Can J&K have a Hindu Chief Minister ?
November 18, 2014
The ensuing election in Jammu & Kashmir has fuelled a debate over whether religion should form the basis of the appointment of the chief minister in the state. Sham Lal Sharma, a minister in the Omar Abdullah-led state government stoked the debate stating the next chief minister should be a Hindu. Reports are infiltrating and suggest that the BJP president Amit Shah too has set his eyes on having the first ever Hindu CM in the state.
On the other hand, a Jammu and Kashmir People’s Democratic Party MLA, Peerzada Mansoor, invited flak from all corners by saying only a Muslim can become the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir since it is a “Muslim majority state” – a view from which his party quickly distanced itself. Even the Congress party has pitched in with its leader and former CM, Ghulam Nabi Azad calling for “a human Chief Minister who feels the pain of the people and tirelessly works for them”.
Religion no Criterion for Political Leadership in India
George Washington once said: “The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.” The same applies in Indian context also – the government cannot be founded on the basis of religion in our pluralistic society.
We know our democratic set up ensures that it has been the prerogative of the elected representatives (of the winning political party or coalition) to decide its CM or Prime Minister. This is the reason that no one questions why Muslims, say for example AR Antulay and Abdul Ghafoor, respectively became CMs of predominantly Hindu states, Maharashtra and Bihar.
J&K, a Peculiar Case: All Muslim CMs
But, why J&K always had Muslim CMs?
The answer lies in the fact that unlike other states, J&K is a complex case. Just consider that at the time of Independence, Jammu and Kashmir was ruled by a Hindu monarch!
Lakhs of Kashmiri Pandits, who once inhabited the Valley, were systematically threatened, persecuted and were forced to flee the Valley ever since, by Pakistan backed separatists and terror outfits. Little has been done by successive governments over the years to ensure the return of the Pandits to their homeland.
The debate on the need for a Hindu CM sounds music to the ears of the displaced Kashmiri Pandits and seeks to assuage their feelings. It also addresses the large Hindu constituency of the Jammu region which has 37 assembly segments. The BJP stands to gain because of this as it largely depends on migrant votes in the Valley for realising its 44+ target in the 87-member state Assembly. The migrants votes could be a determining factor in case of a low turnout in the Valley in the face of poll boycott call given by the separatists!
It seems a political ploy for electoral gains by consolidating the Hindu votes. But this polarisation along communal lines does set a dangerous precedence since it seeks religion to cover up a political failure in tackling the separatism issue and ensuring the safe return of the Pandits to the Valley.
Did Muslim CMs Make a Difference in J&K?
The present deliberations selectively focus on the Muslim CMs from the Valley. But can they – just because of their religion and belonging to the valley – be held responsible for the misery of the people in general and the Pandits in particular?
It may be mentioned that since 1996 (when elections were resumed in the state after almost a decade of violence) the state saw four difference CMs from the National Conference, the J&K PDP and the Congress (the Congress in fact partnered both the NC as well as the J&K PDP governments)! Weren’t these CMs pursuing their respective party’s agenda? In that sense, how could their religion or nativity come in the way of governance?
Consider even an iron fisted Jagmohan, who was at the helm of affairs as the governor of the state placed under President’s rule in the early nineties, could not prevent the exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley that had plunged into a crisis at the peak of the separatist movement in the state then.
No Political Party Could Ensure Kashmiri Pandits’ Return to the Valley
Obviously, a Chief Minister must discharge his/her Constitutional obligations in a non partisan way. Yet, all the CMs – whether of the Congress, the Jammu and Kashmir People’s Democratic Party or the National Conference – have failed to ensure the safe return of the Pandits to the Valley.
In public, all political parties who participate in electoral politics in the Jammu and Kashmir, irrespective of their ideological differences, want the Pandits to return to their homeland in the Valley. Yet, they provide mere lip service.
Consider the public ‘regret’ of the present CM, Omar Abdullah in January this year over his government’s failure to ensure the return of the Pandits to the Valley. He indeed had “vowed” to regenerate a “sense of security” among them so that they returned to their homes. But his government could not succeed.
The BJP can Change Political Scene in J&K
There are many complexities involved that come in the way of tackling the tricky Kashmir situation. J&K has been a troublesome state right from the beginning. Three direct wars have been fought over it with Pakistan. Time and again Pakistan rulers demand plebiscite in the Valley and it does suit them to keep the Pandits away through terror tactics and create disturbances in the state.
But a positive development has been that many Muslims too have joined the BJP and are in the fray in the Valley this time. After generating considerable heat over the issue of a Hindu CM in the state, the Lotus now says it is not averse to a Muslim Chief Minister, if the party won.
Politics is all about pragmatism and any debate over the CM-ship should be laid to rest till the results. J&K after all, has had enough of communal politics.
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