Booking Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti under the draconian PSA Act might just boomerang on the Govt
When the Prime Minister makes a statement in Parliament condemning protests and dissent as anti-national, Opposition critique as sedition and those with an alternative viewpoint as traitorous, like the tukde tukde gang, then he has, in a single blow, legitimised autocracy as the only mantra of his regime. And by extension, viciousness and vindictiveness its only practice. Going by Narendra Modi’s blustering speech in the House, which went beyond his pet pillar of anti-Congressism and subverted democratic convention by equating any sort of divergence with a threat to nation-building, he has codified new rules of statecraft. Or perhaps we should call it stagecraft, a demagoguery so virulent and Orwellian that it blinds truth and coopts blind faith in its place. And puts a wilted Opposition in its place. This then is going to be the discourse of our times, total subservience, wimpy acquiescence or nothing. And coming from the highest executive post of the land, both the Opposition parties and citizenry have been warned. Little wonder then that the examples quickly followed. Soon after Modi, while defending the abrogation of Article 370 in the House, lambasted how political leaders in Kashmir had said it would lead to turmoil and secessionism, the dreaded Public Safety Act (PSA) was slapped upon detained political leaders. That included two former Chief Ministers and one-time allies of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) — National Conference (NC) leader Omar Abdullah and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti. The 82-year-old ailing NC chief Farooq Abdullah has already been booked under PSA. If the Government indeed wants to make an example of Kashmiri politicians, some of whom have traded loyalties on either side of the LoC for their political continuity, then it would be advised to expose such deliberate acts on facts. Apart from opposing Article 370 and saying its scrapping would not be accepted by Kashmiris — an observation made by countless observers and analysts — there is nothing which was inflammatory, going by their recorded statements. Besides, the Government must realise their detention can only give them some political relevance and victimhood as most Kashmiris had believed both the Abdullahs and Mehbooba had shortchanged their interests by siding with New Delhi’s concerns. The Modi Government has to then answer if its predecessor, the Atal Bihari Vajpayee regime, was wrong or unreasonable in trusting moderates like Omar Abdullah as a bridge to the people. One cannot ignore that through the decades of conflict, mainstream parties in the Valley acted as a filter, kept militancy in check and gave some semblance of credibility to the election process. Can former Chief Ministers, democratically elected and for years nurtured as assets by the Centre, be disowned as troublemakers under a draconian law? One which makes them look as bad as terrorists? Particularly, Farooq and Omar, who have sworn by the Constitution and neutralised cries of azaadi. Post-reorganisation as a Union Territory and with a militaristic lockdown, Kashmir may be numb but could be brewing a generation with a more subterranean and sharper form of resentment. One cannot begin to imagine how that would manifest itself. The bearded forbearance of Omar — as his pictures went viral — may prove counter-productive for propaganda. Instead of scrapping his political career, it might just end up relighting it.
Dangerously enough, the justification for holding him, when civic rights have also been frozen, makes little political sense. If the government is not even able to restore normal lives despite its heavy-duty security presence, crackdowns and an information blockade, then there will only be a flood of questions on its intent to engage with people or convince them of their stakeholdership. For that to happen, people must be heard and allowed to speak. Coming at a time, when even the US is concerned about continued detentions of political leaders and rights denial in Kashmir, the Government is clearly sending out the message that it won’t be reactive to opinion of any kind, international or national. Neither is it worried about the lack of political will to pursue real concerns of people, except extending branches of Central schemes as the panacea for upending a people’s emotion and dignity. The Abdullahs may be a spent force but Kashmiris who had invested in the idea of India at their call will only see this as betrayal. Conformism was a long shot anyway, it will be a mirage now.
