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| Delay in government formation | | | Prof Hari Om
The rigid stand on government formation in Jammu and Kashmir that Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti took in Jammu on February 2 after meeting with State Governor NN Vohra was on expected lines. She had made it loud and clear on January 31 itself at Srinagar during the meeting with "all important" party leaders that "she will not burn her fingers for nothing". Without mincing words, she told them that she will assume the office of Chief Minister only if Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave her a written assurance that she will have a freehand to run the state government and that the Agenda of Alliance was implemented in letter and spirit in a definite timeframe. She also hinted at the path she would want to tread in case she stepped into her father's shoes. She told his party men that if they wanted to form government in the present situation, they were free to choose a new leader".
"If anyone among you still feels we must form the government, as it has been during the last 10 months, you are free to make your choice. I am prepared to begin alone a battle for the realization of her late father Mufti sahib's vision, beginning from scratch if it has to be so," she had said. Her comment that "my father took a courageous, but an unpopular decision, to go with the BJP" was an indication of what was she thinking about.
And on February 2, she naturally went several steps further. She charged the Narendra Modi Government at the Centre for forcing his father to "run from pillar to post" even for getting the state's due share of funds from it and set many tough pre-conditions for the government formation in the state. She said that "if a government is to be formed in the state, the Prime Minister, and not the BJP, will have to take tangible measures to address the causes of alienation, trust and development deficit in Jammu and Kashmir and work towards finding a long-lasting solution to the problem plaguing the State for the past more than six decades. The Modi government had to address the core political issue and do something concrete on the ground to create an atmosphere conducive for the formation of government in the state was the upshot of her whole stand.
Mehbooba Mufti took such a stand despite the fact that Union Surface and Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari and BJP national general secretary Ram Madhav, one of the architects of the Agenda of Alliance and the BJP high command's point-man in Jammu and Kashmir reassured her that the BJP was committed to implementing the Agenda of Alliance and taking forward the vision of her late father. The local BJP leadership even went to the extent of reassuring her that the "BJP was prepare to go beyond the Agenda of Alliance to save the coalition" and the "vision of Mufti was the BJP's vision". It was none other than the state BJP president Sat Sharma who made this statement - a statement that was denounced in Jammu by one and all for obvious reasons. The BJP crossed all the lines to keep the coalition of North Pole and South Pole intact, when it a day before its meeting with the Governor described the Agenda of Alliance sacred and historic".
The fact of the matter is that the BJP left no stone unturned to re-forge alliance with the PDP overlooking its unpopularity in Jammu and Ladakh owing to its association with the PDP as well as its many acts of omission and commission committed after joining the coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir. Mehbooba Mufti as she is, she didn't pay any heed to the BJP's assurances and reassurance.
It would not be an overstatement if someone may says so that Mehbooba Mufti directly took on the Prime Minister and accused him and the BJP of not being sincere to the Agenda of Alliance on the basis of which the PDP-BJP coalition government was formed on March 1, 2015 and virtually confronted the Prime Minister which a choice between New Delhi's loose-type of relations with Jammu and Kashmir and continuation of Governor's Rule/President's Rule for a longer period or mid-term polls.
To be more exact, she set the condition that the Prime Minister had to go beyond the Agenda of Alliance and consider implementation of the self-rule vision of her late father within a definite timeframe. The PDP's self-rule doctrine means greater autonomy for Jammu and Kashmir bordering on sovereignty, demilitarization, soft borders, repeal of Armed Forces Special Powers Act, Islamic banking, dual currency, return of national power projects to the state government, general amnesty, regime under which New Delhi and Islamabad will share equal sovereign powers in the state and so on. Besides, the PDP asked the Prime Minister to share the Kashmiri view that Jammu and Kashmir was a disputed territory and initiate trilateral talks on the future of Jammu and Kashmir between India, Pakistan and Kashmiri Muslims.
Now the question to be asked is: Why such a rigid stand and so many pre-condition? There are reasons for that. For example, she knew that things for her party in the Kashmir Valley, the PDP's core constituency, are so inspiring and promising. The party during the ten months (March-December, 2015), when Mufti Sayeed was at the helm, had lost most of its sheen and appeal. And what Kashmir witnessed on January 8, the day Mufti Sayeed was cremated in his own hometown, Bijbehara, cleared all the doubts and established that the Mufti family didn't command the kind of respect it commanded before it entered into an alliance with the BJP to form coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir.
There was little participation of people in the funeral procession of Mufti Sayeed. Only about 3,000 people assembled at the cremation ground. Even the people of his own hometown didn't close down their business establishments as a mark of respect. Obviously, the thin attendance stunned Mehbooba Mufti and her associates. It is no wonder that she adopted the line on government formation she adopted on January 31 and February 2.
Two other factors forced her to adopt a very hard stand. One is the internal party feud in PDP. Two founding members of PDP, MPs Muzaffar Hussain Beig and Tariq Hameed Karra, have been vocal critics of the alliance, but they are not alone in their opposition. Second rung leaders of the party are in favor of going back to people for a fresh mandate and end the coalition. The other is the National Conference of Omar Abdullah and Farooq Abdulah, both former Chief Ministers. Ever since the demise of Mufti Sayeed on January 7, both the father and son duo have been accusing Mehbooba Mufti of being an agent of New Delhi and dubbing the PDP as "anti-Kashmir" and power hungry". Their whole objective has been to provoke Mehbooba Mufti to re-stitch an alliance with the BJP and lead the state government. They knew such a step on her part would be political hara-kiri and advantageous to the National Conference, which has been struggling since 2002 to regain the space it lost to the PDP. The National Conference, which won 57 out of 87 seats in the 1996 assembly elections, could win only 28 seats each in 2002 and 2008. It tally came down to just 15 in 2014.
The moral of the story is that Mehbooba Mufti is concerned more with her own Kashmir constituency and her father's vision. Time is on her side. She can win back the trust of the Kashmiri Muslims and become an indisputable leader of the Valley by maintaining distance from the BJP by setting pre-conditions which no government at the Centre could ever concede. She can do business with the BJP and achieve her objectives - power and self-rule -- provided Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave in writing that his government will be at her back and call and endorse all of her steps and actions. The ball is in the Prime Minister's court and it is difficult to believe that New Delhi would walk into the PDP's trap taking into consideration the larger interest of the nation and the party as well. |
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