In her address to the Congress (I) parliamentary party on Sunday, Mrs. Gandhi was rather vague in respect of her assessment of recent developments in Jammu and Kashmir. This is understandable. In her position as Prime Minister, she cannot always be candid and explicit. Even so, three points emerge from the statement. First, she is unhappy with what has happened in the state. Secondly, she is prepared to live with it. Read together, the relevant sentences can be interpreted to mean that while she is convinced that the recent elections in the state were rigged, she is willing to take this fact in her stride and move on. But she has not rested content with that. She has gone ahead and said “our concern is for the unity and integrity of the country”. Clearly she would not have made this remark unless something was bothering her specifically in relation to Jammu and Kashmir. But what is that something? Or is she seeking to weaken Dr. Farooq Abdullah’s position? Or arouse concern in the rest of the country in order that she may be able to take advantage of it whenever she decides to order polls to the Lok Sabha? Or is the explanation much simpler which is that she is not reconciled to her party’s defeat in the state?
We can only speculate on the possible explanation or explanations. But whatever Mrs. Gandhi’s assessment of Dr. Farooq Abdullah, his alliance with Maulvi Farooq who continues to challenge the finality of the state’s accession to the Indian Union, his role in bringing various opposition parties together, his obvious desire to play a role on the larger national scene, and of the forces at work in the state, it would seem to us that she will be ill-advised to be seen to be following a policy of confrontation with him. That, in our view, would be counter-productive.
That would in all probability consolidate public opinion in the valley behind him, isolate the Congress (I) there and even strengthen his position in the rest of the country. One may favour or look askance at such a development. But surely that cannot be Mrs Gandhi’s objectives. Her and her party’s interests dictate that she is seen to be willing to accept defeat in Kashmir and to extend the necessary cooperation to Dr. Abdullah. This does not mean that the state unit of the Congress (I) should not press its case in law courts and on public platforms. But a party which claims to uphold democratic norms cannot be guilty of blocking the normal functioning of the legislature and invite suspension of its members. Such a behaviour is particularly reprehensible if the party is a unit of a national organisation which is in office in New Delhi. Again this is not to say that the National Conference leaders have not over-reacted. They have. It is not just and proper to suspend 23 MLAs for a whole session on account of their behaviour on one specific day. But the country expects higher standards from those who are in charge of its affairs at the Centre and from their followers in the states.