Mufti of Kashmir

Mufti Mohammad Sayeed represented and strove for conciliation in the conflict-torn Jammu and Kashmir.  His qualities of head and heart helped him carve out a dominant role for himself in the state politics for nearly six decades. He capped this career with an alliance with the BJP, the party which was considered anti-Kashmir and anti-Muslim. Conventional wisdom demanded that he should make peace with the ruling party at the Centre; but he was not just a conventional politician. He argued — argued wisely — that Jammu’s mandate would have to be respected and reconciled. The BJP with its 25 MLAs was a new political force and needed to be accommodated. The BJP-PDP alliance is a new chapter in the political history of Jammu and Kashmir; it is not going to be closed with his death. Survival of that alliance will be Mufti Sayeed’s legacy. 

 

Mufti Sayeed has also left a strong political legacy of having  set up a regional party, Peoples Democratic Party, in 1999, rivalling the National Conference founded by Sheikh Abdullah. This act transformed the whole political landscape of Kashmir. The party appeared  on the Kashmir scene with  two missions — to provide an alternative to Kashmiris at the regional level and to loosen the stranglehold of the stifling security dominated environment in  the Valley. The other objective was to resume dialogue between India and Pakistan, and between Delhi and the separatists.  As Chief Minister from 2002 to 2005, he ensured that Kashmir became an easier place.  The Vajpayee government even offered talks and the moderate faction of the Hurriyat Conference responded in 2004.  In and out of power, the Mufti was an unwavering advocate of dialogue with Pakistan. He summoned courage to tell Prime Minister Modi  at a public rally in Srinagar that “big brother India  has no option but to talk to younger brother Pakistan”.  Not long thereafter, Modi made the famous pit stop in Lahore. 

 

Despite his long association with the Congress — he was the longest serving Pradesh Congress Committee  chief for 11 years —  Mufti Sayeed had the courage  to part ways  with the party.  He could not countenance the Rajiv-Farooq accord, because it crowded out the secular voices out of the opposition space. That was foresight. Today his party is finely ensconced in that secular space. That is his legacy. The nation is grateful to him.