Will foxes cry together?

Common man in Valley streets may soon ask Omar and Mahbooba that if they can overcome their allergies toward each other in the interest of New Delhi why they cannot do the same to safeguard the Kashmiris’ interest

Riyaz Masroor
“Shaal shaal byuon byuon, tungi vizi kuniey”, is a popular Kashmiri adage implying that the foxes may live separately but when it comes to keep the hunters at bay they come together for that explosive cry which deters a poacher or a predator.
Despite their ‘joint support’ to the Dr Manmohan Singh-led UPA government during the parliamentary vote in New Delhi on July 22, it is difficult to compare Omar Abdullah and Mahbooba Mufti, the young guardians of Kashmir’s two pro-India political parties, National Conference and Peoples Democratic Party, with a fox or a vixen (a female fox).
The difficulty has no moral but a terminological reason. We cannot do so because usually the politicians who are bold, fairly conscious of self-esteem and assertive while protecting their constituencies besides being little wily or Machiavellian are equated with a fox.
The dicey connotation of comparing politicians with a fox not withstanding, both Omar and Mahbooba wore stripes of the same animal when they walked past their bitter rivalries and rallied behind the Congress, which had been troubled by BJP, BSP and the Left. The gossip lounges in Srinagar condemned both for sharing the same cause and forging ‘unity’ when it came to safeguard their source of power in Delhi.
I overheard an elderly observer stating the aforementioned Kahsmiri proverb to make his point about the priorities of our ‘leaders’ vis-à-vis Srinagar and New Delhi. Omar and Mahbooba, out of a stiff competition to please Mr Singh and the super boss, Sonia Gandhi, may have staged an artificial show of political harmony but by sharing a common goal in the Lok Sabha Omar and Mahbooba have tickled the ideological depths of their respective support base.
Masses may not pick up the finer points in this paradoxical unanimity yet this virtual reality has screamed into the ears of conscious sections here that Kashmiri politicians keep even a moral trait, of forging unity over similar goals, reserved to serve Delhi’s interests rather than the interests of the people who they claim to represent. After all if ‘political cubs’ of the same Kashmiri stock could forget their animosity in the interest of the Indian Union isn’t it sheer expediency that in Kashmir they remain locked in a perpetual conflict with each other. Going by the present NC-PDP engagement, this love-hate relationship seems all about serving Delhi’s interests in Srinagar , Delhi’s interests in Delhi, and if situation demands, compromising Kashmir’s interests in both Srinagar as well as in Delhi.
The future consequences of this overdependence on New Delhi may not be entirely lost on Omar or Mahbooba. They must be aware that after sharing a common cause favoring Dr Singh’s government they will have to encounter some uncomfortable questions when back home. At a time when the political personality is no longer considered a passport to popularity in Kashmir and it is the political standpoint that matters the most, both leaders may have to make a tough choice ahead of next elections.
There are apparently two choices. One is to compete with each other in the appeasement of bosses in Delhi and try to grab the throne under Delhi’s backing. Second is to shift the fountainhead of power from Delhi to Srinagar so that if in future either of them happens to rule Kashmir they don’t need to prostrate before the kingmakers at the cost of their local constituency. But the second choice may not come through without a cost. Shifting the fountainhead of power from Delhi to Srinagar would require NC and PDP to solemnize the unity, which they compulsively displayed in Lok Sabha, and that may irk New Delhi to the extent of going for yet another alternative. But that would, atleast, de-stigmatize both National Conference and PDP. Are they ready to bear the costs?
It does not take much to understand that the PDP feeds on some portion of the ideological diet NC had voluntarily abandoned. But the fact is that PDP has so loudly articulated this ideology that the NC despite a weighty past at its back has been spending more energy in putting down PDP claims than propounding its own ideas.
Simple common sense suggests if two crazy teens fight for a single jacket and pull it from opposite directions it will be no body’s win. The garment will be torn apart and both will end up with an unusable portion. Same holds true for the supposedly nationalist pro-Kashmir ideology; both NC and PDP are pulling it from opposite directions and in doing so they are hugely depending on dispensations in New Delhi. Remember how they accused each other of plagiarism regarding their respective political manifestos.
It is anybody’s guess that as two regional competitors NC and PDP will remain engaged in a war of attrition with no gain for people. In contrast if both choose to emerge as an integrated political entity , engage with New Delhi on their own terms and shift the powerhouse to Srinagar, they can at least spare the ‘jacket’ to cover Kashmiris from further bruises, the bruises inflicted on them in past by betrayal and doubletalk.
Omar and Mahbooba need not be told that Kashmir and Kashmiris are both endangered for a variety of reasons; they need not be told that they are not in a normal political process where politicians willy-nilly pursue their careers in power; they need not be told that their families don’t enjoy popular sanctity and are remembered with extreme disdain; but they surely need to be told the bitterer truth that people may accept them as Kashmiri pleaders in New Delhi but will never accept them as New Delhi’s advocates in Kashmir.
Common man in Valley streets may soon ask Omar and Mahbooba that if they can overcome their allergies toward each other in the interest of New Delhi why they cannot do the same to safeguard the Kashmiris’ interest. If Omar and Mahbooba have really staked their political future on Kashmiri soil rather than in bureaucratic corridors of New Delhi their ideological merger may not be a fantasy, Kashmir history can witness this accident because the history is replete with accidents.

(Feedback at riyaz.masroor@yahoo.com)