Challenges To PDP After Mufti Mohammad Syeed
By Masood Ali Mir
11 January, 2016
Countercurrents.org
The Democracy has the best feature that it provides a common ordinary man the opportunity to emerge in any and every aspect of life be it social, cultural, economic and political. Being mostly related to the political aspect of human life, it gives an ordinary person the full chance to participate in the political process and decide the things in the process of the authoritative allocation of values in a given system. In the Sub-Continental nations we had mostly the few dynastic families who ruled these nations generation after generation with little scope for a common man. These families have originated mainly from three different sections of society that is the rural feudalism , urban capitalism and the senior bureaucracy. Be it India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri-Lanka or any other country, these families in the form of Nehrus and Gandhis in India, Shariffs and Buttos in Pakistan and male and females of Sheikhs and Zia’s in Bangladesh ruled these nations after their independence from their colonial masters.
In Jammu and Kashmir we had a dynastic Dogra autocratic rule upto 1947 in which there was hardly any space for the democratic process and governance. It was the Molvi Mohammad Yousuf Shah who started a movement against the autocratic rule under the banner of the Muslim Conferences for certain concessions for the common man’s cause. In this movement he got support of a few people the prominent among them was the Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah. Abdullah later transformed the Muslim Conference in to the National Conference in 1938 under the grab of secularization of Kashmir politics, to include those sections of society who viewed Muslim Conference only belongs to the majority community. Political emancipation of the common man, end of Dogra rule and the land reforms made the Sheikh the tallest leader of this part of the world hence got the largest mass support and the title of Sheri-i- Kashmir( Lion of Kashmir).
Sheikh's rise left hardly any space for any other leader to occupy. Being the mass leader, his party National Conference emerged as the single dominant political party. Such was the huge prominence of Sheikh and his National Conference , even the India's largest grassroot level political organization at that time, Indian National Congress, was hesitant and did not open its office in Jammu and Kashmir. Sheikh as the Bab got the authorisation from his supporters for taking any decision in the famous slogan "Alle Kare Wagon Kare Bab Kare Lolo". It was this political setup and atmosphere when a young man joined the Kashmir politics that too not the National Conference but as a rebel to the Sheikh camp. Mufti Mohammad Syeed after completing his studies from the prestigious Aligarh Muslim University started his political career by joining the breakaway section of National Conference, Democratic National Conference ( DNC ) headed by Ghulam Mohammad Sadiq in the late 1950's. Recognizing Syeed's potentials Sadiq appointed him on various prestigious organizational structure of DNC and finally as his deputy. It was DNC which gave the young man the first chance to get elected to the state assembly. After DNC Mufti joined the Congress and is considered as one of the few leaders in Jammu and Kashmir who made the Indian National Congress a major political party in the the state and the main opposition to the NC . He popularised the national party at that time when it's members were labelled as the "Gandi Nali Kay Keeday" , In congress Syeed occupied various portfolios both in the state and central level besides leading the organisational structure of the party. Syeed changed his loyalities a few times for diffrerent political groups in his life and his is having the distinction of being the first and last Muslim till now to be the Home Minister of independent India.
Finally Mufti Syeed once again returned to his native state by forming a new regional political party, People's Democratic Party in July 1999. PDP under Mufti along with his daughter Mehbooba Mufti very soon emerged as a strong alternative to the National Conference which was dominating the Kashmir politics till then . Within a short span of time PDP was able to form the government in 2002 although in coalition with Congress and Syeed became the Chief Minister having just the 16 members in the state assembly. It was the Amarnath landrow which brought down the PDP-Congress coalition in 2008. In the 2008 state assembly elections, the PDP preferred to remain in opposition on the eve of closeness of two traditional rivals of Kashmir politics, National Conference and the Congress. The 2014 election provided once again the chance to the leader of PDP to govern the state but this time it was death which finally ended his political career of almost six decades .
Now when the chief patron, the most experienced and the seasoned politician Mufti Mohammad Syeed has passed away, his death has created a huge vacuum in the main stream politics of Jammu and Kashmir in general and in the power corridor of PDP in particular which is impossible to fill. Although the PDP is very clear and straight forward for Syeed's succession. But the things will not be very easy and smooth for the successor. The toughest phase for any political party in the Sub- Continental politics has proven to be choosing the successor when there is the death of the leader while being in office. The challenges which the PDP may face in the coming days , months and years will be numerous but the following few will hunt it more.
In the chequered qusi-fedral structure of Indian politics, it is very important for a regional political party to have its say at the national level. Mufti Syeed was the only bridge between the PDP ( sometimes associated with the soft separatism) of Jammu and Kashmir and the national politics. It will be very challenging for the new top brass of PDP to have the same sa , position and understanding with the national policy makers.
PDP is very young party with less than two decades of experience. It was Syeed who used to guide the party with the vast experience and it was this experience which was a pinnacle to all the ills of this party during the toughest times. PDP will truly miss the political maturity and experience of its late leader everywhere in the organizational structure, elections and the decision making.
The next big challenge for the PDP will be to have unity among its top brass and the cadre. When Jawaharlal Nehru died congress never had such unity among its leadership as it used to have during Nehru’s time. PDP during its existence has proved itself the most disciplined political party of the state. But very recently there was a bit of dissent visible in the party. It was Syeed the most experienced, powerful, resourceful and a shrewd politician who used to have a strong grip over the different voices of the party. But now it will be a party in which the leader will be just the first among equals and it will be very tough to have the same grip over it . The organizational unity will be a tough call for the new leaderships.
The PDP, in the post 1990 era of Jammu and Kashmir politics, is the only mainstream political party which tried to some extent to balance the opposite ideas in the state. The ideology based on the Self- Rule in this regard worked very much in its favour. Through the Self- Rule (although being ambiguous in nature) and healing touch police the PDP succeeded in localizing the national politics and nationalizing the Kashmiri sentiment during the hey days of Kashmir insurgency. It was only and only the Mufti Syeed who was the chief architect of this policy shift in which he got the full support of Vajpayee and Musharaf. He changed the very notion of negative diplomacy and pitched very hard for the unconditional dialogue between India and Pakistan. It will be very challenging for the new leadership of PDP to fill the vacuum in this regard which the death of Syeed has created.
The immediate cause for the Syeed’s death is supposed to be his Srinagar visit during the chilly days of ending December. It was his appetite for developmental politics which motivated him to visit the flood ravaged city of Srinagar. Whenever in office Syeed was always keen for welfare governance which built a strong reputation for him among a big section of society in Jammu and Kashmir. The new leadership has to work very hard to match the developmental approach of their late patron.
In short the future of PDP may be viewed very cautiously . If it can manage to have unity and discipline in the party , then there is no worry to it. It has a long way to go with bright future and to reap the benefits of the hard work. But if the dissent prevailed over cooperation and unity there is every possibility for the defection and split at various levels. The onus lies on the senior leadership how to accommodate the junior ones and carry forward.
Masood Ali Mir is a freelancer and can be mailed at [email protected]