Divided loyalties

PLAIN POLITICS

Three things happened in 1996. The God of Rock and Blues, Eric Clapton, won the Grammy for the single "Change the World". Bill Clinton was re-elected the President of the United States despite accusations of improprieties in an Arkansas real estate venture called Whitewater.

And Mehbooba Mufti whined but won her election in the J&K Legislative Assembly from Bijbehera, the tiny village where her father was born. She helped Daddy, Mufti Mohmmad Sayeed, realise another dream "" of contesting and winning the Lok Sabha election from Anantnag.

Reporters who covered that campaign still remember Mufti's anxiety. As the chief of the Kashmir unit of the Congress, it was his job to find candidates to field "" and it was an election no one wanted to fight.

They remember him standing in the garden and pleading with Mehbooba to contest the election to save his 'izzat'. "No Daddy, how can I" said Mehbooba despairingly. "I don't know how". But she did fight that election.

And then when both father and daughter had won, she to the assembly from Bijbehera, he, from Anantnag in the first Lok Sabha election he'd ever won, Mufti told reporters who came home to congratulate him, tears running down his face: "You want to congratulate me? It is that girl you should be speaking to. Mehbooba ji ko bulao".

Overnight, from Mehbooba, she had become Mehbooba ji.

Something clicked for Mehbooba that year. It was almost as if she'd come of political age. The eldest of Mufti's four children (three daughters and a son) she'd always been a bit of a rebel.

While one of his children, Rubaiya, of the supposed kidnapping fame, became a doctor and the son went to the US where he is now a filmmaker, Mehbooba, never an intellectual, found herself under some peer group pressure.

She was young when she married a cousin "" a love match "" despite opposition from the family. The marriage ended messily, leaving her a single mother with two young daughters. She had to find a way to prove herself.

Politics offered one avenue. Mufti will be the first to admit that he would not have won in 1996 if it hadn't been for Mehbooba. She campaigned long and hard, coaxing, cajoling and pushing Mufti when he thought it was all just a huge a waste of time. Her campaigning style "" such as it was "" was simple and direct, rather like her personality.

She would go to the home of a family that had lost a son, hold their hands and weep with them. She wasn't asking for a vote, only asking that her empathy with the people be recognised. In other places, she was passionate and direct. And her driving force was not ideological.

It was based on one single principle "" that the Abdullah family had been dominating the political space for far too long, that it had enriched itself at the cost of the Kashmiri people, and it must be defeated.

Within a year of winning that election, and having learnt from it, the father and daughter realised that politics wasn't so difficult. They also found to their dismay that the Congress was once again flirting with the National Conference.

Mufti had been in the Congress and out of it (when he left the party to join V P Singh's Jan Morcha). But his politics was largely based on opposition to the National Conference. It was impossible for him to countenance a situation where on behalf of the Congress, he might be asked to broker a deal with the NC.

In 1999, both father and daughter resigned from their seats. Mufti, egged on by Mehbooba, had already began putting together a new party, the Progressive Democratic Party (PDP).

By 2002, the PDP had established itself, trounced the major opposition "" the NC "" and after an election that was among the most closely monitored in the world, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed became chief minister of Kashmir supported by the Congress from the outside.

Watching Omar Abdullah's face fall as he learnt about his defeat was one of the most satisfying moments of Mehbooba's life.

Having scripted the PDP's victory, Mehbooba became the president of the party. At 40-something, electoral victory itself was an achievement. But keeping the flock together and building on the victory was harder. The cynical say Mehbooba seized upon the chance thrown up by a High Court judgement last year.

In 1978, the court was asked to decide whether a Sikh resident of Baramulla, a woman who had married a Sikh from Amritsar, had the right to inherit her parent's property "" or whether she had to yield to her cousin as she was no longer a subject of Jammu and Kashmir state.

A full bench of the High Court delivered its judgement in 2002 "" that women marrying non-state subjects could retain their permanent resident status, but added that if the government did not want women married outside the state to inherit property and thus dilute Article 370, it could frame another law.

The question was whether the PDP government would appeal against this judgement. When Mehbooba was asked this question, she equivocated. But the J&K government had to take a stand. Taking the cue from the High Court judgement, law minister and well known jurist Muzaffar Beig drafted a bill on the grounds that as there was no provision in the existing law dealing with the status of a female permanent resident who married a non-permanent resident, it was necessary to enact a law on the subject. Fearing sure defeat in the Supreme Court, the J&K Government withdrew an SLP in the Supreme Court in the meantime, a move that was hailed by Mehbooba, as PDP chief.

The Bill was endorsed by all political parties in the assembly. No one wanted to appear less Kashmiri than others. There is evidence to suggest that the Congress was taken into confidence on the matter.

For Mehbooba, barring the political incorrectness of gender inequity inherent in the Bill, it was a wonderful opportunity to stress the 'Kashmiriyat' element and create a new political slogan to expand the PDP's base.

The biggest loser was the Congress "" how could it oppose the law outside Kashmir and support it inside Kashmir? The challenge the bill posed to Kashmiri politicians was a formidable one: they had to prove who they were more loyal to "" India or Kashmir.

Where the bill is headed is uncertain. But how Mehbooba plays this one will be interesting to watch. In the current climate of 'feel-good' between India and Pakistan, the politics of militancy has limited utility.

'Protect Kashmiriyat' is a far more potent slogan. It represents a chance for the PDP to swallow the Congress base in Kashmir. Whether Mehbooba Mufti will plump for growth (of the PDP) or equity (of the Kashmiri people with all Indians) is the big question.