PDP-BJP rift over Mufti Sayeed's remarks crediting Pakistan

Published March 2, 2015
Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed - AFP/File
Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed - AFP/File

On the very first day of their forming of a coalition government in Indian-administered Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) the ideological rifts of the ‘soft-separatist’ Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and ultra-Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are out there in open.

Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s statement regarding Pakistan and Hurriyat leaders has not gone down well with the BJP’s top brass. Hours after taking oath of office as Jammu & Kashmir’s 12th Chief Minister Mufti Sayeed in Jammu addressed a joint press conference with the BJP leader Dr. Nirmal Singh, his deputy in the 25-member cabinet, in which he expressed gratitude to Pakistan, Kashmiri militants and Hurriyat Conference in restive Indian-administered Kashmir.

Sayeed had earlier said, "I want to say this on record and I have told this to the Prime Minister (also) that we must credit Hurriyat, Pakistan, militant outfits for the conduct of assembly elections," Sayeed said at his maiden news conference as CM. "God forbid if they would have done something, it would not have been possible to have smooth conduct of the elections."

"People from across the border made the atmosphere conducive," he continued. "They also allowed the democratic process to continue in the state."

India’s Federal Home Minister, Rajnath Singh dissociated the New Delhi government and his party, BJP, from the remarks made by Mufti Sayeed, the BJP’s alliance partner in Jammu & Kashmir.

Take a look at: Pro-India politicians in Kashmir are ‘stooges of occupation’, say resistance groups

“Our government and BJP fully dissociates with the statements of Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed crediting Pakistan and Hurriyat for smooth conduct of the assembly polls,” Mr. Singh told India’s Parliament, Lok Sabha, on Monday.

Singh said that “all credit for creating conducive environment for polls goes to the Election Commission, our armed forces and people of Jammu & Kashmir.”

Rajnath Singh after making his latest statement in Indian Parliament’s lower house also said that he was making his statement after discussion and due consent from India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.

Another senior BJP leader and Federal Minister, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told reporters in New Delhi that “if someone asks us, we only have to say that it is the people of J&K, the Election Commission and the security forces, who have with full zeal and enthusiasm, ensured the fulfillment of this vital democratic exercise (assembly elections).”

However, on Indian television channel NDTV’s Sunday evening programme titled “Hyper Nationalism Weds Soft Separatism: Watershed day in Jammu & Kashmir” the local BJP faces sought to defend the statement made by Sayeed and insisted on seeing the ‘positive’ side of it.

Dr. Hina Shafi Bhat, BJP’s candidate who unsuccessfully contested elections from Srinagar’s high profile Amira Kadal constituency, said on the programme that “let’s see the positive side of Mufti Sahib’s statement. May be he meant that we have to take everyone on board for a peaceful environment in the region.”

The unease between the two diametrically opposite ideological parties is evident. While their alliance is being perceived as “unholy” in the Muslim majority Kashmir valley, the people in Hindu belts of Jammu see it as a partnership between the “North Pole and South Pole”.

Also read: PDP-BJP alliance could be a ‘paradigm shift’ in Kashmir’s history: Mufti

Difference in views

There are many issues on which the views of the PDP and BJP differ from an ideological point of view.

For instance, in their election campaign the BJP leaders promised their voters in Jammu that all West Pakistani Refugees who migrated from Sialkot and other parts of Pakistan in 1947, 1965 and 1971 to Indian-administered Jammu & Kashmir will be granted permanent citizenship rights, which include the permanent residence and voting rights.

However, according to the J&K State Subject law, no outsider can avail permanent resident rights in Jammu & Kashmir. J&K is the only Indian-administered state which has a separate constitution and a separate flag.

The view in the Kashmir Valley is that granting of permanent citizenship and voting rights to West Pakistan Refugess (WPRs) will change the region’s demography and that it was a “Hindutva design to change the Muslim majority character of Jammu & Kashmir.”

In their 'Agenda of Alliance' the PDP and BJP have agreed to “work out a one-time settlement for refugees from Pakistan Occupied Kashmir of 1947, 1965 and 1971, and to take measures for sustenance and livelihood of the WPRs.”

The document also talks about “extending all benefits accruing to the people living on the LoC (Line of Control) to the people living on the International Border.”

The 'Agenda of Alliance' also mentions that the “Union Government has recently initiated several steps to normalise the relationship with Pakistan. The coalition government will seek to support and strengthen the approach and initiatives taken by the Government to create a reconciliatory environment and build stakes for all in the peace and development within the sub-continent”

This clearly is BJP’s deviation from its agenda, which has traditionally been anti-Pakistan rhetoric and war-mongering. The BJP seems to have compromised on this issue as there is no mention in the agenda of giving permanent citizenship to the WPRs.

