Kashmir's caged ‘Tiger' is back, but the roar is missing

The sudden release of former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) Dr Farooq Abdullah came as a surprise to political analysts and pundits besides the people of the country. It was J&K administration’s spokesperson who broke the news on the internet that the government had issued orders “to revoke detention of (former chief minister) Dr Farooq Abdullah”.

The eighty-two-year-old Kashmiri politician remained under detention for 222 days. During the detention period, he was twice slapped with the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA).

Abdullah was measured, weighed his words rather carefully: “Thankful for public support and parliamentarians who fought for my freedom. My freedom is incomplete unless everyone else is released too,” he told reporters at his residence in Gupkar, Srinagar.

He also said that he would like to go to the Parliament if allowed. And that the future course of action would be decided once all incarcerated leaders are released.

This was not the Abdullah journalists or his followers have known for close to four decades. Yet it is too early to dismiss him as ‘compromised’ or ‘contained’.

Related news | ‘Don’t have words… I am free’: Farooq Abdullah after his release

Flanked by his wife, Mollie Abdullah, daughter, Safia Abdullah, and other close family members, Abdullah, dressed in a long woollen black gown and wearing shades, did not visibly appear confident. That’s perhaps why he took refuge in caution than in his usual outspoken commentary.

Brevity, they say, is the soul of wit. That is perhaps why Abdullah’s daughter Safia Abdullah Khan used only seven words to express her sentiment after her father’s release. “My father is a free man again.”

Sarah Hayat Shah, an additional spokesperson of JKNC, referred to Dr Abdullah as “tiger”. She said: “Tiger is back”. Late Sheikh Abdullah, Farooq Abdullah’s father, was Jammu and Kashmir’s Prime Minister and often referred to as Sher-i-Kashmir (the lion of Kashmir) by his admirers. That is why Sarah used “tiger” for Farooq Abdullah.

“The BJP imprisoned the whole region, turned Kashmir into a garrison town and kept saying that ‘it was for our good’. Everyone else seemed to discuss the Kashmir situation except for the people of Jammu and Kashmir,” she said. Talking to The Federal, she added that “Article 370 was part of the Indian Constitution and suddenly talking about it was criminalised by the powers that be.”

However, her party’s statement on Abdullah’s release was not as forthright and candid. The restive region’s oldest political party, National Conference, which actually came into being in 1931 and was rechristened in 1939, issued a rather soft statement, saying that Abdullah’s release was a right step toward “restoration of a genuine political process in Kashmir”.

Related news | J&K govt revokes Farooq Abdullah’s detention after seven months

The party demanded the immediate release of other political detainees, including another former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.

“We urge the government to do so at the earliest,” it read.

The question that begs an answer is what actually led to Abdullah’s release? Is it due to the ‘improvement’ in Kashmir’s ground situation or was there international pressure?

Soon after this piece of news about Abdullah’s release poured in, several political commentators, as well as commoners, started giving their expert opinion to analyse the detention and subsequent release of the veteran leader of the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference (JKNC).

According to Aakar Patel, a Bengaluru-based writer who previously worked with the London-based rights and advocacy group Amnesty International, “This (Abdullah’s release) is due to pressure from the US Congress House Resolution 745.” Patel is also of the view that “There’s never been as much pressure on the Indian government as there is today on CAA/NRC and rights in India generally, including Kashmir…We have nobody supporting us on these violations. That is why Modi is folding on one thing after another.”

Related news | Oppn parties raise issue of detention of Farooq Abdullah in Lok Sabha

The United Nations Human Rights Council, the US Congress, the US presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders, the European Union parliamentarians and leading human rights groups such as Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International (AI) have been very vocal about detentions and curbs on the internet and free speech in Kashmir.

That said, a section of people is sceptical and believes that Abdullah may have quietly resigned to Kashmir’s new ground realities after the revocation of Article 370 and dismembering of Jammu and Kashmir from a full-fledged state to two separate union territories namely Ladakh and J&K.

Has Abdullah, therefore, made a compromise with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)?

Ashok Swain, the Sweden-based professor of Peace and Conflict Research, said that “Hopefully, he hasn’t made a deal…”

The trend in Kashmir after August last year has been that several political leaders, mostly second-rung, have been released in turns. They include leaders of the National Conference, People’s Democratic Party, People’s Conference, the Indian National Congress etc. It is common knowledge in Kashmir that many among them were released only after they allegedly signed undertakings that they won’t speak against the removal of Article 370.

Related news | Farooq Abdullah’s detention extended by 3 months

Weeks after their release from detention, some of them resigned from their political parties and joined hands with the newly formed Apni Party led by the PDP deserter Altaf Bukhari. The business tycoon-turned-politician Bukhari enjoys BJP’s patronage and support. Those who joined him include Ghulam Hassan Mir, Rafi Mir, Dilawar Mir, Zaffar Iqbal Manhas, Shoaib Lone, Usman Majeed and Choudhary Zulfiqar Ali.

Most of them were earlier affiliated with the PDP, some with the Congress or with lesser-known political outfits. The PDP was the worst hit.

With Abdullah’s release, it is clear that the BJP government wants to create an impression that a ‘genuine political process’ in Kashmir is allowed while ensuring that new political slogans remain restricted to the restoration of region’s statehood and domicile rights and not autonomy or self-rule or independence.

In this new atmosphere, it would be interesting to know how things unfold in Kashmir in the coming days and weeks. The release of two other former Chief Ministers Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti and also young politician Shah Faesal, who heads J&K People’s Movement, will determine what kind of politics will ultimately prevail in Kashmir.

Be that as it may, it was surprising for many in Kashmir that the caged and cornered ‘tiger’ Farooq Abdullah did not roar. Is there a message in his softened approach? It is too early to call.

(The author is a Kashmir based journalist and political commentator)