MODI’S MAN IN J&K
That the Centre was preparing for a more direct political engagement in Jammu & Kashmir was evident from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Independence Day address, in which he promised that the longoverdue panchayat polls would be held before the end of the year. The appointment of Satya Pal Malik as the new governor of the state—the first career politician since 1967 to hold that office—is clearly a move in that direction.
A Jat from western Uttar Pradesh, who replaced President Ram Nath Kovind as the Bihar governor in 2017, 72-year-old Malik has been associated with various political groups, including the Congress and Janata Dal, before joining the BJP in 2004. Starting out as a socialist student leader, he was first elected MLA from Baghpat in 1974. He quit the Congress in 1988 to team up with former PM V. P. Singh and was elected to the Lok Sabha from Aligarh a year later. He also served as parliamentary affairs and tourism minister in the V.P. Singh regime.
Despite having no direct experience or engagement with Kashmir, barring a brief association with Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, BJP leaders say, it’s worked to Malik’s advantage that he is among a handful of leaders of a suitable stature without an RSS background. But what served him more is the old association and confidence he shares with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval. Also, in Bihar, he proved himself more capable than many of his predecessors in asserting Delhi’s viewpoint on a number of occasions, including most recently, when he wrote to the Chief Justice of the Patna High Court in the wake of the Muzaffarpur shelter home scandal.
Malik’s appointment in Srinagar, BJP insiders say, is to better facilitate the party’s strategy in the Valley. The outgoing governor, N.N. Vohra,
who was asked to stay on after the BJP deposed the Mehbooba Mufti-led government on June 19, was not as pliable as the Centre would like its man in the Valley to be. It is no secret in Srinagar that just as he discouraged a breakaway coalition minus Mehbooba following Sayeed’s demise in 2016, Vohra was as disapproving of the widely speculated moves by BJP general secretary Ram Madhav to instal a multi-party coalition with People’s Conference chief Sajjad Lone as the chief minister. A former PDP minister, who has been friendly with the BJP and Lone, said the move to set up an alternative coalition government was still on the cards. But “nothing is likely to happen before December, after the panchayat and urban local body polls”, he adds. “The governor doesn’t need [to have] experience of the state,” says a senior BJP leader, insisting that all the job requires is the faithful implementation of Modi and Doval’s strategy.
However, Malik faces the daunting challenge of successfully conducting the panchayat polls. Polling is to be scheduled in phases between October and December. Last held under the NC-Congress regime in 2011, the polls have been pending since June 2016, shortly before the Valley erupted in violence following Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani’s killing on July 8, 2016.
There is a buzz around the panchayat polls across villages in the state. Rural development and panchayati raj department director Qazi Sarwar says that in the absence of elected panchayats, the Centre has withheld Rs 1,100 crore worth of annual grants for village works.
However, barring the BJP and its rebel PDP friends, none of the other parties seems impressed with the Centre’s move in the absence of a popular government in J&K. They say, there are concerns about voter participation. They point to the April 9, 2017, Lok Sabha bypoll in Srinagar, which saw the lowest ever—7.1 per cent—voter turnout amid “200 incidents of violence”. BJP leaders, on the other hand, say the panchayats and urban local bodies will give the party an opportunity to directly engage with people in the state. But a former official, who has served at the helm of the security establishment in the Valley, fears that through Malik the BJP could push its stated agenda, including abrogation of Article 35-A. While this could shore up the BJP’s Lok Sabha prospects in the rest of India, he says, “It could spell disaster for Delhi’s relationship with Kashmir.” ■
The new J&K governor faces the daunting challenge of successfully conducting the panchayat elections