PDP-BJP ALLIANCE - The Best Thing

for J&K
Amitabha Pande

There is much agonising about the `fractured verdict' in Jammu and Kashmir.
The BJP-baiter gloats about the Modi magic not having really worked. The Modi
supporter derives comfort from the huge increase in the party's vote share. The PDP
is seen as being in a catch-22 situation: damned if it aligns with the BJP and damned
if it doesn't. The National Conference (NC) is a gleeful voyeur and the Congress is
neither here nor there. Is it possible, however, to treat this `fracture' as the best
thing

that

could

have

happened

to

J&K?

Political parties in India are not ideology-driven. The core agenda for everyone is
simply to get into government. Ideological postures are a means to woo specific
constituencies and matter little once power is captured.The PDP did not lose
anything when it combined with the `agents of Delhi' the last time it was in
government when separatist sentiments ruled.Those sentiments are weaker now.
Coming together with the BJP is a political risk that a maestro like Mufti
Mohammad Sayeed can easily take.For the BJP, the removal of Article 370 or
resisting the removal of the Armed Forces Special Protection Act (AFSPA) is just
political claptrap, not an article of faith.
Like the Ram Mandir or the uniform civil code, these posturing have limited
propaganda value to keep the party hard core appeased. So, making heavy weather
of the BJP and the PDP coming together is nave.
Ironically , no one seems to reflect on how much more divisive and wounding
the situation would have been if either of these two parties had achieved a majority
on its own. The BJP would have interpreted it as a mandate to steamroll the
Kashmiri identity into its own version of homogenised Hindutva. The PDP would have
ended up alienating the rest of India further by harping on the exclusiveness of the

Kashmiri identity and the need to give it specific expression. The fact that neither
can pursue their separate agendas is a huge blessing, and not just in disguise.
There are some remarkable features of this verdict that make a possible coming
together of the PDP and the BJP a very healthy proposition. First, the verdict has
come out of possibly the freest and fairest elections in J&K's history . Second, the
voters have turned out in unprecedented numbers. Third, it is a vote for all parties
to respect the diversity of J&K. It opposes the hegemony of any one region,
community or political credo and compels them to strike a balance and revisit their
unilateral positions.
Much is made of the irreconcilability of the stated positions of the BJP and the
PDP and how their marriage, if it takes place, is foredoomed. In actuality , not only
does Narendra Modi's BJP -as distinguished from the traditional BJP elements in
Jammu have more in common with the PDP than with any other party , but their
marriage presents an opportunity that has a revolutionary potential not just for
Jammu & Kashmir but for the country as a whole. It is doubtful whether the two
actually

see

this

potential

themselves,

but

it

deserves

to

be

highlighted

nevertheless.
That potential lies in the BJP using the alliance to redesign the architecture of
federalism and devolved governance around the concept of self-rule elaborated by
the PDP in 2008. The document is one of the most well-crafted political documents
to ever come out of an Indian political party and can form the basis for a complete
revamp of India's federal architecture.
It also provides an opportunity to channel the `azadi' discourse into the larger
federalism

debate

across

the

country

-particularly

in

the

northeast

-and

accommodating a diversity of forms of sub-national governance. In one stroke, it

accommodates the yearning for separate regional identities within this larger
discourse, taking away the stigma of separatism and relating the `Kashmir issue' to
similar aspirations for devolution elsewhere.

What's more, it provides the means by which the vexed issue of Pakistan
Occupied Kashmir can also be brought within the ambit of the federalism
confederalism discourse. This could provide the means for an IndiaPakistan
rapprochement on the lines envisioned by Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Prime Minister Modi has loudly championed the need for redesigning governance
along federal lines. The PDP provides him with just that opportunity . Can we expect
him now to seal the pact and have Muzaffar Hussain Baig, the author of the self-rule
document, head a Federalism Commission tasked to redesign a bold, new federal
architecture

for

India

in

which

J&K

will

The writer is former secretary, government of India

have

special

place?