Jammu & Kashmir Assembly poll: Rajiv-Farooq accord being tested by electoral fire

The upcoming elections have transformed the state of Jammu & Kashmir into a political cauldron bubbling over with party dissidence, rabid religious fundamentalism, secular blandishments, secessionist appeals and, most of all, popular disaffection and anger with politicians who have failed to bring about even rudimentary economic progress after 40 years.The people of the state are in a militant mood. In Haripur and Dangre villages of R.S. Pura district, barely 2 km from the Pakistan border in Jammu, residents complain that not a single lane in the entire village has ever been paved. In Anantnag, a two-hour drive from Srinagar, street-side hawkers openly rail against politicians who have plundered the state's treasury for their own benefits. Since most of this ire is directed against politicians who have enjoyed power during the last 40 years, the election is not going to be a Cakewalk for the new coalition.The Rajiv-Farooq accord, in which both parties have agreed to work for common candidates in the 76 constituencies, is being tested by electoral fire. In Jammu, the BJP attacks it as an unprincipled alliance between two power hungry groups because only three years ago Congress(I) had described Farooq as an anti-national element and a security risk. Fundamentalist groups - the Jammat-e-Islami, Ummat-e-Islam, and the Mahaaz-e-Azadi which have banded together under the banner of the Muslim United Front(MUF) are now gaining steady momentum.Forty of their candidates are openly campaigning with green Hags emblazoned with the Qoran, decrying the accord as a secular affront to Qoranic , principles and a sell-out by Sheikh Abdullah's family to "Hindustan."People's Conference(PC) candidates, led by Abdul Ghani Lone denounce the accord as a treaty negotiated without the consent of Kashmir's masses.And the masses, angry and unsettled, are bewildered by the accord. Used as they were to listening to National Conference(NC) candidates, including Farooq, and before him, his father, exhorting them to resist onslaughts on Kashmiri identity by the demons of Hindustan, they are now hopelessly ' confused when this same party and its, leaders ask them to cast their vote for them. Many view this sudden switch as a grand deception, and vow to vote for "anybody but" NC and Congress(I).And fundamentalist forces, preying on this mood of protest, continue to make steady inroads. They have already established footholds in areas from which they never secured a single vote in the past. Perhaps as great a threat to the accord is the surge of dissidence in the ranks of the Congress(I), and to a lesser extent within the NC. Under the present seat adjustments NC will contest 45 seats - eight in Jammu, 36 in the valley and one in Leh. The Congress(I) is fighting for 31 seats, including seven in the valley. Factional fighting over seat adjustments has taken a heavy toll of party loyalty within the Congress(I). In the final list, 12 of the sitting MLAs, including party leader Maulvi Iftiquar Hussain Ansari, were dropped. Many disgruntled candidates have emerged as rebellious "independent" candidates or have decided to sit on their hands during the elections rather than work for the accord. In some cases, they have openly turned their workers over to MUF.Even though the accord has yet to jell at the grassroots level-NC and Congress(I) workers are still suspicious of each other-it has worked fairly smoothly at the top. This is chiefly because the seat adjustments were negotiated almost directly between Rajiv and Farooq, with Farooq having the last word on every candidate, including those of Congress(I). Anti-accord elements, especially those within the Congress(I) were ruthlessly weeded out in the process.The political clout that Union Tourism Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayed and his group wielded in Congress(I) politics in the state was almost completely destroyed: not a single individual associated with his group has been involved in the electioneering. Mufti's erstwhile supporter Ghulam Rasool Kar former party vice-president, was elevated to PCC(I) chief only after he pledged loyalty to the accord in a private meeting with Rajiv Gandhi. But even then, Rajiv left the final approval for his appointment to Farooq.Farooq Abdullah drumming up support for NC candidate in Budgam constituency during a hectic 10-hour campaign day: happy warriorFarooq's campaign rhetoric and style clearly reflects his determination to make the accord work. He is no longer wishy-washy in his commitment to secularism or opposition to anti-national forces.The crucial decisions, ultimately, were made by Farooq who completely sidelined the four-member coordination committee, consisting of two NC and two Congress(I) negotiators that had been set up specially for the post-accord deliberations. Whereas Farooq had the final say in the final selection of Congress(I) candidates, Congress(I) had virtually none in the selection of NC's contenders. That Congress(I) is already having to deal with sizeable dissidence from within its own ranks became evident last fortnight when Congress(I) representatives Najma Heptullah, Ghulam Rasool Kar, and Rajesh Pilot, during a joint campaign with Farooq in jammu, warned party members that anything short of total cooperation would result in strict action against them. In another bid to remove an electoral irritant. Farooq offered two seats in Srinagar - Idgah and Zadibal - to be contested under a common banner to the Awami Action Committee