The lack of unity and unanimity of thought and action among the Kashmiri leadership has been there all along. This has always been taken as a given by everybody, including even New Delhi. This is perhaps why even ‘symbolic’ political unanimity originating in the Valley would come as such a shocker to the Centre that it didn’t lose much time to pull down curtains on any possible truck between the Valley politicians. So the latest is that before the Congress, NC and PDP could cobble together any understanding to form the government, the Legislative Assembly which had been in suspended animation for some time now was dissolved suddenly. This is exactly what the Congress and NC had been demanding, and had wanted so desperately. Wednesday’s (Nov 21, 2018) developments actually scared Delhi to its marrow and forced it walk a road that certainly was not of its choosing. To cut the long talk short, New Delhi or to put it more precisely, the BJP, was simply outmaneuvered by the NC-Congress combine! And what is interesting to note here is that the desired result was achieved by a political move which was still in its infancy and consultancy stage.
While the different political actors have their own ways of looking at the developments given who they are, but fact of the matter is that this lack of political unanimity within the Valley has all along cost people of Kashmir very dearly. It is the people of Kashmir who have been suffering for want of direction, and consensus of thought and action of the people who claim to represent their “aims and aspirations”, their tear and sweat, even their “martyrs” and “martyrs’ blood”!
On the face of it, each group and faction says it is ready to listen to, and follow the other for the larger good of the bigger issue at stake – say for instance the legal defence of the state’s special status and laws governing it — but practically every single group is sticking to their guns and none is in a mood to let others take lead. With an eye on individual political fortunes, every leader and each group out there is milking the public sentiment to its advantage without actually contributing anything for the resolution of issues that have been both cause and consequence of the highly volatile and politically turbulent situation in Kashmir.
On their part, India and Pakistan too have been major contributors to the confusion that has dominated the Kashmir politics both within and without. Both countries have always used Kashmiri leadership — mainstream as well as separatists — to their respective advantage. However, one can’t blame either country, for they only do what they are supposed to do at any point of time – serve their own interests at whatever cost. Now if anyone in Kashmir puts all eggs in a single basket and thinks that someone else will also prioritize Kashmiri peoples’ interests at the cost of their own, fault lies with the former.
In the world of hard-jacketed statecraft, everyone is and must be held responsible for the choices they make. Therefore, if Kashmiri leadership has failed to make any headway towards prioritizing Kashmiri interests, fault lies with them, their own choices and not with anyone else. Their strategies, their tactics have been a failure, which have, for want of creativity and imagination dragged on way too long without yielding anything worthwhile whatsoever.
Even after having lost entire generations to the political turbulence and associated violence, see the travesty that the entire political leadership here is yet to evolve a consensus about the agenda of their engagement with New Delhi or for that matter even Islamabad. There are still brick-bats over every single issue concerning Kashmir.
In such a political clutter, the entire political culture has become so murky here that one is hard at making anything out of the political stances and statements and even the tactical choices made by the current breed of leadership. Politicking for the sake of politics is OK, but this could, and has to be once in a while kind of option. Kashmiri leadership has to show some kind of seriousness and ideological consistency and tactical perseverance to their politics.
