STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Ever since different parts of Kashmir have been witnessing incidents of street violence, the omnipresent BJP cabinet ministers camping in the valley have vanished from the scene.
Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and her trusted aides were the only visible faces across the valley who made an effort to reach out to the civil society in difficult times. Though some of them attended the cabinet meeting under the chairmanship of Mehbooba Mufti but they could not muster enough courage to venture out of their official bungalows to even reach out to the stranded pilgrim population and local masses suffering at the hands of violent crowd.
The alliance partners were nowhere to be seen nor utilised their local cadre to reach out to the masses to restore order and prevent loss of life and government property.
Ironically, the BJP ministers remained conspicuous with their absence even in Jammu where thousands of pilgrims were stranded for days together and struggling to survive the humid weather conditions under the sky.
The pathetic state of affairs in the Yatri Niwas too failed to provoke the same set of leaders who had a long history of organising protests during Amarnath yatra season during previous dispensation in the state.
Though known to everyone on the streets of Kashmir valley that despite running a popular government under Mehbooba Mufti, the BJP cabinet ministers have failed to consolidate their grip in the region.
On the contrary, their presence in the strong holds of Kashmir based mainstream political parties often lead to friction between the workers of the political parties leading to more chaotic situation on the ground zero.
It is for this reason majority of BJP cabinet ministers chose to stay away from the valley and the onus of restoring order was entirely shifted on the shoulders of the PDP leaders.
Interestingly, not many in the PDP camp also came out to appeal to the masses to save loss of precious lives. Initially, even the Chief Minister shied away from coming on the surface and fielded her party’s old war horse in the form of Naeem Akhtar to spread passionate appeal on her behalf.
Mehbooba herself came in to the picture only after Delhi adopted the line of reconciliation and sent out a clear message to control the violence on the streets of Kashmir and prevent more civilian causalities in the aftermath of violent protests. Now it remains to be seen whether the BJP ministers are competent enough to help their leader come out of the precarious situation and put the derailed bandwagon back on track or lose direction in the wake of resurgent opposition.
