opposition outfit, JKLF, were gunning for Omar Abdullah and his National Conference-led coalition in Jammu & Kashmir until September 2010. Call it irony or DNA characteristics of the J&K politics, both are now helping once beleaguered Chief Minister to reclaim the ground he lost in the death of 112 civilian protesters in his principal constituency of Kashmir last year.

Perhaps nothing better could have brought Omar Abdullah back to the glamour in Valley. Notwithstanding the impression in a section of the population that Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s regional party had been ‘created by the BJP’ in 1999 to checkmate NC’s advances over autonomy, PDP has left no stone unturned to paint Farooq Abdullah in the saffron colour. Even earlier this week, PDP attempted to float that the Republic Day flag hoisting stand-off was nothing but a “fixed match” between NC and BJP. And that was not for nothing.

The rhetoric of abusing New Delhi---and anything “Indian”, including the Reserve Bank of India---has been recognized by political establishment at the Centre as an essential qualification for every Kashmiri leader since day one of accession. Die-hard Indians like Mufti took decades to realize that confrontation with Delhi was the bliss, if contained within limits.

However, luck did not favour Mufti in 2008. In August, he got entangled in the cobweb when ‘Ragda’ transcended from “National” and “Bharat” to revered deities of the religion of bureaucrats and politicians in Delhi. Rest of the damage came from the most unexpected Ajmal Qasab whose strike in Mumbai in the thick of Assembly elections in J&K made Mufti and his clan untouchable for Congress. Patrons like Pranab Mukherjee and Makhan Lal Fotedar gave in, rather desperately. NC, obviously, was the beneficiary.

An equally die-hard Indian Farooq Abdullah’s greenhorn son gained over Mufti’s experience. He drew lines to remember that limits would not have to be crossed. Omar intelligently positioned himself somewhere between the jingoist Farooq and the pseudo-separatist Mufti. He asserted as an Indian Chief Minister to retain his acceptability in the country without mugging his father’s refrain of ‘atoot ang’ and applying vermilion to his forehead at temples and Gurudwaras. He exhibited the temerity of calling Kashmir “a political dispute” well at the face of Prime Minister in Qazigund, put himself and his government on the controversial page of Hurriyat and Bar Association in the Shopian tragedy in 2009 and allowed his Cabinet colleague Ali Mohammad Sagar to spit on the CRPF in 2010 but did not make himself politically untouchable in Delhi. That paid him dividends in 2009 as well as in 2010.

With his disadvantage of limited control over bureaucracy in the state and an extremely poor delivery system, Omar landed in an unenviable situation when he fell to receiving end of all anger in Valley and, at the same time, people in Delhi began taunting him with “governance deficit”. A timely overhaul in administration in August helped him retrieve his credibility to a large extent, though effective action against corrupt Ministers and officers has not been possible till date.

PDP’s assertion over the “fixed match” apart, there is no disputing the fact that a tug-of-war with the Sangh Parivar---that too over the invasion of hoisting the “Indian flag” at Lal Chowk---was bound to turn a goldmine for any political outfit in the Valley. It could have, for sure, ended up into a dangerous gambling in absence of support from 10-Janpath. Jammu-based Congress leaders by now would have been publicly rebuking their coalition partner to neutralize the BJP. And, back home, the competition of gaining the centrestage would have been between the PDP and the Hurriyat (including JKLF). Support from Delhi has given Omar a magic handle to flatten all----from separatist opposition to the mainstream opposition, BJP excluded.

Cracking the whip on BJP has every promise of an “advantage BJP” and “disadvantage Congress” situation in Jammu. As Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh have both offered to put their state unit on the altar, Omar has nothing to worry about. Corresponding gains in the Valley are obvious: None of his ‘3-Idiot’ images are now on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. There are no blood-soaked lips of the “ Year 2010’s Bacha Khour” on any wall.

Even the bitter e-jihadis have begun to appreciate his tough stand on the flag hoisting at Lal Chowk. “It’s after 60 years that someone in Kashmir has shown the courage of deporting Jan Sanghis”, posted one of them, with his reference to Shyama Prasad Mukherjee’s detention by Sheikh Abdullah. This is exactly threatening all, from PDP to Hurriyat, to oblivion. But don’t forget, nothing has been permanent in Kashmir. With just one mishandling or oddity of fate, Omar could be the Mulla Omar any day in rest of his tenure.

END