Release of Masarat Alam- Impact on PDP-BJP alliance
March 12, 2015
The Modi-led BJP government is left red faced over the release of hardline separatist Masarat Alam Bhat in the Kashmir Valley. It faces a hostile Opposition in Parliament over the issue. The former commander of the Hizbullah militant group had organised the violent anti-India riots in 2010 in which at least 112 people had died and over 500 were injured in the Kashmir Valley
The release was made on March 7 – just within a week after the BJP supported Jammu and Kashmir People’s Democratic Party formed the government in the state. It came two days after the J&K PDP patron and CM Mufti Mohammed Sayeed ordered political prisoners to be freed.
Masrat Alam’s Release comes at a wrong time
The release could not have come at a more inopportune time for the BJP, still struggling to find ways to justify softening its stand on Article 370. Its climb down on its stated stand of abrogation of Article 370 (as promised in its general election manifesto) had surprised many. Equally surprising was the Party’s move to forge an alliance with the pro-separatist J&K PDP, which required the Lotus’s support to form the government in the state after the fractured mandate. No wonder therefore that many political commentators had described the BJP to be driven only by political opportunism, bereft of ideological commitment.
The BJP’s justification of the deal was on the ground that “it may be a historical opportunity to bring about larger reconciliation in J&K in larger national interest…” However, the Masarat episode, instead, has proved to be the chink in the armour of the BJP. Consider some of the reactions on the social media of the Kashmiri Pandits whose cause the BJP espouses – “Still BJP has hopes if they come back and clear their position on what they did with Kashmir (Sic). Was power so important for them that they want to forget the issues raised in last 65 years,” said one such post of a Kashmiri Pandit. Stated another, “This is the start, more terrorists will be released in coming days. BJP in trouble now…”
It is understandable therefore that why after the release of Masarat, the BJP is crying foul. PM Narendra Modi’s assertions in the Lok Sabha that “…the union government was neither consulted nor informed…” not just reflects on his helplessness, but also sounds ambiguous considering his party is very much a part of the government in the state. It is where the Congress-led Opposition effectively forced the government to be on the back foot, fending for its decision to side with the J&K PDP in Srinagar.
Given the marriage of two opposites – the BJP and the J&K PDP – such a situation was not unexpected. That it emerged so early though was indeed unexpected. Could Mufti’s move therefore be interpreted as an exercise to take the state government in his grip right from the beginning? It does seem so considering that the J&K PDP has remained defiant on the whole issue. Consider the party’s initial reactions over Masarat’s release:
On Sunday, 8 March – just a day after releasing Masarat, the J&K PDP justified the move on grounds that, as the PDP chief spokesman and state Education Minister Naeem Akhtar told PTI, “It is an important part of our Common Minimum Programme…”
On 10 March, a day after the Prime Minister had condemned the release of Masarat in Parliament and claimed he had “demanded clarification” (from the Mufti government), the J&K PDP retorted by stating in media that “…we do not need to inform the Centre over releasing someone from prison just as we do not seek its approval when we arrest people”.
Such assertions bring the focus on the CMP agreement of the J&K PDP and the BJP in the troubled state. The BJP claims the decision was “not as per the common minimum programme that we had agreed upon”.
Clauses 21 and 22 of the CMP do lay down the provisions for pursuing “a dialogue process with all political groups, including the Hurriyat Conference…(so as to) facilitate and help initiate a sustained and meaningful dialogue with all internal stakeholders, which includes all political groups irrespective of their ideological views and predilections”.
J&K PDP by releasing Masarat has exploited provisions of CMP agreement
Ostensibly the J&K PDP, by releasing Masarat, deftly exploited the provisions of the CMP agreement to address its constituency in the Valley. There does seem merit in its spokesman Akhtar’s logic that “If you want to have a dialogue with all stakeholders, which includes these leaders, you cannot engage them by keeping them in jail without anything substantial against them”.
The question though is that whether the J&K PDP can survive by rubbing its alliance partner, the BJP, the wrong way? There is no such clear cut signal of severing ties from the BJP as yet. It though reflects on the fragility of the alliance.
But before we dwell on the issue, it would rather be appropriate to mention that it was political expediency rather than ideological similarity that had brought them together with the common aim of ruling the state. Both need each other to be at the helm of power in the troubled state.
Quick to its defense, the J&K PDP refers to the courts’ rulings for Masarat’s release. (There were 27 cases against Masarat and he claims he obtained bail in all the cases from different courts).
Some documents too are now selectively leaked to the media to suggest that delays in official procedures actually led to the hardliner’s release on March 7; that the situation for his release was created during the tenure of the previous National Conference-Congress government in the state and that the move was initiated when the State was under the brief spell of President’s rule after the elections.
This ostensibly poses more discomfiture for the BJP. The question is whether the party was in the loop or not. Both the PM and the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh have claimed they were not informed about the development. Singh is supposed to furnish more details on the issue to Parliament. But who can be faulted for this? The state Governor? The erstwhile NC-Congress government? Or CM Mufti?
As for now, the Mufti has dropped enough hints of a truce by assuring the Centre that no more separatists will be released without consulting the BJP. Isn’t this a political masterstroke? After all, there is no doubt that round one belonged to Mufti in the game of political one-upmanship between the two warring allies. After all, isn’t Masarat just a pawn with immense symbolic importance, more for Mufti?
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