The summer unrest had confined the unionist politicians to their barricaded homes, but with things slowly easing off, many are out on streets, organising and addressing public gatherings. Ilham Hassan reports.
The unionist political parties and their leaders are again conspicuous in Kashmir Valley after a self enforced disappearance from public scene for several months. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah forayed into old Srinagar city, the opposition People’s Democratic Party held state-wide anti-government protests and Marxist leader M Y Tarigami gathered his loyalists at Pratap Park in Srinagar. The official media is busy in highlighting ruling coalition leaders’ rallies in the countryside.
This is in total contrast to the situation, a few months ago, when the same leaders were invisible and the ground was dominated by the separatist leaders and street protests. Observers say that many people in Kashmir Valley choose to remain politically dormant, yet the political ground is alternately dominated by separatists and unionists. When the separatists hold sway, the unionists are automatically relegated to back seat and vice versa.
This see-saw puzzle started after the eruption of armed militancy in 1989 and continues despite the replacement of separatist armed movement with mostly non-violent public uprisings.
The phenomenon is more visible after the 2008 uprising that erupted in reaction to the government’s order to transfer swathes of forestland in Ganderbal district in favour of Shri Amarnath Shrine Board.
Tens of thousands of people followed separatist leaders to hold anti-India protests during that uprising. However, the scenario changed when New Delhi announced to hold assembly elections in the state. The anti-India protests were replaced by election rallies and long queues outside the polling booths.
A replica of this scenario is shaping up in the Valley. The entire summer and autumn seasons of 2010 were dominated by the separatist-sponsored protests against killings of civilian protestors by police and paramilitary forces. Since the death of 17-year-old Tufail Ahmad Mattoo on June 11, 2010, more than hundred protestors were killed. The public resentment on the killings was spearheaded by hardline faction of Hurriyat Conference through its “Quit Kashmir movement”.
During this period, the government machinery and its intelligence network almost failed. The unionist politicians including the ministers and lawmakers, both from ruling and the opposition parties, found their space shrinking in Valley. They either left the Valley or went into hiding in their fortified mansions.
“We are not able to face the public. The people are very angry.
The state government has wasted all achievements of the previous coalition government”, Mehbooba Mufti, chief of the opposition PDP repeatedly said in her interviews at the peak of unrest. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had to board helicopter to visit SKIMS Soura because the situation on ground did not permit him to drive his cavalcade from Gupkar Road (a 10 minutes drive from his residence).
While as the overkill of shutdowns and lack of joint strategy went against the separatists, the central and state governments used multi-pronged strategy to change the situation in their favour. On one hand the arrival of the Parliamentary delegation, announcement of 8-point politico-economic package and appointment of three interlocutors created political space for the government, on the other, the arrest of political leaders like Masarat Alam, massive crackdown on youngsters and stone-pelters and halt to civilian killings restricted public outburst.
Observers find an interesting pattern in the activism of unionist political parties in the Valley. On January 10, the three interlocutors led by prominent journalist Dilip Padgaonkar submitted his second interim report to Home Minister P Chidambaram. Interestingly, the interlocutors stressed on the basic right of the people to protest. “This right cannot be denied to the people having grievances,” the report said adding, “Unless the people are given due respect, things cannot move in a right manner”.
The interlocutors’ advice provided cue to the unionist political parties. On January 18, the lone communist legislator Muhammad Yousuf Tarigami appeared in Pratap Park to stage a protest demonstration. He used the “right to protest” to highlight the need for resolution of Kashmir issue and came down heavily on the government’s “step-motherly treatment” towards the common people.
“Senior members of the parliament should form a committee to find solution of Kashmir issue. Any delay in its resolution may instigate new wave of rebellion from Kashmiri youth,” said Tarigami.
Tarigami’s demands were somewhat akin to separatists’. “The killings in recent months should be probed through a Commission of Inquiry. Every bullet fired here or there kills only Kashmiris. A killer is a killer irrespective of who fires the bullet. The killers should be punished”, he thundered.
He described the laws offering impunity to anti-insurgency security forces as “black laws” and demanded their abrogation. “The Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), Public Safety Act (PSA) and Disturbed Areas Act (ACT) should be done away with. If the government claims the infiltration has come down and militancy has decreased in the valley, why these acts are in vogue. They (laws) rub salt (in) to the Kashmiri’s wounds”, he said.
On the following day, January 19, the principal opposition party PDP broke three-month long silence over state of affairs in the state. The party held protest demonstrations at all district headquarters of the state. The theme of the protests was to impress upon the government to initiate measures for resolution of Kashmir issue besides demand for release of political prisoners and youngsters, demilitarization of populated areas and abrogation of “draconian laws”.
Mehbooba Mufti, chief of PDP, who led a rally in Islamabad, candidly admitted that her party had observed silence for three months hoping that the government would initiate measures to bring about perceptible change on the ground level by reducing the sufferings of common people.
“The government has failed on all counts. The people continue to suffer. We hoped the prisoners would be released but the police launched more and more operations to arrest youngsters,” she said.
Keen Kashmir watches say that the otherwise vocal PDP observed silence shortly after the party chief attended all-party meeting chaired by the Prime Minister in New Delhi in September 2010. Following this meeting, an all-party parliamentary delegation arrived in the Valley to kick start dialogue process.
Interestingly, the subgroups of delegation interacted with hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Geelani and moderates Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik. The PDP’s silence continued during the October-end session of the state assembly, which was boycotted by the party except for the inaugural sitting.
“Even if the unionist political parties castigate the state and central governments, their resurfacing on the ground level is taken as a positive development by the authorities. This sidelines the separatists and mellows down their sway on the people,” said a senior journalist.
“The right to protest has been deliberately given to the unionist political parties and their workers. The separatist leaders are continuously under vigil and their movements are restricted,” he said.
Besides CPM and the PDP, the agriculture minister Ghulam Hassan Mir is playing an important role in mobilizing public. Mir, at the departmental level initiated the process by organizing “kisan melas” in various districts. Sources said it was mandatory for the officers to ensure maximum participation in the fairs. “Packed lunch were distributed among the participants, for which advance announcements had been made,” Javed Ahmad, a participant in Islamabad rally told Kashmir Life. Mir also organized public meetings at several villages in his home constituency – Tangmarg.
The ruling National Conference is not lagging behind. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and his ministers have multiplied their interactions with the people. The chief minister broke the jinx and toured the old Srinagar city, albeit under tight security arrangements.
Interestingly, a different kind of “public protest” is also emerging to wider media publicity. While the PDP accused that on-spot recruitment in police earlier this month in Khanyar pocket of Srinagar was fixed to benefit National Conference workers, a group of youngsters surfaced in south Kashmir’s Islamabad town to protest against their legislator and former chief minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed. They alleged that Mufti is not nourishing his constituency and lapses the constituency development fund.
Unionist politicians defend their activism. “We are elected representatives and people have voted us for solution of their day to day problems. We are only doing our duty by interacting with the people and helping them out,” senior PDP leader and MLA Bandipora Nizamuddin Bhat said.
