The idea of neutral leadership

Omar Abdullah's assertion that governance must be free of any political affiliation may never have been so crucial in J&K as it is today. A democratic principal, a wise application of power, and a perennial principal of  good governance, the idea of a neutral leadership holds eternal significance. It actually underlines the importance of not making a difference among different sections of the people on the basis of who they voted for, and who they like to see in the chair.

As a matter of principal, governments never wholly follow it. A cursory look at all the governments in the past would reveal that those who voted for the ruling party get a certain degree of advantage. May be the introduction of technology in the processes of governance has made it difficult for the elected representatives, and also for their choicest officers, to twist things so easily to offer any advantage to its preferred constituencies.

So the test for Omar Abdullah in ordinary, normal situations would have been only restricted to how much he followed the principal of neutral leadership. But the situation in which he is right now is neither ordinary nor normal. It is by all means abnormal and extraordinarily abnormal. The politics in J&K is  dangerously fragmented. This fragmentation is not only at the level of the two major regions, Kashmir and Jammu, voting in diametrically opposite ways. It is deeper and wider. The division is at the levels of narrative, envisaging political future, historical biases, and emotions.

The people living in the two regions, belonging to two faiths, and inheriting different political legacies look at the future of this territory – J&K – in two totally varied ways. That is why it is an abnormally dangerous conditions.  In such a situation the idea of a neutral leadership is not just a good principal but a strategic requirement.

The test for Omar Abdullah's political sagacity is not  in the adherence to a principal where all people are considered as equal, and equally deserving. That is a normal frame of good governance or democratic politics. The actual test is in navigating this dangerous political terrain where the land underneath is dangerously sliding. It needs a miracle of sorts.