SR. PDP LEADER’S SANER ADVICE TO MEHBOOBA
Raj Daluja
With Peoples’ Democratic Party authorising President Mehbooba Mufti to take a final call on the government formation in Jammu and Kashmir, in the wake of Mufti Mohammed Sayeed led PDP-BJP Government coming to an end on 7th January following his death, political equations seem to be fast changing. For the past eleven days, it was BJP that made every desperate bid to have the previous arrangement continued and the new government Mehbooba Mufti installed. But Mehbooba Mufti resisted. Now that decks had almost been cleared, the BJP high command flexed muscles, asked its ‘restive Jammu Unit’ to wait and watch and even went to saying that ‘PDP should make a first move now’. Unless a face saver, and that too with the approval of all powerful Mehbooba Mufti, the purported warning has all the potential to boomerang and turnout counterproductive for the saffron squad.
The delay in the formation of the government has given birth to so many questions. The first and foremost being as to who is going to benefit from PDP-BJP alliance. The answer is simple! All but the PDP!
The major beneficiary would be the Jammu Unit of BJP, which has nothing to lose because whatever damage it had to suffer has already been caused. Now, aligning with PDP means accomplishment of the mission that was cut short by the demise of Mufti Sayeed. For BJP it is now and never. So unscrupulous among the beneficiaries would like to amass as much as they can and benefit whosoever falls in this list of favourites. As far as the party is concerned, it stands already buried.
The Congress has both short and long term benefits from the continuation of PDP-BJP Government. To the pleasant surprise of its leaders, the omissions and commission and failures of most of the ministers have compelled the people of Jammu region to realise that the Congress was far lesser an evil. They cherish the days when their representatives used to be accessible and always ready to solve their problems. Intriguing it may be, but the fact remains that even now the people look towards former Congress ministers and legislators for redressing their grievances. For the euphoric supporters of BJP, the past ten months’ governance has been nightmarish. The three successful Bandhs in the strong bastion of Sangh Parivar last year are unprecedented and unparallel. This has exuded confidence among Congressmen about a favourable political atmosphere for the party in any election held now onwards. The Congress is yet to forget that Hindu heartland didn’t give them a single seat in both Parliamentary and Assembly elections in 2014.
The regional parties of Jammu, especially the JKNPP, are also going to benefit from the continuation of PDP-BJP alliance, as more the saffronised ministers shall get exposed because of their non-performance and ‘other avocations’ more it shall benefit them. The JKNPP is nurturing venom, as its star performers are outside the Assembly which has made Jammu voice feeble.
More than Congress and the other regional parties, National Conference has a huge stake in continuation of the PDP-BJP alliance. If broken, it will turn turtle its apple-cast. Aligning with BJP has cost the PDP its credibility and acceptance among the people of Kashmir-its core support base. The party that was being seen and perceived as representative voice of the Valley is fading and falling like a dry Chinar leave. Some of the ace party leaders have been ringing alarm bells since the times of Mufti Mohammed Sayeed. Therefore, continuation of the past ten-month’ arrangement is going well with the NC plan. It will not only improve its fortunes in the Valley but get additional bonus from Jammu where it managed two crucial seats in the Hindu heartland despite Narendra Modi tsunami. For the first time, the NC was seen spearheading agitation and protests against BJP in its stronghold. The massive reception accorded to Dr Farooq Abdullah by the business community at the heritage Kanak Mandi has elated his party workers and unnerved the BJP.
The PDP is not unaware of this. The Mufti’s PDP will perhaps love to lose to Congress or JKNPP but it finds NC as a red rag, which is why Mehbooba Mufti is in a state of dilemma with regard to formation of the government.
Days ahead are too crucial for Mehbooba Mufti to decide and difficult for Omar Abdullah to make her rush the swearing-in, so that the well-crafted strategy of National Conference gets executed without hassles. The way out lies in a saner advice of a senior PDP leader who has urged Mehbooba Mufti not to think about forming government for next four to five months and instead go to people explaining them the motivation Mufti Sayeed had to align with the BJP for larger good of the State and the people. He has suggested her to also explain how BJP ditched the PDP and betrayed-rather back-stabbed- by not keeping commitments. The senior PDP leader wants Mehbooba Mufti to tell to the people that since the mandate to PDP had been fractured, it could not deliver the way the party had wished. This, the PDP strategists believe, will help in putting the sequence of events in right perspective that led to forming the government then and not rushing to repeat it again now.
