Spring is the most magical time of the year in Kashmir. The harsh bitter winter begrudgingly gives way to a Valley in full bloom. A season that always heralds hope and symbolises new beginnings.
But it’s not quite the same this year. An ominous shadow hangs over the only Muslim-majority state in India. With the looming general elections, there is a palpable yet sullen sense of unease and dreadful anticipation about what fate awaits us if the BJP wins a third successive term. The last time it rode into power with a brute majority, J&K bore the brunt of the first (but certainly not the last) act of constitutional harakiri to whet the insatiable appetite of the ruling party’s rabid right-wing voters who lauded it as a masterstroke and comeuppance for Kashmiri Muslims.
The abomination and betrayal was not only celebrated but condoned in no less than the temple of democracy. All of India erupted into rapturous celebration. We Kashmiris, caged like animals, watched helplessly as the Government of India gutted whatever little remained of J&K’s autonomy — a constitutional guarantee that laid the foundation for the state’s accession. J&K went from being a semi-autonomous state with its own constitution, flag and residuary powers to a dismembered/cleaved federally controlled Union Territory. In one fell swoop, both territory and trust were bludgeoned.
On a personal level, I find the current situation quite baffling. It took Mufti sahab decades to earn acceptability and recognition among his own people. As a staunch nationalist, he cast his lot with the Congress because he had great faith in India and the idea of India. It was also precisely why Kashmiris viewed him as an outcast and a pariah for a long time. A fierce social boycott engineered by his political opponent ensued. Along with fellow Congressmen, he faced a barrage of slurs and abuses. Albeit with grace and stoicism. Congress became a euphemism for gutter worms. ‘Yeh Congress gandi naali ke keede hain’, ‘Muftiyan kaber kashir nyaber.’
Eight years after we lost him I feel like I have been teleported to a parallel universe. My mother, the last serving chief minister of Jammu & Kashmir, was booked not too long ago under PSA, an anti-terror law, for over a year because she was seen as a threat to the country’s national interest and sovereignty. This despite the fact that PDP’s manifesto pushes for a peaceful resolution of the Kashmir issue in line with a broad-based consensus amongst its key stakeholders well within the Indian constitutional framework. In BJP’s political lexicon, she is now an “anti-national”.
The GoI’s plans of normalising the revocation of J&K’s special status were going as per plan except that Ms Mufti threw a spanner in the works for them. Unlike other Kashmiri political parties, she refused to toe their line of shifting the goalposts from special status to statehood and elections. But her choice to speak truth to power has come at a steep price. The party she and Mufti sahab assiduously built with their sweat and tears has been splintered into pieces by the ruling dispensation. All because she dares to defy them. As ironic as it may sound in a political landscape dominated by men she is the only man left standing.
At the time of writing this piece, my phone blinked with the distressing news of Jama Masjid being locked up yet again on the occasion of Juma tul vida — the last Friday of the holy month of Ramzan. Disillusioned Kashmiris who look towards their faith to derive strength and solace are now being deprived of even the constitutional right to practise their religion. Five years after disrobing us of what was rightfully ours, Delhi still finds ways to punish Kashmiris.
Ever since the illegal abrogation of Article 370, every edict and farmaan issued hundreds of kilometres away in New Delhi has dispossessed and disempowered the people of Jammu and Kashmir. This includes Ladakh as well where thousands are currently protesting against Delhi’s empty promises of granting them the Sixth Schedule and statehood.
Our special identity, land, resources and jobs are all under grave threat.
In these distressing circumstances, Kashmir’s much-vilified mainstream leaders rendered impotent have a colossal task ahead. As despondent and bleak/grim things may seem, I believe our voice still matters. It is in fact the only form of protection against the current onslaught on our very existence.
The importance of these elections cannot be stated enough. Jammu and Kashmir needs bold courageous voices to represent them in Parliament. An audacious voice that will speak fearlessly about the illegal abrogation of Article 370, release of detainees languishing in jails since 2019 under anti-terror laws in J&K and across India, the need to protect our fragile ecology instead of the current dispensation’s ruse of development to pillage our resources only to barter the benefits amongst its chosen crony capitalists. A voice that won’t bend to Delhi’s will.
The writer is the daughter and media adviser of former J&K chief minister Mehbooba Mufti. The views expressed in the article are personal
