How “Aam” are those
masquerading as “Aam”?
Kashmiri politicians, from opposition
benches, “third” and thirty-third fronts as well as some apparently sinless political
purists, are parachuting in from all directions to fill in the space of the “Aam Aadmi” in our State. This comes a
week or so after they excitedly started tripping over each other in claiming
the exclusive moral right to congratulate Arvind Kejriwal and drawing
self-venerating parallels between themselves and the crusaders of the Aam Aadmi
in Delhi. Some even complained that the media in our State wasn’t as supportive
and objective as was the case in Delhi – suggesting that it is the media’s job
to support tall, vainglorious rhetoric at the cost of reality.
There are so many interesting
dramas being enacted with such hair-raising rhetoric. Here you have the main
opposition party comparing itself to Delhi’s Aam Aadmi Party and there you have
sermonizing Johnny-come-latelies calling themselves “fresh-faces” and seeking
individual moral copyrights on the spirit to effect change in the same
political system that they have been a part and parcel of, in different shapes
and shadows.
PDP patron and founder, Mufti
Mohammad Sayeed recently suggested that J&K had scripted its “Aam Aadmi
Moment” in 2002 when the PDP came to power in J&K. This comes days after
PDP revealed that it would consider elections “fair” in J&K only and only
in instances where PDP came out victorious. By those standards, 2002 elections
where PDP bagged 16 seats were “fair” because PDP formed the government.
However, 2008 elections where PDP went on to bag 21 seats were “unfair” since
PDP was kept out.
First – Mufti Sahab’s claim on
Aam-Aadmi-ness is laughable if it wasn’t so out rightly outrageous. PDP came
into being by bringing together conventional, old hands in politics who were
either driven out of other parties or left them for their personal ambitions.
How on earth do “PDP’s 16” in 2002 qualify to be “Aam” – so that they could
have defined “J&K’s Aam Aadmi moment” in 2002 as claimed by Mufti Sahab?
Some of those “Aam Aadmis” are worth hundreds and crores of rupees. Some of
those “Aam Aadmis” have thriving business empires. Some of PDP’s “Aam Aadmis”
are the sons of former politicians and some are retired bureaucrats who have
questionable records of corruption at their back. And honoring poetic justice,
they all came together under an “Aam Admi” who is the former Federal Home
Minister and Tourism Minister of India and has been in and out of Congress
thrice in his past. Which facet of this story is comparable to the rise of the “aam
aadmi” in Delhi?
Then you have the curious case
of our Johnny-come-latelies who are condemning all political parties to the
dungeons of traditionalism and disservice right, left and center. They too have
lunged forward to “felicitate” the Aam Aadmi Party while grudging the local
media of not being supportive enough of their ‘revolution of rhetoric’. By the
standard of their own hoarse rhetoric, one does not qualify to be an “Aam Aadmi”
while coming into politics from the familial route and one certainly doesn’t
not qualify to be a fresh alternative after being in politics for decades and
after having forged alliances – overt and covert – with all “traditional”
forces in the State at different junctures. History, they need to be told does
not start in 1989.
J&K has gone through a
phase of violence, destruction and chaos not because of any single political
party – but because of a political sentiment and because of the failure of our
political system to deal with that sentiment effectively, maturely and
convincingly. When PDP alleges that the turmoil was solely a consequence of the
way the 1987 elections were handled, they are trivializing the people of this
State and belittling their political aspirations. You cannot belittle a people
by consciously misinterpreting their aspirations or their grievances and then
go on and claim to be the defining light of the “aam aadmi” in J&K.
Mufti Sahab has been a more
perennial feature of the same system– in his capacity as a senior cabinet
minister in Delhi on two separate occasions, in his capacity as the President
of Congress in J&K (including in 1987 – when he alleges that NC rigged the
elections). How can Mufti Sahab now posture as a rebel against the same system?
Mufti Sahab, in an interview,
had once blamed Rajiv Gandhi for the mess in Kashmir and held him responsible
for ordering the rigging of 1987. That was after Mufti Sahab had joined and
left the Congress multiple times. He is also on record to having stated that a
life-long opposition to National Conference has guided his politics. That was
the reason for his departure from the Congress at every juncture in history when
Congress and NC joined hands. So what is to say that the same guile of
unconditional opposition to NC will not make BJP an acceptable friend in 2014?
Which part of this history and
this reality is comparable to the “aam aadmi” revolution in Delhi?
(Junaid Azim Mattu belongs to
National Conference. Views are personal.)
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