Mufti Mohamad Sayed, one of the shrewdest politicians of present day Kashmir has had a checkered but meteoric growth from that day in the seventies, when he was found in a small town of Kashmir by one of the great stalwarts of the state, D.P.Dhar. Since that day he has never looked back and has mastered the art of political manipulations and machinations. This art of his threw him up as the first and till now the only Muslim Home Minister of India, as a part of V.P.Singh’s cabinet in 1989.
In 1977, the Congress was mauled by the juggernaut of National Conference and the often-demagogic Sheikh Abdullah, father of the sometimes-maverick Farooq Abdullah was reinstated at the helm. At that time it was the Mufti who maneuvered to uphold the flag of Congress in the valley against the monolith of the National Conference, in the face of virulent administrative and political opposition. This feat of his won him intimate relations with the Congress leadership in Delhi. But Mufti Sayed’s biography has many a dark patches to confuse and confound. It is believed that Mufti had never a straight walk in his political life and growth. He always had an underside that guided him and taught him to wriggle out of intricate situations, in which he would land himself by virtue of being over-ambitious. He was in the forefront with G.M.Sadiq, Sayed Mir Qasim and D.P.Dhar to challenge and remove the visages of the veteran Kashmiri politician Bakshi Ghulam Mohd from the Kashmiri political scene and nurture and establish the National Congress in the state. This brought him many enemies from both the political and bureaucratic establishments in J&K, which were dominated by Kashmiri Muslims.
He was the first Kashmir Muslim and remains the only one till date who contested and won election to the Legislative Assembly from the Hindu electorate of R.S.Pora Constituency of Jammu Division. This was a befitting reply to the Kashmiri Muslim constituency of the valley by the secular forces of Jammu. It was a great feat of political skill on his part and the secular ethos of R.S.Pora Hindus that returned him to the Assembly when Farooq Abdullah and his National Conference had closed all doors for him to enter into the politics of the valley. Consequently he was recognized as a great secularist at the national level though Kashmiri politicians had vowed to eliminate him for his same credentials.
But after the fall of Congress at the Centre, Mufti did not hesitate to change his allegiance towards V.P.Singh who compensated him by inducting him as Home Minister in his cabinet. It could be well hoped that all this recognition, by first the Congress and then by U.N.F. would purge him off of any communal dross and refine him as a tall secular nationalist of the country. But unfortunately that was not to be. While he was the Union Home Minister, terrorist militancy erupted in the state with active connivance of state administration and impotence of the Central Govt. Doctor Rubia Sayed daughter of Mufti Sayed was kidnapped by the militants from Srinagar. Her release was demanded and secured in exchange of five hard core terrorists who had been nabbed and detained by the Security forces for their rabid terrorist acts. This was infact the first surrender of the Govt. of India to the terrorists, for the execution of which Mufti is believed to have consented as Home Minister of India. It is rightly believed by terrorism management experts that but for this timid precedent of surrender under duress, the terrorist network in the country would not have penetrated and widened that much. People fail to appreciate even in hindsight as to why Mufti vouched and consented to such a spineless exchange of terrorists, which provided moral and logistical boost to Pak sponsored terrorists in the state. The only parallel remains in the handling of the Kandhar Airbus hijacking when Govt of India again succumbed to terrorist dictates.
Once again Mufti changed his hues and was installed as the Pradesh Chief where he made bold and sincere efforts to resurrect the senile Congress Organization of the state as its dirge was being sung by the National Conference. When he was keeping the Congress flag afloat it was alleged that he was hobnobbing with Muslim United Front to pester and embarrass the National Conference Govt in the state It is alleged in some quarters that he provided clandestine political support to M.U.F. to scheme and agitate against Kashmiri Pandits in and around Khudwani village in District Anantnag on Jammu Srinagar national highway. These were the first violent mob based anti-Hindu act in the valley after 1947 during which Hindus from Khudwani and its surrounding areas were forced to emigrate to Jammu and other parts of the country. Their properties and places of worship were ransacked and vandalized by M.U.F. cadres supported by underground terrorists. Mufti even failed to condemn and censure such vandalism, which would at least for the purposes of political expediency have shown him as a person of genuine secular credentials.
With the advent of covert terrorism in the state, Mufti adopted a low profile for the first ten years and basked in the smoggy sun of Delhi. But when it was felt that the Security Forces had the hard whip to tether the terrorists, Mufti started to dab in the local politics of the state yet again. He became the centre of all disgruntled politicians of all hues of the state and formed a group of diverse politicians to establish his People’s Democratic Party, which embraced one and all. It is even rumored that he created P.D.P.with tacit support of underground terrorists and subversive elements. So that this move was not seen as a comedown for him, he created the outfit under the overall leadership of his daughter Mehmooda Mufti who was a political novice. In the process, he proclaimed himself as the patron of the outfit. He decided to contest the elections in combination with like minded persons and parties. This was a bold initiative of Mufti but it was designed more to wrest hegemony from Farooq Abdullah’s National Conference which had gone into hibernation after emergence of militancy than to form the Govt. He even joined hands with National Congress which he had betrayed already a number of times.Thus fair elections during militancy were conducted against many odds and threats of the militants, in which P.D.P along with other parties participated. Congress along with PDP was returned with maximum number of seats. Though Congress had the maximum number of seats followed by the PDP, Mufti had no shackles in staking his claim to form the Government. It goes to the wisdom of the Congress to have tamed the Mufti by suggesting appointment of Chief Minister by rotation and allowing him to take the first chance of three years (the term of the J&K Legislature is six years unlike in other states where it is only five years). It was on the adamancy of the Mufti alone that coalition ethic of allowing only the majority group to form the Government was changed. Giving in to the Mufti became the only way to bring democracy back on track in the state, particularly because all anti-India elements needed to be kept at bay. Mufti showed that we would not hesitate to scuttle democracy in case he was not allowed to take helm for the first half of the 6 year term. He however allowed his daughter Mehamooda Mufti to head the PDP.
