PDP president and firebrand former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti , known for her out of box political thinking and ideas, has yet again thrown ball in the court of Centre , asking it to constitute a joint committee of two Kashmiris on the two sides of the Line of Control to work on future of their region . She has sought to create a Catch-22 situation for Delhi.
With this call, she has placed both Delhi and Islamabad in a piquant situation and at the same time asserted her old position of self-rule, bypassing the Kashmir solution that Centre thinks it has got done with the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019 . Her intentions and political goals are clear ; to revive the slogan of self-rule , which in fact is a translation of self-governance , one of the four-point formula of late president Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan .
He had floated the idea of four-points to resolve Kashmir issue once and for all to discard Pakistan’s position on two counts- seeking resolution through UN resolutions on Kashmir , and that Kashmir should become part of Pakistan because of the Muslim majority character of the state .
His four-point formula revolved around ( i) demilitarization on both sides of the Loc – that is in Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan occupied Kashmir, which Islamabad fondly calls “ Azad Kashmir”; (ii) unrestricted movement of peoples from one Kashmir to the other , thus making LoC a borderless line ,( iii) self-governance that translated into division of the entire state on both sides of LoC into five regions – “ Azad Kashmir”, in reality PoJK , Ladakh-Gilgit-Baltistan, Kashmir Valley and Jammu region and ( iv) joint mechanism and supervision of two Kashmiris by India, Pakistan and Kashmir.
Mehbooba Mufti while addressing 25th anniversary of the foundation of her party – People’s Democratic Party – it was founded on July 28 , 1999 , within days after the Kargil war concluded , with an objective to provide a regional alternative to the dominant National Conference , challenged Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s repeated assertions that they would get the Kashmir on the other side of the LoC back, to do so. “ While you tell Muslims to go to Pakistan, how would you get the Muslims there to Indian fold ,” and went on to add : “ If you have the capacity let there be 20 members each from both sides of Kashmir to deliberate on resolving Kashmir issue.”
She played a typical card in telling both sides – Delhi and Islamabad- that Kashmir issue is far from resolved . Though she did not say in as many words about PoJK but she meant that the issue there too remains unresolved . PoJK had witnessed ad continues to witness general strikes, mass movements for their rights and claim on their natural resources . They are also angry with the treatment meted out to them by Pakistani establishment .
On this side of Kashmir, however , PDP president a consistent voice against the abrogation of Article 370 , has invoked Musharraf formula , that her party had adopted soon after it was made public in 2006. PDP stuck to self-rule to beat NC’s demand for greater autonomy . Now after the abrogation of Article 370 , the political dynamics have changed .
Mehbooba Mufti, angered by what she called “ unilateral” imposition of candidates on three Lok Sabha seats in Kashmir , contested polls from Anantnag constituency , and lost. Omar Abdullah, NC’s vice president who had mocked at PDP, contested from north Kashmir’s Baramulla parliamentary constituency, and lost.
Omar lost to Abdul Rashid alias Engineer Rashid, who is in prison for his radical views and support to the idea of plebiscite . Mehbooba said that the Centre must have seen that the sentiment of plebiscite is still persistent among masses, especially those who voted for Engineer Rashid, in a move to tell Centre that its belief that everything has changed with the abrogation of Article 370 was not only misplaced but has also proved counterproductive.
But it remains to be seen that how far she can go in carrying out this formula for her political survival.
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