New year beckons to shun politics of denial

For India politically speaking, the year 2023 had been a very hectic year, and so will be the new year 2024.

The year 2023 saw a lot of developments taking place throughout the length and breadth of the country in connection with India's G20 presidentship. Then a global event of the stature of G20 Summit meet was held in New Delhi. At the domestic level, the all important hearing in regard to the abrogation of Article 370 and matters connected with it by the Supreme Court of India was also the star attraction during the year 2023. It was followed by the delivery of the much awaited judgement by the apex court that unanimously upheld the abrogation of Article 370 and 35A. The result of the elections held in five states also made its impact heavily keeping in view the May 2024 general elections.

There is no doubt that the developments of the year 2023 had/have a positive impact so far as the ruling alliance at the centre and the BJP are concerned. They have surely been benefited by all these developments; and their narrative has also got further push and recognition. The opposition and particularly the Congress seems to have reconciled to live in a denial mode, as usual.

The main opposition political parties and other such groups in Jammu and Kashmir are also a part of the Indi-Alliance, not by their choice but only by compulsion. Though they have no major stake in the Indi-Alliance at an all-India level, yet they are forced to loitering with it for their own created constraints. Moreover, they have also nothing tangible to offer to the alliance. They singularly and jointly lived in a make-believe world all these seven decades and are feeling very incompatible with the current dispensation at the centre for the last one decade.

While they, primarily the National Conference, kept on harping the theory that Article 370, 35A, separate constitution-flag-symbol, the so-called special status etc. were all permanent in nature, they refused to tell their cadres and followers that it was the constitution of India that gave J&K all these things. The PDP added a spicy flavour to the narrative by incorporating the idioms like healing touch, cross-LoC trade, dual currency, porous border and emphasis on Indo-Pak dialogue right from its inception. Both the NC and PDP along with the other peripheral political groups in J&K, particularly in the Kashmir valley, used this narrative as their bread and butter, bed and cushion, shield and fender to remain in the power and also stay relevant when not in power.

Though the Congress was against the revocation of Article 370 in August 2019, yet it took a cautious stand thereafter in regard to the debate on the return of the Article. It didn't engage itself even in the Article 370 case in the Supreme Court either directly or indirectly. And the NC, PDP and other PAGD members and sympathisers expect the Congress to come to their rescue when the Article 370 and issues incidental thereto have been buried deep down by the apex court on 11 December 2023. The PM Modi's loaded statement that "no power in the universe can now restore back Article 370" has a great significance and message. It invites people to live in a realistic world and leave politics of denial for ever.

The opposition, Congress in particular, has a daunting task to understand the meaning of May 2024 general elections. This author has been consistently emphasizing that, "the next five months will determine the future course of events and we will have to wait for some more developments to evolve. Elections in May 2024 will finalise the direction of India's forward movement for another two decades.

When 2014 general elections were fought, we were at that point of time in fact writing the future course of a decade. But now when the 2024 elections are drawing nearer, we need to note that the nation is choosing its path for the next two decades at least. Political leaders, parties, their cadres and followers can't afford to live in a denial mode in the given situation. Congress's love for living in a denial mode, by virtue of coincidence, concurs with the same syndrome of the Pakistan establishment and majority of population living therein. The Kashmir centric political parties and groups in Jammu and Kashmir are the worst victims of this syndrome. Time has carved them out as the past-masters in this sphere and thus they find themselves very comfortable with both the equation holders, one within the country and the other outside the country.

Seeing the situation, one is reminded of the Mahabharata. King Dhratrashtra was, unfortunately, blind by birth but his queen Gandhari decided to cover her own eyes with a piece of cloth in order to live her life also like her husband. Instead of coming to the rescue of her husband in an hour of need, she chose to be a blind for whole of her life. Their stupidity led their whole kingdom ultimately to war, death and destruction. Such horrendous is the result of turning one's back to the realities and living in a denial.

The people of Jammu and Kashmir who were taken for a ride all these seven decades by the political leadership in the state have surely woken up post August-2019. They have seen for themselves the positive changes taking place. The public welfare and nationalistic politics have a great scope in the drastically changed scenario. People desire to move forward leaving behind the false and fake narratives about the flimsy 'honour, identity and dignity'. It is high time to shun the politics of denial in the best interests of the people of the state.

( for full text visit greaterkashmir.com)

The author is a senior BJP and KP leader, human rights defender, author and columnist.