The Mufti father-daughter duo perfected the art of political hobnobbing and manipulations by their shrewd and deft handling of the Kashmir Political scenario. Now that the Muftis have been out of power for more than a year after completing their part of the term, they are striving to regain the same by all means fair and foul. The recent outbursts of the duo against the Azad Govt in which they are partners even this day, are well timed and designed to achieve a broader goal towards the next elections in the state which are due in 2009.They are vehemently advocating withdrawal of Special Powers of Security Forces in the state which were vested in them to combat, contain and eliminate Pak-sponsored terrorism some years back only after a national consensus, as the same was endorsed by the Parliament of India. The duo further wishes that Kashmir should be de-militarized and Army withdrawn to the barracks, alleging that the deployment of Forces transgresses the privacy of the people of the state.
Do even the Muftis need to be told that Security Forces stand deployed in the state to curb the Islamic Terrorist infrastructure that has penetrated the state and played havoc with civil life, security and peace of the people for about two decades now? Can Mufti and his daughter move about in the state without Z Security cover? Do they not realize that people of the state and especially Muslims of the valley are gasping for a breath of peace and calm in a fear free environment? If they do, how do they wish that Security Forces should be withdrawn when they are performing yeoman’s role in anti-terrorist measures in the state? Do they ignore that the Security Forces perform the honorable and onerous task of protecting the life of common Kashmiri Muslims only from marauding and rabid terrorists who have no religion except of hate, greed, dread and death, as already experienced by Kashmiri Hindus who were forced into an exodus?
The Muftis have also advocated general amnesty for the terrorists despite their crimes against people, society and mankind. They wish them to be brought on the negotiating table by acceding at their terms, meeting their demands without consideration for anyone else’s conditions. They further wish to withdraw Security forces from all the vacant orchards and open spaces created by the wholesale exodus of Kashmiri Hindus, where terrorists could regroup and operate from without any hindrance. All these postures of the Muftis are designed to achieve their political aims; while they covertly hobnob with anti-national and secessionist groups which are on the prowl to shatter the social fabric of the state by means of violence and arson, under dictates of Pakistan. This posturing is to placate such elements to sustain a working equation with them so that they are able to neutralize all other political parties and social groups by threat and use of force as they did in the past elections. And to intimidate and dissuade the voters and genuine candidates from entering the electoral process This way the Muftis hope to romp through the elections in the valley by keeping mainline parties like National Congress, National Conference, Panthers party and Communist Party of India at bay.
This seems to be the latest equation between Muftis and the secessionist groups on which the Muftis hinge their hopes of the future. But the question is, what are the stakes of this game plan of the Muftis? Do they want to get back in power by pawning the safety and security of the people of the state and allowing terrorists to manipulate the next elections? This would by no stretch of imagination be clean politics but will be like trying to win elections following the worst means and at the greatest cost to people. These could be elections of manipulations and deceit in which honest and deserving candidates will not be returned and may not even stand for obvious reasons. Such elections will be vulnerable to terrorist plunder and loot.
This will be the Muftis breach of trust and faith with the people of the state who hunger for clean and neat politics of democratic representation and so that further weight is not piled on their accumulated frustrations and detestations against terrorist mayhem and programs. The Muftis will be doing great disservice to the people of the state by their tacit connivance with the militants who have become the K.K.K of Kashmir. Muftis need to rethink of their strategy and adopt clean and overt means to continue the political process in the state. That is the least that the country can expect from a person who was heading North Block in Delhi some years back. The Muftis have to learn to think and act big so that personal ambitions are made subservient to national and people’s interests, which are paramount. We need a basket of political and administrative measures that must not only be clean but also seem to be clean so that our trust and faith in democracy is restored and reestablished. Will the Muftis hear this?
While the Muftis demand for relocation of Security Forces from orchards and public lands are but populist musings, designed to embarrass the present Government and placate the terrorists; Of late the Muftis have floated yet another idea for resolution of the so called Kashmir issue. They advocate creation of three Assemblies for three Divisions of the state viz Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh. This idea is wrought with deep communal and regional overtones. By advocating separate Assemblies for three Divisions of the state, the Muftis want to achieve all that could not be achieved by overt Wars and covert Pakistani infiltrations in Kashmir. This way they want to segregate Muslim Kashmir from rest of the state, which has been the political dream of Pakistan. This could in turn facilitate the secession of Kashmir from India.
Muftis another suggestion that there should always be a Kashmiri Muslim Chief Minister for the state is pregnant with parochial undertones which are against the democratic tenets of rule by majority party, which gives power to majority party to elect a leader to head the Govt. without reference to religion or the place of residence. The present arrangement in which G.N.Azad a Muslim from Jammu Division was elected as the Chief Minister of the state for the first time in history has irked the Muftis and other communal and parochial politicians of the valley when they feel that their hegemony over the state has started slipping.
The Muftis game-plan therefore should have no takers, especially in Jammu and Ladakh.