Kashmir’s leadership crisis!

M Ashraf

Kashmiris have had the worst form
of dynastic and undemocratic
leadership most of the time

Kashmir stands at the cross roads in the
real sense of the word. For more than
five months everything had been virtually
at standstill. There had been a mass
uprising led by what have been alleged
to be the stone pelting boys! Both the government of India and the state
government failed to stem the tide in
spite of the use of maximum force
including the last resort of the Army. However, at the end of it one is not sure
of the future plan of action! Kashmiris
have now been struggling for their basic
rights for almost a century. Even though
technically the start of the movement for
attaining these rights is given the historic date of July 13th,1931 yet it is a fact
that people were trying to get their
rights in various other ways such as
making representations to imperial
authorities and so on much earlier. In
fact, Kashmir is supposed to have started a trade union movement earlier than it
started anywhere in the world.
There have been two damaging
characteristics of the movement. The
first is the personality cult. Having been
ruled by Kings and Queens for centuries we always look for a King or a Queen as
our leader. This rule by Kings and Queens
has been continuing in Kashmir from the
earliest times. Kashmir has passed
through different religious periods-
Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam. These have been the state religions one after
the other for almost 4,000 years of its
history. All through these periods Kashmir
used to have a King or a Queen. Some
of the Kings like Laltaditya Muktapid and
Budshah (Zain-ul-Abidin) were very popular. There were always good kings
and bad kings. This feeling of being ruled
by Kings or Queens is ingrained in the
psyche of a Kashmiri. The idea of a
collective leadership based on some
sound ideology and convictions does not appeal to us.
We have had the worst form of dynastic
and undemocratic leadership most of the
time. In the beginning of the movement
we had a charismatic leader whom we
raised to the height of a colossus. It is alleged that the leader ultimately
abandoned Kashmiris along with their
struggle. His role in 1947 in supporting
India is held as the main cause of
Kashmir’s misfortune. However, it is debatable as the circumstances of that
period were very much shrouded in
mystery. People are now questioning the
very signing of the accession document
by the erstwhile Maharaja. Sheikh
Abdullah appears to have been used by outsiders for their ulterior motives! In any
case, had the people been following
certain convictions and ideology, they
would have abandoned the leader once
he had deviated from the main path. On
the contrary such a strong personality cult was created around the leader that
the people gave the slogan that
whatever the leader does, it is
acceptable to us.
It was known as the Gourd and Brinjal
slogan! In spite of all his failings, the people still followed him because of his
revolutionary measures in abolishing
landlordism in Kashmir. Land to the tiller
without compensation, and cancellation
of all debits of farmers are the agrarian
reforms not seen anywhere in the sub- continent. The most unforgivable
mistake was his joining the government
in 1975. Rest could be forgiven! The
result of this wavering is that the people
are still struggling for the same rights
which they had been seeking in 1931 itself and are, in fact, in the worst
possible situation without any light at the
end of the tunnel! This creation of
personality cult coupled with dynastic
succession has been encouraged by Delhi
to keep the leadership under its thumb. In fact, the traditional leadership
spearheading the movement for “Azadi” has also been encouraged to follow the
same dynastic and undemocratic pattern.
These leaders are being given protection
by paramilitary and security personnel.
They are provided facilities for travel, and
sometimes medical assistance on a selective basis. They are quite often
“imprisoned” in the luxury of their own homes!
Only those ones whom the authorities
feel deviating from the path supported
by them, are put in real jail. When one
imagines leaders of a freedom
movement, one gets the picture of a person roaming in the wilderness like Che
Guevara or Mao Tse Tung or among the
non-violent ones, Nelson Mandela but
not in Kashmir. Here, we have majority of
“part-time” freedom fighters. They carry on many other things apart from fighting
for “freedom”! When someone was asked how the Israelis routed Arabs in
1967 war? The answer was that the
Arab officers’ command to their soldiers was “forward”, while as the Israeli officers’ command was, “follow me”! Same is the situation in Kashmir. Apart
from being dynastic in nature in quite a
few cases, the leadership is totally
undemocratic. This is true for all types of
leadership, mainstream or the ones
leading the movement for “Azadi”. This malaise exists throughout South Asia-
Pakistan, Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia,
Philippines, Bangladesh, and so on. The
story is same- sons, daughters, husbands,
wives or so on following the leader in
quest for power. The problem with the popular leadership
leading movement for “Azadi” is its fragmentation. There are dozens of
parties led by various people claiming to
be struggling for the basic rights of
Kashmiris. Some of these are even one
man parties! The leaders claim Kashmir to
be a colony. It is supposed to be occupied by Indian Forces against the will
of the people. As such they are
supposed to be leading a struggle for
independence regardless of the fact
whether it is a violent or non-violent one.
However, one fails to understand if the goal of all these parties is same then why
they are so heavily fragmented? The
other parties called the mainstream
parties are not so numerous and so
fragmented! The parties struggling for
“Azadi” appear more like “Contractors” than freedom fighters. If the goal is one
then why so many people are offering to
achieve it through so many “Companies”? Even for that they do not have a clear
well defined path and methodology.
Their maximum effort is to give calls for
indefinite shutdowns and issue press
statements. Quite a few leaders are
happy by seeing their statements with the photographs in local newspapers! In
fact, they ensure that their statements
appear frequently and people always
take these with a pinch of salt. It is
simply a personality cult. Each person
seems to project himself as the only “leader” who is capable of achieving “Azadi”. The way they are working seems as if they have already achieved
“Azadi” and are now offering their services to run the government of “Free” Kashmir!
However, there is now a new generation
which does not want to be led but is
forcing the “traditional” leaders to follow them. They have also given an indication
that they will abandon the leaders if they
deviate from the right path. Well, that is
not enough. That may be one of the
main factors keeping the unrest going on
as there are no known leaders whose elimination could scuttle it. There is
urgent need for the new leadership to
emerge openly for the people to follow
it. They have to create a new leadership
cadre which should be honest, ideological
with strong convictions, and above all else, incorruptible! The present attitude
of the authorities both in Srinagar and
Delhi is not allowing this to happen. The
problem is with Delhi which has always
preferred “Conflict Management” to “Conflict Resolution”. They probably feel that it is more profitable to manage the
conflict as its final resolution may be
disadvantageous to them in the long run.
The ideal remedy would be to hold open
debates on Kashmir’s future everywhere in all sections of the society. Usually, the
“Think Tanks” are in the universities where such debates are held and new
leadership has a chance to emerge.
However, in Kashmir everything political is
taboo in the universities! Preventing the
leadership from emerging in open
debates will, as per the past experience, make it go underground. They will be
ultimately forced to feel that the
violence is the only way forward. That
would be a tragedy after the paradigm
shift of the movement from a violent to
non-violent one.

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