Sayeed: New policy healing old wounds

Uncomfortable realities are being confronted

The People's Democratic Party's (PDP) spectacular victory in elections in October last year, and the Congress decision to support the candidature of Mufti Mohammed Sayeed as chief minister had many Cassandras, predicting dire warnings about the fate of Kashmir.

For one, during the campaign, Sayeed had not hidden his support for militants in the Valley. In fact, immediately after being elected and especially after the claimant to the Abdullah legacy, Omar Abdullah, lost the election from Gandarbal, Sayeed addressed a huge post-election rally there.

In his speech he said militants did not need to exert themselves any more because they now had representation in the Assembly.

Subsequently, as part of the hearts and minds campaign, special care was taken to enquire about those who had "disappeared" in police custody, with Sayeed, admitting in the Assembly last month that not 29 (as alleged by the Opposition) but nine people had gone missing while in custody.

This "campaign" (Sayeed claims he is committed to starting a dialogue with all those underground) had the effect of rendering the Hurriyat Conference""already a politically untested animal ""even more irrelevant in the politics of Kashmir.

It was Sayeed who took the lead in everything""getting the political establishment to talk to the militants, encouraging the militants to talk to New Delhi, all the while trying to keep on the right side of the Hurriyat.

Thus in Kashmir, the non-state actors felt they were going to get a voice""how much of a role this has in the politics of militancy is anyone's guess.

But one thing is indubitable. Sayeed must get the credit for presenting Kashmir to the rest of the world, neither a venal and corrupt drag on the Indian system, nor as the state that represents the victimised psyche of the Kashmiri Muslims, crushed under the brutality of the Indian State.

For the first time in at least two decades, uncomfortable realities of Kashmir are not being brushed under the carpet""they are being confronted and combated. For this psychological boost the Sayeed government deserves full credit.

A lot remains to be done in Kashmir on the financial and development front. But the outward symbols of militarisation are slowly dissolving, aided by the cease-fire.

Pressure on Pakistan from the US""and also, reportedly because of a desire on the part of Gen Pervez Musharraf to see cross-border militancy ebb for reasons of his own political survival""has lead to the lowest levels of infiltration across the border than ever before.

The infrastructure of terrorism""camps and logistical support from the armed forces""might take longer to disappear and India is waiting for that to happen.

Sayeed, an ex-Congressman who left the party to join VP Singh, has had only one credo""consistency in his opposition to the Farooq Abdullah family.

He is committed to the idea of India only as a Congressman can be. How he will run Kashmir for the next five years will be crucial to India's future.

At this moment, judging by his actions, he is doing everything by the book, by not treating the people of Kashmir as a security threat to Kashmir, as rulers have been wont to do in the past. If he can sustain pro-people politics in Kashmir, maybe the state will return to India.