The Doctor's Swansong

With the PDP silent on its ‘self-rule’ agenda, NC’s Farooq Abdullah goes all out for autonomy in J&K

- Naseer Ganai

Unlike all others in Jammu and Kashmir’s grand old party, the National Conference (NC), its patron Dr Farooq Abdullah is trying to come across as more statesman than politician, creating ripples outside the state too. Of late, he has been urging India and Pak­istan to find a solution to the Kashmir issue without trying to wrestle away each other’s territ­ory, which could devastate the entire region. “Yes, it (PoK) belongs to them (Pakistan). It has been with Pakistan for the past 70 years. You haven’t been able to take it back, what will you do now?” asks Farooq, who tur­ned 80 this year.

But the separatists—who see Farooq as a lead player in what has unfolded in Kashmir since the allegedly rigged 1987 assembly election—aren’t buying it. “People are turning away from the mainstream,” says Tanvir Sadiq, NC working president Omar Abdullah. While Sadiq blames Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti for lowering the dignity of the CM’s office and making people lose faith in mainstream parties, others say Farooq is also responsible.

“He seems to reinforce the famous perception about his father Sheikh Abdullah, that he is ‘a tall leader who quotes the Quran and tells different things at different places’,” says columnist Z.G. Muhammad. “He also showed the world how disempowered pro-India politics in J&K actually was—despite an absolute majority in the legislature passing the autonomy resolution, nothing could be changed. Then, by continuing as the BJP’s ally, he made Kashmiris realise how amoral mainstream politics is. His non-serious­ ways robbed pro-India politics of all dignity. It was only later that Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and Mehbooba Mufti made it worse by allying with the BJP after fighting elections in the name of self-rule and keeping the saffron party out of power.”