Once again Indira-Abdullah accord has come into lime light with Chief Minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed taking a u-turn and hailing the revival of democratic process in the militancy-hit Kashmir Valley. Mufti had been a strong opponent of Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, founder of National Conference, and his political ideology. The 1975 accord was a turning point for the emergence of various other political parties. This change in thinking was presented by the Chief Minister to the visiting members of Indian Broadcasting Federation which was holding its Board of Directors meet which in itself is first of its kind. The board meeting could be a prelude to presenting the world things are on the normalcy rail. Earlier, Chief Minister during his Mumbai visit had invited Bollywood for reviving film shooting. In any case revival of democratic process is the most important factor for development. It also helps in keeping the separatist elements under check. Lack of democratic machinery has always led to anarchy, which the State has been witnessing despite elected governments. The turn-around over the ideology is good for the State and such opinion coming from the mouth of an astute politician like Mufti has its own impact outside the boundaries of the Jammu and Kashmir. Mufti was candid when he said the accord revived the democratic process in the State and created space for politicians of different shades, including him and side by side it dealt a blow to those who believed that J and K was remote-controlled by New Delhi. Calling for restoration of New Delhi-Islamabad talks, Mufti reiterated that relationship with Pakistan had a direct bearing on Jammu and Kashmir. He advocated for resolving all the issues amicably through the channel of talks. Though ideologically different both BJP and PDP have common link from Atal Behari Vajpayee era where the talks remained the pivot on which India-Pakistan went on the path of normalcy except in 1999 when Vajpayee was heading the Lahore Bus Yatra, Pakistan went ahead with misadventure in Kargil, which showed Pakistan’s real face on normalising the bilateral relations. Now, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, an ardent follower of Vajpayee at New Delhi, relations did take a normalising course, but somewhere mid-course lost the tempo and got caught in web of uncertainty. It is still not late for the politicians on both sides of the border to rethink on the normalising path sans ideology.
