Skip to main content

J&K governor Malik's only achievement: To serve "short-sighted" interests of BJP

By Anand K Sahay*
Satya Pal Malik is a widely travelled man. He knows a thing or two about defections, too. There probably isn’t a worthwhile political entity in Parliament of which he has not been, at least briefly, a part -- what a success this nondescript politician’s career has been as a result!
He’s a governor on the trot – first in Bihar, then the crème de la crème, Kashmir – and after the coup in Srinagar last week, he is destined to go much further, if the BJP-RSS stays in the driver’s seat.
There was no shortage of competent men, retired but fit and wise, from the services who could have been a replacement for outgoing governor NN Vohra, with whom Delhi was mighty displeased as he tried to be correct for the most part. The regime professes to love everything military, but it opted for a feckless, faceless, former politico. No prizes for guessing why.
In comments to the media after his appointment, Malik made a song and dance about being a politician – suggesting that he had been mandated to be a bridge between the people of Kashmir and the government in a way that a retired official couldn’t be – and saying that his doors would be open day or night. But he fell at the first hurdle.
Democracy has been at a severe discount in Kashmir since long before the BJP-RSS got into the saddle. But Muslim politicians of the Valley were never before reviled and communally taunted, as is being done – directly or indirectly – in the present BJP raj, and this is a lesson that the Modi regime has shown no great willingness to learn. By deepening alienation through a language of discrimination, the governor’s actions and utterances have done more for the ISI’s Kashmir project than the hordes of hostile armed infiltrators can ever hope to do.
In 1996, Prime Minister Narasimha Rao, at the end of the first organised insurgency, and before the first post-insurgency assembly polls, had called on the reluctant National Conference (NC) leader Farooq Abdullah to take part.
On the question of autonomy for Kashmir, the prime minister said “the sky is the limit”, in his famous Ougadougou declaration from Burkina Faso. Abdullah eventually obliged and the NC formed government. The NC leader wasn’t hectored or degraded by the Centre for showing initial hesitation.
The election in 2002 threw up a fractured mandate, as the NC lost power. The Congress and the People's Democratic Party (PDP) took too long to come to their internal arrangement about who would lead the government first, but governor Girish Saxena, a former chief of R&AW, waited patiently for the political puzzle to be solved. His governor’s rule lasted a mere 15 days, imposed to satisfy constitutional requirements.
He understood the political and emotional need of the Valley in a most difficult moment, and didn’t play divisive games or disregard the Muslim leaders of J&K.
Subsequently, a BJP prime minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, declared he would look at the Kashmir issue through the prism of “insaniyat”, or human values. He even opened talks with a faction of Hizbul Mujahideen – which had to be abandoned on account of the principal interlocutor being murdered – as a prelude to opening talks with Pakistan.
The Modi regime has taken no lessons from the political temperament exhibited in the past by the Centre toward Kashmir. During its cohabitation of three years with the valley-based PDP, it brought governance to a standstill, before humiliating its ally. In the process, it was unable to do any favours to its own constituency in Jammu, which will be entitled to ask Modi a few searching questions.
The present governor’s only achievement has been to serve the short-sighted interests of the BJP, rather than of the constitution, even as the BJP articulated its interest as being antagonistic to that of the people of Kashmir.
But the equation is simple: a government that treats all the people of the Kashmir Valley as adversaries to be subdued will come to grief and will bring India to grief. In fact, to use a much-favoured word these days, such an attitude is plain “anti-national”.
Another sutra forgotten by the Modis, the Ram Madhavs and the Maliks of the world is that if the people of Kashmir are not on your side, you cannot negotiate anything worthwhile with Pakistan, no matter how muscular the rhetoric.
Let’s now repair to the governor’s kitchen, although the larder is probably empty. The poor burra laat bitterly complained that leave alone the malfunctioning fax machines at Raj Bhavan, on the day of Eid, the day he chose to dissolve the assembly, there were no cooks to assuage his hunger. Question under RTI: how many Muslims are employed in the governor’s home in Srinagar?
---
*Senior journalist based in Delhi. A version of this article first appeared here

Comments

TRENDING

Junk food push causing severe public health crisis of obesity, diabetes in India: Report

By Rajiv Shah  A new report , “The Junk Push: Rising Consumption of Ultra-processed foods in India- Policy, Politics and Reality”, public health experts, consumers groups, lawyers, youth and patient groups, has called upon the Government of India to check the soaring consumption of High Fat Sugar or Salt (HFSS) foods or ultra-processed foods (UPF), popularly called junk food.

