Kashmir politics continues to spring surprises in the first-ever Assembly polls in a decade being held from September 18. Awami Itihad Party or AIP led by Abdul Rashid aka Engineer Rashid had entered into an alliance with Jamaat-i-Islami , obviously with an aim of adding to their tally in the Assembly that will be elected after October 8 results , but there is a greater issue at stake, what does this alliance means at this point in time , whether it is natural or designed for some other purpose with backing of powers which are partly hidden and partly visible.
In realistic political terms, the parties have the right to go solo or stitch alliances before or after the elections , depending upon their ideological affinity or compulsions of the circumstances which are peculiar to Jammu and Kashmir, a state that was bifurcated into two union territories and now struggling to define its future as UT or the statehood that may come its way depending on the time and date of the Modi Government’s choice. All the cards on this issue are with the Central Government, PM himself and Home Minister Amit Shah have declared it in clear terms in their election campaign rallies.
Jammu and Kashmir has seen oddest of odd alliances- PDP and BJP stitched an alliance after 2014 Assembly polls even as both of them had nothing in common in their pronounced ideologies . They worked hard for almost three months to work out an “ Agenda of Alliance “. That was cleared by Prime Minister Narendra Modi who had attended the swearing-in- ceremony of the coalition government in Zorawar Singh Auditorium , named after Dogra warrior who had led Maharaja Gulab Singh’s forces to extend its boundaries to Ladakh and Tibet . There were two flags – national tricolour and state’s flag on the table in front of him, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and then Governor N N Vohra , giving an indication that how the two parties had made a political accommodation.
But there is definitely common in AIP and Jamaat they want to fight for the dignity of Kashmir and they are deeply annoyed with the abrogation of Article 370 . The August 5, 2019 decision of the Government of India to do away with the Article 370 and 35 A has changed dynamics of the Kashmir politics forever . There is a ground where the illusions and political realism play out all at once – the parties are aware that they cannot reverse the August 5, 2019 decisions because neither they can get majority in the parliament ever to do so nor any national party , including Congress that is an ally of NC championing the return of the scrapped Article . That has been a situational irony of Kashmir always .
A quick look at the AIP -Jamaat alliance brings to fore two major points that this is an afterthought , as neither Jamaat nor API had dropped any hints of their alliance , though the reasoning could suggest Engineer Rashid could not have done so while he was in jail. He was set free on interim bail on September 10 and he reached Srinagar next day. . But, in Kashmir he alliances are not always between natural allies . Since there have been charges, obviously by NC and PDP both of which want to retain their bastion unchallenged by other parties or groups- that the Jamaat and AIP were working at the behest of BJP which is determined to cut to size National Conference and PDP . That is what appears on the landscape visible to naked eye. Kashmir, however, has its own peculiarity of dodging the actual reality.
It is also a fact that other parties know the game that NC and PDP have played so far, The two parties have served in alliance with BJP time and again . Apni Party chief Altaf Bukhari was the first to point out to their smoke and mirrors game , when he demanded to know from them who brought BJP into Kashmir and who shook hands with them. He was the first one to reflect 0n the smoke and mirror games played by NC and PDP.
It will only be the post-election scenario which will clear the smoke regarding alliances and their purpose.
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