The Gupkar alliance is as hollow politically as it is morally

The first major step towards bringing Jammu and Kashmir into the mainstream since the scrapping of Article 370 in August 2019 came in October this year when the Union Home Ministry announced new land laws for J&K, making common people and investors from outside the region eligible to purchase land in the new union territory.

Under the new law, being a permanent resident of J&K is no longer a criterion for making property-related investments in the UT. In other words, the exclusive rights of permanent residents over land in J&K are now over. 

The new law makes it legal to transfer a piece of land in the region to an individual, business, or institution to establish healthcare and education facilities. However, a bar is placed on agricultural land that can be put into non-agricultural use. Moreover, the upper echelons of the Indian Army can pronounce a zone as a “strategic area” for operational and training requirements of the defence forces. 

After the new law was announced, Kashmir’s political class with separatist leanings - the NC, the PDP and others - expectedly accused the Modi government of trying to disempower and disenfranchise the people of J&K. NC Vice President Omar Abdullah launched a scathing attack on the Centre, claiming that the new amendments had put J&K up for “sale”. 

Nevertheless, the Modi government has upped the ante in Kashmir amid the growing desperation of the separatist Kashmiri politicians to maintain their relevance. The government’s intention is crystal clear. Now that the region has been freed from the shackles of an unwanted and dubious special status, it is time to marginalise the secessionist and anti-India forces in J&K. 

Post their release from preventive detention, the Abdullahs and Mehbooba Mufti have left no stone unturned to sell the unrealistic idea of the restoration of Article 370 to their followers. For the once fire-spewing political figures who have been reduced to shadows of their former selves, the situation has become so grim that in order to avoid disappearing into political obscurity they are now resorting to an absurd promise of engineering the annulment of a constitutionally passed law. Well, good luck with that!

To throw some comic relief into the mix, many representatives and sympathisers of the NC and the PDP celebrated the victory of the Democratic candidate Joe Biden in the recently concluded US presidential election. They revelled in the pipe-dream that the President-elect after taking office will internationalise the Kashmir issue unlike his predecessor Donald Trump and diplomatically arm-twist the Indian government into reversing its position on Article 370, as the Democrats are expected to meddle in India’s internal affairs more as compared to the Republicans.  

In retrospect, the Modi government had given an opportunity to the political fraternity in Kashmir after August 2019 to shun their duplicity and redeem themselves by pledging undisputed allegiance to the Indian constitution under which they have fought elections for decades. But that did not happen. The same old story of India-bashing and nurturing the separatist agenda was repeated, more overtly so, after Omar Abdullah’s release from detention earlier in March. The NC leader made it abundantly clear through his tweets and statements to the media that his party along with other like-minded political players would never accept Kashmir’s joining of the Indian mainstream. 

After coming out of detention, Farooq Abdullah outraged the people of India when he challenged the nation’s sovereignty by appealing to India’s antagonistic western neighbour China for help to bring back Article 370. Seeking foreign support to break Kashmir away from India, Abdullah displayed the audacity to argue that Beijing had not approved of India’s decision to abrogate the discriminatory article. 

But, be that as it may, the Government of India has decided to deal head-on with the renewed wave of separatism in Kashmir. 

Earlier this month, Home Minister Amit Shah lashed out at the protagonists of the Gupkar declaration - a joint statement that expressed resentment and promised protest against a decision by the Government of India to repeal Article 370. The statement was issued a day before the Modi government announced the revocation of the ludicrous law and bifurcated the erstwhile state of J&K into two union territories of J&K and Ladakh on August 4, 2019. In a tweet, Shah unequivocally condemned the actions of what he termed as the “Gupkar Gang” - a coalition of regional and national parties, including the Congress, demanding the restoration of Article 370. He warned the gang to fall in line with the national mood and accept the reality that Kashmir is an integral part of India or gear up to face their political demise. 

 

On the other hand, cracks within the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) aka the Gupkar gang have already become visible. In the run-up to the District Development Council (DDC) election scheduled for November 28, the separatist parties have been overly critical and unaccommodating of one another over the issue of seat-sharing. The chaos is just as conspicuous in the Jammu division as it is in the valley.  

From the nationalist perspective, the DDC election has come at just the right time to further expose the Gupkar gang by making their discord and fragility evident to the public. Some members of the PAGD have gone on record stating that before deciding to participate in the election, the alliance felt apprehensive about their decision being interpreted as an acceptance of the Modi government’s move to rescind J&K’s special status. 

Clearly, the porous Gupkar alliance has soaked itself in the muddy waters of its own ego. This self-serving group that not very long ago considered fighting the DDC polls under the flag of the erstwhile state of J&K has ended up bickering over a few election seats, so much so that this infighting led to the resignation of the PDP patron Muzaffar Hussain Beig from the party. Although as per media reports a consensus over seat-sharing in Kashmir for the few phases of the eight-phase DDC election was reached within the alliance earlier this month, Jammu remained a bone of contention. 

The seat-sharing crisis is only indicative of the greater reality that this unholy alliance is based on the ideology of secession and betrayal is as hollow politically as it is morally. Despite repeated promises by the PAGD actors to their followers that all is well within the alliance, it is apparent that such assurances are far from the truth. 

Not only between the regional players but the seat-sharing crisis has also affected the Gupkar alliance’s relationship with the Congress party, forcing the Congress to admit that a majority of its party leaders, especially from Jammu, wanted to go solo in the DDC election. 

The PAGD has emerged as a nexus between secessionist political parties on one side and the Congress party on the other, which is a compulsive opposer of the Modi government even if its stances hurt India’s national interest and security. This sham alliance that has failed to get its act together over a DDC election can never represent the best interests of J&K. The writing is on the wall for the people of Kashmir. 

Therefore, the choice lies with the Kashmir’s citizenry to decide whether they wish to waste more years of their lives over vague promises and political misguidance at the hands of Kashmir’s separatist political players that constitute anti-India alliances such as the Gupkar gang, or join the Indian mainstream to see J&K shining on the path of development and security.  

image source : jkmedia.net