Astonishing? Violating its own policy, Barclays 'refinanced' Adani Group's $8 billion bonds

By Rajiv Shah  A new report released by two global NGOs, BankTrack and the Toxic Bonds Network, has claimed to have come up with “a disquieting truth”: that Barclays, a financial heavyweight with a “controversial” track record, is deeply entrenched in a “disturbing” alliance with “the Indian conglomerate and coal miner Adani Group.”

Insider plot to kill Deendayal Upadhyay? What RSS pracharak Balraj Madhok said

By Shamsul Islam*  Balraj Madhok's died on May 2, 2016 ending an era of old guards of Hindutva politics. A senior RSS pracharak till his death was paid handsome tributes by the RSS leaders including PM Modi, himself a senior pracharak, for being a "stalwart leader of Jan Sangh. Balraj Madhok ji's ideological commitment was strong and clarity of thought immense. He was selflessly devoted to the nation and society. I had the good fortune of interacting with Balraj Madhok ji on many occasions". The RSS also issued a formal condolence message signed by the Supremo Mohan Bhagwat on behalf of all swayamsevaks, referring to his contribution of commitment to nation and society. He was a leading RSS pracharak on whom his organization relied for initiating prominent Hindutva projects. But today nobody in the RSS-BJP top hierarchy remembers/talks about Madhok as he was an insider chronicler of the immense degeneration which was spreading as an epidemic in the high echelons of th

From 'Naatu-Naatu' to 'Nipah-Nipah': Dancing to the tune of western pipers?

By Dr Amitav Banerjee, MD*  Some critics have commented that the ecstatic response of most Indians to the Oscar for the racy Indian song, “Naatu-Naatu” from the film, “RRR” reeks of sheer racism, insulting visuals and a colonial hangover. It was perhaps these ingredients that impressed the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, one critic says.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Our Representative Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

Avoidable Narmada floods: Modi birthday fete caused long wait for release of dam waters

Counterview Desk  Top advocacy group, South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP), has accused the Sardar Sarovar dam operators for once again acting in an "unaccountable" manner, bringing "avoidable floods in downstream Gujarat."  In a detailed analysis, SANDRP has said that the water level at the Golden Bridge in Bharuch approached the highest flood level on September 17, 2023, but these "could have been significantly lower and much less disastrous" both for the upstream and downstream areas of the dam, if the authorities had taken action earlier based on available actionable information.

A Hindu alternative to Valentine's Day? 'Shiv-Parvati was first love marriage in Universe'

By Rajiv Shah*   The other day, I was searching on Google a quote on Maha Shivratri which I wanted to send to someone, a confirmed Shiv Bhakt, quite close to me -- with an underlying message to act positively instead of being negative. On top of the search, I chanced upon an article in, imagine!, a Nashik Corporation site which offered me something very unusual. 

Jharkhand: Attempt to create red scare for 'brutal crackdown', increase loot of resources

Counterview Desk  The civil rights group Forum Against Corporatization and Militarization in a statement on plans to crackdown on “64 democratic progressive organisations” in Jharkhand under the pretext of the need to investigate their Maoist link, has alleged that this an attempt to suppress dissent against corporate loot and create an authoritarian state.

Victim of 'hazardous' jobs, Delhi sanitary workers get two thirds of minimum wages

By Sanjeev Kumar*  Recently, the Dalit Adivasi Shakti Adhikar Manch (DASAM) organized a Training of Trainers (ToT) Workshop for sewer workers and waste pickers from all across Delhi NCR. The workshop focused on bringing sanitation workers from different parts of Delhi to train them for organization building and to discuss their issues of minimum wage, contractual labour, regular jobs and social security.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.