'Self-rule is acceptable to everyone in J&K'

Q&A

MP and People's Democratic Party President Mehbooba Mufti talks about being a woman, a politician and daddy's girl.

Your efforts to get the Army out of Kashmir seem to have been a waste of time. Nobody is agreeing with you.

Our party is waiting for the meeting of the high-level committee that will look into the issue. During the recent round-table conference on Kashmir, the prime minister made it clear that the presence of Army would have to be linked to the law and order situation in Kashmir. There are some 800 to 1,000 militants in Kashmir now, but the Army strength is the same as it was when there was a virtual deluge of militants and groundswell of public support for them. Gradually, the CRPF and police are taking control of nearly all towns, which effectively means that more areas would get out of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act.

On the ground, things have already started moving. Last week, the union home ministry sent a directive to the state government to survey all the properties occupied by the Army and paramilitary forces. We are expecting major relief for the people.

I don't understand why there are misgivings about the issue. The Army is not going anywhere. God forbid, if anything goes wrong, it can be recalled any time.

How would you rate the Azad government's performance in the state? You do not seem to approve of its work, even though Congress is your ally.

When daddy (Mufti Mohammad Sayeed) was the chief minister (for the first three years), as party president I would travel all over the state interacting with people and holding rallies. I would criticise the government and even take up cudgels on behalf of the people. This really worked. I became a sincere link between the government and the people and the results were for everyone to see. This does not happen any more.

You could still play the same role of a messenger for Azad, who is the chief minister of a coalition government in which you are a partner.

We tried. Unfortunately, our efforts got virtually no response. So what is the use pretending all is well between us?

How would you rate the Azad government's performance ? Obviously, the comparison has to be with your father's tenure?

Whatever I say on Azad sahib's performance would not be taken as a neutral comment. So why make any comment at all? However, in daddy's time, things had started looking up. When Atal Behari Vajpayee came for his Kashmir visit, there were 35,000 people to hear him. My father did everything to break the bonds of mistrust between the Kashmiris and New Delhi. He would say at public rallies that the government was laying roads and bridges only because Centre was funding us liberally. Unlike most others, daddy did not create a divide between Delhi and Srinagar.

Your party has floated a new political slogan "" self-rule. Kashmir is already saddled with the burden of history and theoretical solutions. What is new about your self-rule?

Self-rule is a wonderful idea that is acceptable to everyone in Jammu and Kashmir. Under this, we are looking for guarantees from the Centre that there would be no further erosion of political autonomy for Kashmir. The autonomy has to be defined in terms of people power and not that of an oligarchy. We are looking to undoing many mistakes of the past. Take the Indus water treaty in 1952. It was a disaster for Kashmir as we simply lost control over our own waters. Because of this, the state loses Rs 6,000 crore every year.

Someone has to rectify this. Kashmir used to have an elected governor. Let us have one now. Also, we want that nobody in India should feel tempted to raise the bogey of Article 370, like the BJP does so often.

Frankly, we are still unsure of how to retain progressive systems that have come to Kashmir, like the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and Election Commission over the state. The autonomy we are asking for is not at the cost of sacrificing these systems.

The extension of central labour laws to Kashmir was a good thing and we dared not change it. So we are open on this issue. Unlike the National Conference, we are not blindly sticking to a cut-off date for restoring the state's autonomous existence.

Does your self-rule theory help in any way resolution of the Kashmir issue?

Our idea is meant for the entire Jammu and Kashmir, including PoK. Here, we have a nearly autonomous state and basic structures of democracy. But the people in PoK don't even have that. The idea extended to the entire state would benefit the people across the Line of Control more since Pakistan would have to concede a lot to the people. Then the self-rule is also about absolute devolution of power to all the regions of the state. The Kashmir-centric approach of the past for resolving political issues has to be avoided since no other region is going to accept it.

You have many admirers for your guts as a women politician working in a troublespot... But at the same time we expect you to be a trend-setter and not perpetuate the image of a stereotype Muslim women by always covering your head?

Frankly, my dress code is a deliberate attempt to make myself and thousands of people who interact with me daily, feel comfortable. When I meet people I lose all control. If, for example, an elderly women wants to kiss my forehead, I give in. If a young boy wants to shake hands with me, I offer it. Someone wants to hug me... I should be appropriately dressed so that neither they nor I feel uneasy. Head cover is a sheer necessity apart from my deliberate attempt to respect tradition.

Again, we did not appreciate your stand against the women of Kashmir who were denied citizenship rights if they married a non-Kashmiri. It took the Supreme Court to say this was wrong.

I believe Kashmiris are going though an extraordinary crisis where the right to life and dignity has been undermined all these years. When you are still fighting for the people's rights to dignity, like not being frisked while at work and being rounded up for cordon and search operations, where is the scope for fighting bigger battles on gender lines? I have to speak for disappearances, fake encounters and killings. I have no time to think of feminist issues for the moment.