Modi & Mufti script new history for Kashmir

Arun Joshi

Jammu, February 28

Mufti Mohmmad Sayeed, the 79-year-old politician, has the right combination of history and pragmatism to help him carve a niche for himself and his people in history.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has achieved a very cool and dignified feat which will be on display when the PDP-BJP government will take oath tomorrow. It will be administered by Governor NN Vohra at cavernous Zorawar Singh auditorium in Jammu University.

It will be a never-before phenomenon as no Prime Minister has attended the oath-taking ceremony of any state government since 1947.

Modi will be the first one and that first is a “story of national reconciliation”. In the larger picture, there is a clear message to the world that hearts, not accords, spell out the newer course.

Modi has brought many substantial things with the negotiators dotting the Is and cutting the Ts on paper. He has shown to the world that conceding something on paper comes secondary to what can be achieved without saying anything.

On the global stage, the most representative group of the day for Kashmiri Muslims, the PDP is now on board with the historically hostile BJP. There is a story of much more than foes becoming friends.

Who conceded what and who won where may be known on Sunday afternoon when Mufti has promised to make the common minimum programme or agenda for alliance public.

It is a vision document wherein the ideologies of the two parties have melted and a new idea of India of the 21st century has emerged.

The Indian economy will give the country a “chance to fly” politically. At the global stage, it will be India embracing the “alienated lot” by conferring on them a sense of identity and dignity.

The world will know that Kashmiri Muslims , perceived to be the most alienated lot in India, were on board on national reconciliation.

Talks with separatists reduce their manoeuvring of non-voters and traditional election boycott supporters. The 66 percentage polling in Assembly elections last year in itself was a view to the world.

At the same time, it will show that India is engaged in Kashmir at each and every level with talks with Pakistan standing on the platform of talks with a neighbouring country. It is nothing more and nothing less.

This embrace of Kashmir shows how carefully and cautiously with a lot of vision has gone into the moment of history on Sunday at 11 am when Mufti’s PDP and Modi’s BJP MLAs will take oath as a part of the new coalition government.

BJP ministers will take oath under the state Constitution and drive to their offices with national as well as state flags hoisted on their cars.

That is where Kashmiris will draw their greatest satisfaction and acceptance of the reality that the state’s special position as it exists today remains what it is today.