‘The RSS wants to change the demographics of the State’

Interview with Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami, CPI(M) MLA.

Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami.

AS the Kashmir Valley descended into an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty following the State government’s advisory asking Amarnath pilgrims and tourists to leave the Valley at the earliest, mainstream political leaders of Jammu and Kashmir suspected New Delhi might unilaterally abrogate the State’s special status. Four-time Kulgam MLA Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) spoke to Frontline on August 3, two days before the revocation of Articles 370 and 35A, at his Gupkar residence in Srinagar. He feared that tinkering with these Articles would not only amount to weakening the political bond between Jammu and Kashmir and India but also embolden the Central government to act more authoritatively and erode India’s federal structure. Excerpts from the interview.

There is uncertainty and panic in Kashmir following the government advisory asking Amarnath yatris and tourists to return home at the earliest. The troop build-up has added to the people’s sense of foreboding. How do you view these developments?

First of all, it is unfortunate that our State has been going through a long process of uncertainty and cycles of violence over the past three decades, more so since 2016. There were claims by the Government of India in Parliament and outside that the security situation had improved, and we were told that after a long break a large number of yatris were arriving in the Valley. Then there were rumours making the rounds that the government was contemplating doing away with Article 35A or initiating the exercise of delimitation. In the recent past, they announced the deployment of 10,000 troops and soon after clarified that they merely intended to replace existing companies. Then, 25,000 additional personnel were deployed, putting the entire security grid on alert.

All of a sudden, a press conference by the security chiefs and the core commander and other officers was held yesterday [August 2] and they informed us that Pakistan was trying to destabilise the yatra and emphasised that they had the situation under control. But soon after, there was an advisory from the Home Secretary, of an unprecedented nature in my opinion, asking the yatris to cut short their yatra and the visitors and tourists to cut short their stay. One does not know why.

It has created panic not only in Srinagar but also in remote areas such as Gurez, Tangdhar, Rajouri and Poonch. Is this part of the cycle of rumours planted by vested interests? The answer is “no”. It is a deliberate exercise by the authorities, by the government. I have seen the most difficult of times, in the 1990s, when militancy was at its peak, but the yatra was never ever stopped; with the support of common people, the yatra was conducted.

Then came the advisory for the students of the NIT and the Polytechnic College, asking them to vacate the hostels and return to their respective States. It appears as though somebody is at war with the people here. Repeal of Articles 370 and 35A and delimitation and trifurcation of the State is an agenda of the RSS [Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh]-BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party] combine. One ought to recall that during a recent visit by Home Minister Amit Shah and the former Home Minister and now Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, the two addressed a press briefing in Samba and declared that the Kashmir conflict would now be resolved. How can a 70-year-old problem, one that is quite complex, be resolved in no time? How do they plan to resolve it when they don’t take Parliament into confidence and don’t utter a single word in the face of the deepening crisis that followed the suspension of the yatra and the advisory asking students and tourists to go back?

There are rumours about delimitation, possible trifurcation of the State, and abrogation of its special status. Will any of these measures, if undertaken by the Government of India, be in the spirit of the Constitution?

All these components are links in the same chain. One must consider that the special constitutional provisions guaranteed to the State emerged out of a unique situation, when Pakistan sent raiders to Kashmir amid competitive claims made by the two neighbouring countries [India and Pakistan] and a border State [Kashmir] having a huge Muslim population having to choose between them. In that situation, Pakistan tried forcibly annexing the State, and Kashmiris resisted that attempt and entered into a political bond with the Union of India and asked for certain guarantees. These guarantees are enumerated in the Articles 35A and 370 and are the basis of Jammu and Kashmir’s political bond with India.

Will abrogation of the special constitutional provisions guaranteed to Jammu and Kashmir invalidate the political bond it had entered into with India?

I must clearly and openly admit that this [tinkering with the State’s special status] would amount to undermining the relationship. Pakistan has been claiming time and again that this [Jammu and Kashmir’s accession to India] is not acceptable to them. When the BJP-RSS talks about abrogating Jammu and Kashmir’s special status, they are virtually obliging the forces who have been seeking an opportunity to undermine Jammu and Kashmir’s relationship with Indian Union.

I must remind you that when GST [goods and services tax] was introduced in the State, Arun Jaitley [then Union Finance Minister] said that with the financial integration of Jammu and Kashmir, half of Syama Prasad Mookerjee’s dreams were fulfilled. He said that what remained to be done was the political integration, which would be undertaken by the leadership of the BJP at an appropriate time. So what they are doing today is in tune with the same policy that Mookerjee and the Praja Parishad [a political party in Jammu and Kashmir in the 1950s and 1960s] pursued in the early 1950s.

What is the RSS’ larger objective with respect to Kashmir?

The RSS advocates that whatever is left of the so-called special status for Jammu and Kashmir must be removed. They feel that Articles 370 and 35A are an undue favour to the people of Jammu and Kashmir. Historically, it is not. Take, for example, Article 370. Maharaja Hari Singh entered into an agreement with the Government of India and signed the Instrument of Accession under certain conditions. Karan Singh [son of Hari Singh, former Sadr-e-Riyasat of Jammu and Kashmir and Congress leader] is witness to it. The RSS is virtually ignoring that historical fact.

How do you explain the RSS’ fascination for the abrogation of Article 35A? Is there an underlying design to change the demographics of the State by allowing people from across the country to settle in the State in large numbers?

Certainly. Their aim is to do away with these constitutional provisions and thereby undermine the separate Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir, which provides certain rights to the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly. All of that has to be removed, and for what? To change the demographics of the State. That’s exactly what they intend to do.

What kind of reaction do you anticipate if the Government of India does away with the special status?

See, I must tell you frankly that we who stood for this relationship of Jammu and Kashmir with the Indian Union despite all the pressures, be it extremism or militancy, want the special status to be respected. But what is the message for us now? That we don’t matter. That we have no place. That is what Pakistan has been telling the people of the State. That this is a “Hindu nation” and we made a mistake by agreeing to join it.

Did Sheikh Abdullah not have a similar realisation shortly before he was deposed as the Prime Minister of the State and started contemplating an independent Jammu and Kashmir?

Sheikh Abdullah realised that through his experience but tried to give this relationship one more chance to survive. The rest is history. Today, in my opinion, abrogation of the State’s special status will put a stop to whatever efforts are being made by different streams of politics in Jammu and Kashmir and in the rest of the country to strengthen unity between the State and the Indian Union.

Did you have deliberations with the leaders of other mainstream political parties? Has a joint strategy been chalked out to deal with any eventuality, including the unilateral abrogation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status by New Delhi?

I recently met Omar Abdullah, Farooq Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti, Ghulam Hassan Mir, Hakeem Yaseen and others. I have talked to the Congress leadership as well and some leaders of the Left parties. Our understanding is that the troop build-up is not courtesy some security threat or a mere law and order situation.

We will express our opinion. We will appeal to Parliament to make a sensible choice while taking any decision vis-a-vis the country. It is not a one-party affair. It is the question of the future of the country’s interests vis-a-vis Kashmir and the interests of Kashmir vis-a-vis the rest of India, and wisdom is required. We do hope that narrow sectarian interests and partisan interests will not prevail over the larger interest, which is the relationship between the Indian Union and Jammu and Kashmir. Weakening this relationship will have serious consequences for the federal structure of India. Don’t forget that this regime is more authoritarian and stands for more centralisation of power. Once they succeed in Kashmir, the impact will be felt in the rest of the country as well in the near future. That is my concern.