Embarrassed cat scratching poles, or Khisyani Billi Khamba Noche’ fits well with the politically irrelevant and outdated Peoples’ Democratic Party, which has been left to lick dust by the BJP by making it a ladder (while being in coalition under Mufti Mohammed Sayeed and later her daughter Mehbooba Mufti) to create an atmosphere conducive for abrogation of Article 370 and Article 35A-a saffron agenda since the times of Syama Prasad Mukherjee. BJP achieved it on August 5, 2019, leaving duplicit politicians of the Valley in the lurch.
From the much hyped Self-Rule, proposed immediately after the launch of the PDP 23 years ago, the party of Mehbooba Mufti, the alliance partner of the National Conference under the nomenclature of the PAGD, and the political rehabilitation centre for the factotums from Jammu of both the Kashmir centric parties, it is now seeking role for the SAARC in Kashmir.
The Self-Rule basics had envisaged closer ties across the Line of Control, making borders irrelevant and complete connectivity; economic and social integration of the region with focus on regional free trade area and common economic market; innovative institutional arrangements, specifying joint coordination mechanism for project and joint regulatory commission on trade and tariffs; constitutional restructuring by restoring powers of the state assembly and empowering sub regions. The Self-Rule document had proposed a joint currency of India and Pakistan in Jammu and Kashmir, joint control and change in the nomenclature of the Chief Minister as Prime Minister and the Governor as President.
Now, on its 23rd Foundation Day, the unceremoniously ousted Chief Minister of the then Jammu and Kashmir State, Mehbooba Mufti has come up with a new rant, asking Prime Minister Narendra Modi to declare Jammu and Kashmir a peace zone and make it a model of SAARC cooperation by opening all routes across the Line of Control (LoC) and allowing every member country to invest in the region. She says there is no other option than dialogue to resolve the Jammu and Kashmir issue. She wants SAARC to open their banks in Kashmir, their handicrafts universities and open all routes for everyone to move freely. She wants Jammu and Kashmir to be free for all.
Mehbooba Mufti also wants the Prime Minister to make J-K a gateway to Central and South Asia with Pakistan becoming a part of the CPEC — a route which goes via the Pakistan occupied Kashmir. “Why don’t you open routes through this J-K? Why not make it a gateway to Central and South Asia? Start from Jammu, reach Valley and then Ladakh — be it Xinjiang, Yarkhand, Kargil-Skardu, Bandipora-Astoor, we are telling you what to do”, Mehbooba dares Modi, she goes on advising the Prime Minister sarcastically.
The PDP chief also wants Prime Minister Modi to grant general amnesty to all Kashmiri youths languishing in different jails across the country.
Mehbooba Mufti poses pointed questions to the Prime Minister by asking how many mosques will he destroy to make temples. Houses of how many Muslims will he destroy. Names of how many roads or cities will he change
Mehbooba’s PDP has some cadres in Jammu, so has the other PAGD partner National Conference. Certainly, the Jammu friends or the factotums of the two parties will never subscribe to what Mehbooba Mufti has been suggesting-earlier as also now– because whatever their compulsions they are proud of their love for the nation. Certainly, NC and Mehbooba’s cadres in Jammu would not like to weigh India and Pakistan on the same pedestal, as they consider Pakistan a rogue nation and India a proud democracy of the world. When Mehbooba Mufti and her ilk want Jammu and Kashmir to be helpful in bridging gap between India and Pakistan, the supposedly patriotic cadres of the NC and the PDP won’t subscribe to the assertions that Jammu and Kashmir was a bone of contention because they, like the compatriots across the country, believe this part of the nation is a shining symbol of Indian ethos and its inseparable limb.