headed by Sunni leader Maulana Mirwaiz Farooq, the traditional foe of the Abdullah family.If the Centre is now convinced that Farooq is truly the only hope for bringing stability to the state, he is equally clear about the need to work hand in glove with the powers in Delhi. Farooq is determined to make the accord work and has pledged to include the Congress(I) leaders in his council of ministers no matter what that party's performance in the polls.Farooq's campaign rhetoric and style clearly reflects this attitude. He is no longer wishy washy in his commitment to secularism or in his opposition to forces that are anti-national. And he has taken into cognisance the effect of Governor Jagmohan's brief rule in the state when for the first time Jammu & Kashmir witnessed a clean government that delivered speedy economic fruits. The people still remember that. MUF's Oazi Nissar draws crowds in Shangas: militant moodCandidates of the MUF, gaining steady momentum, campaign with flags emblazoned with the Qoran, decrying the accord as a sellout of Islam. And so does Farooq. On a freezing March day, drenched in icy rain, Farooq campaigned non-stop for 10 hours - a pace that he has maintained all through the campaign - through Hazratbal and Budgam, driving through flooded roads in his white Maruti-Gypsy, jogging through knee-deep slush, limbering up mountain slopes, addressing thousands of eagerly a waiting people in large and small gatherings, sometimes speaking through a public address system and sometimes with his portable, battery-operated bull-horn. Everywhere the crowds, waiting in the pouring rain, are frenzied and greet him with howls of "Sher awah, sher awah," (The Lion has come).Farooq's message is the same all over: confrontation with the Centre produced nothing but misery for Kashmiris because the state lagged behind in development; the accord is designed to bring in massive Central aid for building the state's economic infrastructure; the fundamentalists are deceiving the people by telling them that Islam is in danger; the real danger is the danger of poverty, of bad roads, lack of education, electricity, water; the only true guarantee of religious freedom is within a secular state. This same message - that with the accord will come economic development - is repeated in Jammu by Congress(I) candidate Rangil Singh in border villages in R.S. Pura, and by Dutt in the Cantonment area.Deep in the valley, in Anantnag, Achhabal, Kuthar, Shangas in Baramula district, in Sopore, Bandipura and Handwara where a total of about 30 seats are at stake, opposition candidates, mostly from the MOT and PC sing a different and militant tune to hundreds of thousands of village and townsfolk who throng to their rallies with the battlecry of "Awah, awah, awah inquilab," and "Assembly me kya chalega? Nizam-e-Mustafa." (The struggle for freedom is at hand, and, What do we want in the Assembly: the law of the Qoran). BJP mounts campaign in the streets of Jammu: tough fightBecause of popular anger against politicians who have already enjoyed power, the election is not going to be a cakewalk for the new coalition. Dangarpura, a small village outside Sopore, rings with cries of Allah Ho Akbar as tens of thousands of people gathered there listen to formerly jailed MUF candidate, Ali Shah Geelani tell them that secularism and socialism are anti-Islamic. Another leader who was jailed for anti-national sloganeering. Anantnag preacher Qazi Nissar, leads a 100-truck caravan along a 60-km route through slush-mired villages attacking Farooq for signing the accord with the very powers he had earlier condemned.There is little doubt that the MUF has been able to make a dent in the valley and some independents and BJP candidates are showing strength in several areas of Jammu. According to one authoritative assessment, the no Congress(I) coalition has an edge in 40 constituencies and is facing stiff tights in the remaining 36. Even within the coalition, the Congress(I) stands to lose the support of blocks of voters it previously commanded.The denial of a Congress(I) ticket to Maulana Iftequar from Pattan and turning the seat over to his Shia rival on an NC ticket could, because of Iftequar's resentment, cost the coalition this seat or cause the surrender of this Shia base by Congress(I) to NC. Similarly, the Pandit vote in Amirakadal, Srinagar usually the preserve of Congress, has now been turned over to NC's candidate Handoo.But in all this too, there is an opportunity. For the first time, because Farooq is himself departing from traditional politics, he has the chance of leading his people into the mainstream of secular India. The battlelines have never before been so clearly drawn. Kashmiris are in a militant mood. They can be drawn into Farooq's bread-and-butter anti-poverty campaign if they believe he is serious. But NC's candidates are old wine in new bottles - they are the tired faces of the same politicians that the people have learned to mistrust over the years. And in this atmosphere many of the voters may simply pitch in with the fundamentalist cause as a show of protest.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Mar 31, 1987--- ENDS ---

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Jammu & Kashmir Assembly poll: Rajiv-Farooq accord being tested by electoral fire

The upcoming elections have transformed the state of Jammu & Kashmir into a political cauldron bubbling over with party dissidence, rabid religious fundamentalism, secular blandishments, secessionist appeals.

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