Similarly, the BJP also appears to have softened its stand on the Article 370 as the saffron party ideologically believes in “Ek Vidhan, Ek Nishan Aur Ek Pradhan” (One Constitution, One Flag and One President), but Jammu & Kashmir has a separate constitution and separate flag. Earlier, J&K used to have its own Prime Minsiter (now Chief Minister) and Sadr-e-Riyasat (now Governor) as well.

In the alliance document, the two parties agreed on the following:

“While recognizing the different positions and appreciating the perceptions BJP and PDP have on the constitutional status of J&K, considering the political and legislative realities, the present position will be maintained on all the constitutional provisions pertaining to J&K, including the special status in the Constitution of India.”

This is a huge “give away” from the BJP and “take away” for the PDP, as the former has been feeding its cadre for decades that the party stands for abrogation of Article 370 which grants special status to Jammu & Kashmir.

But the PDP seems to have knelt down on draconian Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), as there is no direct mention or guarantee in the alliance document that the AFSPA will be revoked any time soon.

The agenda however says that the “situation in the State has improved vastly and to build greater public confidence in its sustainability, people of the State must be able to get the peace and normalcy dividend. In this context, the coalition government will thoroughly review the security situation in the state with a view to examine the need and desirability of all the special laws being applied to the state in view of the situation which is improving.”

The previous government headed by National Conference leader Omar Abdullah had promised to revoke AFSPA within days after coming to power in early 2009 but it could do nothing in six years, as the Indian Army’s view finally prevailed.

The PDP seems to have touched upon this issue with great amount of caution with an apparent aim to take the Indian army on board before taking a final call on the AFSPA issue.

According to the Gazette of India, the Armed Forces (Jammu & Kashmir) Special Powers Act (AFSPA) received the approval of the Indian President on the 10 September 1990. The Act, however, was deemed to have come into force on the 5 July 1990. The Act gives certain special powers to members of the armed forces in the disturbed areas in the state of Jammu & Kashmir.

"Disturbed area" refers to the area which is for the time being declared by notification under section three to be troubled.

In relation to Indian-administered Jammu & Kashmir, the Gazette of India explains, if the governor of that state or the Union Government, is of the opinion that the whole or any part of the state is in such a disturbed and dangerous condition that the use of armed forces in aid of the civil power is necessary to prevent "activities involving terrorist acts directed towards overawing the government, striking terror in the people or any section of the people, questioning or disrupting the 'sovereignty and territorial integrity' of India, or causing insult to the Indian national flag, the Indian national anthem and the constitution of India; etc".

Special powers conferred upon members of the armed forces under the AFSPA can roughly be summarized as follows:

(a) Any commissioned officer, warrant officer, non-commissioned officer or any other person of equivalent rank in the armed forces may open fire if he/she is of the opinion that any person is acting in contravention or breach of any law or order;

(b) He/she may destroy any arms dump or any structure used as training camp for armed volunteers or utilized as a hide-out by armed gangs wanted for any offence;

(c) Arrest, without warrant, any persons who has committed a cognizable offence or against whom a reasonable suspicion exists that he/she has committed or is about to commit a perceivable offence;

(d) Enter and search, without warrant, any premises to make any such arrest as aforesaid;

(e) Stop, search and seize any vehicle reasonably suspected to be carrying any person who is a proclaimed offender;

(f) Power of search to include powers to break open locks; etc.

Ironically, according to several top ranked Indian army commanders operating in Jammu & Kashmir, there are no more than 150 militants active in the entire disputed Himalayan region.

But there is presence of about 600,000 Indian armed forces in the Kashmir Valley alone, which renders it as the world’s highest military zone in terms of ratio of armed men to civilian population.

And, as a matter of fact, the J&K Police force is not covered by the AFSPA but more than 120 boys were killed in anti-India and pro-freedom protest demonstrations in 2010 by the local police and paramilitary forces.

Not a single perpetrator has been punished until now.

All said and done, the PDP-BJP coalition might still work for next six years in terms of governance and development because sometimes the opposites attract, but the fact is that the PDP will have to do a lot of explaining to its voters and people on the home turf. And in that context, this alliance remains a political suicide for the party.

A PDP leader sums this situation up as: “going to the gallows and expecting to win a trophy”.

Gowhar Geelani is a writer/journalist, who has served as Editor at Deutsche Welle (Voice of Germany) in Bonn, Germany. Previously, he has contributed features for the BBC.

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