JAMMU: In the last week of February 2015 when PDP Patron Mufti Mohd Sayeed met Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his 7 Race Course residence in New Delhi to put a final stamp on the alliance government Mufti had himself termed the BJP-PDP alliance as coming together of ‘North Pole and South Pole’.
Before the meeting took place the top brass of both the political parties worked laboriously for over two long months across various destinations to reach a consensus on sensitive issues like the AFSPA, rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits and Article 370.
But the recent statement made by Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on the floor of the house where she had labelled all those working towards weakening Article 370 as anti-nationals has created a piquant situation for the BJP leadership in the State.
This is not for the first time the two alliance partners came face to face with each other over divergent view points on certain contentious issues but the recent onslaught by none other than leader of the house herself has left them speechless.
The alliance partners had earlier crossed each other’s path soon after Mufti Mohd Sayeed’s oath taking ceremony was over where he had credited separatists and forces in Pakistan for peaceful conduct of Assembly polls in the state. Then the issue of adhering to the flag code, beef ban, colonies for Kashmiri Pandits, killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani also tested their fragile bonding.
But at this moment the BJP leaders are clueless. They really do not know what to do and how to handle the political fallout of the masterstroke played by Mehbooba Mufti.
Her utterances has already earned her a brownie points from Kashmir based political parties as she has hurt BJP where it hurts the most while remaining in their cozy company.
If stoic silence adopted by the BJP ministers and other party legislators was not enough the poor handling by the speaker Kavinder Gupta on the floor of the state assembly has added fuel to the fire.
If inside reports are to be believed some of the senior central leaders too played key role in diffusing the situation after Mehbooba Mufti had made up her mind to visit Raj Bhawan to tender her resignation than withdrawing her statement in the house.
The fact that Mehbooba Mufti had refused to play ball or bail out her alliance partners at this juncture has dented the image of the BJP.
Political observers feel in single stroke Mehbooba Mufti has done irreparable damage to the image of BJP in its strong bastion by not giving them the opportunity to even raise their voice against her controversial remarks.
The opposition parties National Conference and Congress, searching for an opportunity to corner BJP in its strong hold, are also keen on consolidating their grip by exposing the dual speak of the BJP for the sake of retaining power and compromising with their core ideology and honour of their stalwarts whom they worship in front of the masses. Since Speaker has maintained and clarified that he has not expunged her remarks so as per the assembly records all those who are working towards weakening Article 370 are anti nationals.
Barring BJP there is no other political entity which is fighting for abrogation of Article 370. Till the time BJP does some course correction it can be safely assumed patriotic PDP is risking its political future by running an alliance government with anti-national BJP in the state of Jammu and Kashmir.