PDP, lotus eaters of another kind in Kashmir

Since Kashmiris love the nadru (a dish made of lotus stem), after the coalition government took over, a spoof website in the Valley wrote: "BJP members are infuriated over a dish prepared from lotus stems." The BJP it says "has been kept in dark about the nadru-eating habits of Kashmiris, and wants a permanent ban on its consumption".

After Mufti Mohammad Sayeed was sworn in as chief minister, he gave credit to Pakistan, Hurriyat and militants for peaceful conduct of the elections. This has been seen as Mufti's attempt to reach out to Hurriyat Conference and also to Pakistan which denied a visa for a Track II conference to the PDP ideologue Naeem Akhtar. Mufti even urged Hurriyat Conference and other separatists to follow former separatist Sajjad Gani Lone's path and join the mainstream.

Hurriyat Conference's hard-line faction was quick to see what Mufti was up to and accused him of creating confusion among masses about the Hurriyat Conference and trying to "legitimise the electoral process by involving Hurriyat".

Mufti with his seemingly pro-Pakistan noises wants to create an impression that his government has set an agenda for India-Pakistan rapprochement though the initiative has been taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. I will not be surprised if in the coming days he markets himself as the architect of India-Pakistan dialogue in his core constituency Kashmir.

Mufti's move to credit Pakistan, militants and Hurriyat Conference for allowing peaceful elections in Jammu and Kashmir is also seen as attempt by the PDP patron to dilute the impact of his alliance with BJP in Kashmir and take the debate in a different direction. It seems he succeeded in it by shifting the focus to a debate about Pakistan and Hurriyat rather than the PDP's alliance with BJP.

In the same press briefing Mufti in no uncertain words said as head of the Unified Command, he would make security forces, including the Army, accountable for its actions - thus conveying the message that he would be calling shots in the coalition government.

As the CMP was released, the PDP got an assurance from the BJP to put Article 370 in deep freeze for six years. Since its inception, the Jana Sangh has made the complete integration of Jammu and Kashmir into the Indian Union its core issue. And the BJP has been consistently calling for "Ek desh mein do vidhan, do pradhan aur do nishan, nahin chalenge, nahin chalenge." (We shall not accept two constitutions, two prime ministers and two flags in one nation.) Now the party has agreed that in the CMP that "the present position will be maintained on all the constitutional provisions pertaining to J&K, including the special status in the Constitution of India".

In May last year, when Narendra Modi called for a debate over the utility of Article 370, former chief minister Omar Abdullah had said, "Mark my words & save this tweet - long after Modi government is a distant memory either J&K won't be part of India or Article 370 will still exist."

Whether Article 370 can be replaced or not is a legal debate, but in the meantime, the PDP would be happy enough to sell an assurance to the people on the permanent status of Jammu and Kashmir from the BJP and in the coming years, it would use it as a poll plank against its detectors who accuse it of selling the interests of Kashmir by going with the saffron party.

In the agenda of the alliance or the CMP, both the parties agreed to follow former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajapyee's "Insaaniyat, Kashmiriyat aur Jamhooriyat" approach toward Kashmir while saying coalition government would facilitate and help initiate a sustained and meaningful dialogue with all internal stakeholders, which would include all political groups irrespective of their ideological views and predilections.

With CMP taking confidence building measures, such as, enhancing people to people contact on both sides of the LoC; encouraging civil society exchanges, taking travel, commerce, trade and business across the LoC to the next level and opening new routes across all three regions to enhancing connectivity, Mufti has succeeded in pushing his poll promises in the CMP and it would be appreciated by the business community in Jammu and Kashmir who have been calling for increasing trade across the LoC.

Though CMP has conceded that both parties have historically held a different view on the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and the need for it in the state at present, as part of the agenda for governance of the PDP-BJP alliance, the CMP however says, the coalition government will examine the need for de-notifying "disturbed areas". "This, as a consequence, would enable the Union government to take a final view on the continuation of AFSPA in these areas," the CMP reads.

The AFSPA becomes applicable in any area only once the area is declared disturbed under Section 3 of the Act. The Act is not practically in force in Ladakh region as the state government has not notified Ladakh as disturbed. In a way Mufti has sought concession from the BJP to remove any area in Kashmir or Jammu from the disturbed area notice, making the law unfruitful. If it happens this would be seen as a huge concession and the PDP will use it in coming years as a political tool.

One of the major issues which has dominated discourse in Jammu and Kashmir for the past ten years is the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation. In Omar Abdullah's government, Congress minister Taj Mohideen had described the NHPC as the East India Company - such is the distress with the NHPC in the state.

Both the National Conference and the PDP are demanding the return of power projects from NHPC to the state but the NHPC has rejected such demands.

J&K's total power demand is around 2,100 MW and the deficit in the energy is met by import through the Northern Grid. This import has been eating into the fragile economy of the state with the power purchase bill going up to Rs 2,900 crore. The state's total revenue generation is around Rs 4,000 crore. In the past ten years, the state has imported energy worth more than Rs 12,000 crore.

The working group on development constituted by the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the UPA-1 had recommended that the state's share of free power in the NHPC projects should be enhanced from the existing 12 per cent and some power projects be returned to the state. However, no development has taken place on the issue so far.

Now with the CMP saying in order "to address the real source of J&K's fiscal problem and pave the way for making J&K a fiscally autonomous state, the state government will work with the Union government to:  

a) Explore modalities for transfer of Dulhasti and Uri hydro power projects to J&K as suggested by the Rangarajan Committee Report and the Round Table reports,

b) Secure a share in the profits of NHPC emanating from J&K waters to the state government  

c) Revise all royalty agreements

If it gets translated into action and the NHPC yields, the state's power woes would end and with it Mufti would get credit for getting something for which successive state governments have strived for long. In contrast to the agreement between the National Conference and the Congress of 2008, Omar Abdullah got only six years as chief minister and major portfolios went to Congress.

While there is no mention of portfolios in the BJP-PDP CMP, the PDP has got away with major share having 11 cabinet ministers out of 16 and full time chief minister for next six years.  

Nothing has worried the state BJP more than this fact - that a major share of the portfolios has been taken by the PDP. With PDP getting major ministries, the state BJP apprehends it would in actuality be a PDP government in the state and the BJP will have to play second fiddle.  Time will only tell which way things will move in this volatile and uncertain State. But for time being it is the PDP which could be enjoying the nadru - being lotus eaters in another sense of the term.