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| The Mufti era comes to an end | | Mufti Mohammad Sayeed: 1936-2016 | |  Early Times Report
JAMMU, Jan 7: Mufti Mohammad Sayeed's era today came to an end. He left the world today morning at the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, after prolonged illness. Now that he is no more, it is time to reflect on his ideology and what he stood and worked for after he founded the People's Democratic Party in 1999 after leaving the Congress with which he remained for many years.
Mufti Sayeed floated his own party with a definite objective. His objective was to achieve self-rule for J&K and persuade New Delhi to engage with Pakistan so that the Kashmir issue could be resolved. Limited accession with India and reconciliation with Pakistan was the motto of the party that he founded and nourished with a single-minded devotion. After 1999, he never looked back. He used all available opportunities to promote his ideology. He didn't even once deviate from the path that he charted while founding the PDP. For him political power was nothing but an instrument that he would use to push forward his agenda and implement his ideology.
No one in India had ever imagined that he would forge an alliance with the BJP, as his ideology and the ideology of the BJP were conflicting and mutually exclusive. But he surprised his friends and foes by entering into an alliance with the BJP against which the PDP used very strong words during the election campaign. What surprised everyone in the State and rest of the country was the fact that he clinched a power-sharing deal with the BJP without diluting his agenda or political goal or his ideology. He made the BJP and the RSS to accept what he wanted. That's was the reason it took almost two months to finalize the "PDP-BJP agenda of alliance".
The PDP-BJP agenda of alliance was, in fact, a carbon-copy of the PDP's election manifesto, also called Aspirational Agenda. The Mufti was an ardent believer in the concept separate status for J&K and he made the BJP-RSS combine to accept that. "While recognising the different positions and appreciating the perceptions BJP and PDP have on the constitutional status of J&K considering the political and legislative realities, the present position will be maintained on all the constitutional provisions pertaining to J&K including the special status in the Constitution of India," agenda of alliance said in this regard.
The Mufti didn't kneel. It was the BJP which knelt and compromised its ideology and agreed to not insist on its demand seeking abrogation of Article 370. The BJP willingly and happily endorsed his view that J&K was a political issue that needed to be resolved politically. The agenda of alliance also clearly and unambiguously said that the PDP-BJP coalition Government that he would lead for a full term of six years will have the authority to facilitate dialogue process between India and Pakistan and engage with Hurriyat leadership. In effect, the BJP, like the NC, the Congress and similar other "secular" parties, accepted the view that J&K was not an integral part of India to the extent other States of the Union were.
The Mufti wanted to constitute Council of Ministers of his own choice and he also wanted particular portfolios for his colleagues in the PDP and he was successful on both counts. The PDP and the BJP had equal number of lawmakers, but the Mufti managed almost everything for Kashmir and for the party that he founded. The BJP didn't make hue and cry. Contrarily, the BJP said that it was for the first time that Jammu got full share in the governance of the State.
The Mufti wanted the BJP to accept his view on the presence of the Indian Army in the State as well as his view on the Armed Forces Special Powers Act and Public Safety Act and the latter accepted that without any grudge. The BJP endorsed his view despite the fact that hitherto it vehemently opposed such demands as the demand seeking withdrawal of the Army and revocations of such Acts as the AFSPA and the PSA.
The Mufti wanted the BJP to recognize Kashmiriyat and the latter very readily agreed. It became part of the agenda of alliance with the concepts of Dogriyat and Ladakhiyat given no place whatsoever in the agenda of alliance on the basis of which the PDP-BJP coalition Government was formed ten months and seven days ago. The Mufti wanted the BJP to pursue the Vajpayee line on Pakistan and Kashmir. The BJP readily agreed. In fact, the agenda of alliance said that "The earlier NDA Government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee had initiated a dialogue process with all political groups, including the Hurriyat Conference, in the spirit of 'Insaaniyat, Kashmiriyat Aur Jamhooriyat'. Following the same principles, the coalition Government will facilitate and help initiate a sustained and meaningful dialogue with all internal stakeholders, which will include all political groups irrespective of their ideological views and predilections. This dialogue will seek to build a broad based consensus on resolution of all outstanding issues of J&K".
The fact of the matter is that the agenda of alliance that the Mufti made the BJP and RSS to accept was his biggest ever political victory. And the manner in which his Government conducted during the time he was at the helm further established that he didn't compromise his ideology even a bit and that he remained committed to what he stood for after the formation of the PDP. The Mufti was unlike the Abdullahs who would barter their ideology for power, held his ground firmly.
Indeed, the Mufti was a man of conviction. He will be remembered for decades for the manner in which he handled the BJP and the RSS and the manner in which he promoted the Kashmiri cause without diluting his stand on the issues that the self-rule document of the PDP dealt with. His influence on the BJP and RSS could be measured from what many BJP leaders today said while condoling his death. They said: "We wanted the Mufti to guide us for some more time, as he was a visionary and Statesman. Alas! He is not amongst us". |
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