Srinagar: The alleged discovery of a grenade at a corporator’s house, and suspected vandalism, intoxication and stalking — the unseating of Srinagar mayor Junaid Mattu this week has deteriorated into a truly bizarre drama that has local police confounded.
Mattu, a member of the Peoples Conference, was removed Tuesday as the mayor of the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) following a no-confidence motion. He was elected in 2018 in a local body election boycotted by the National Conference (NC) of the Abdullahs and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of the Muftis.
Over the past few weeks, in the run-up to the vote and since then as well, Mattu has been accused of threatening and intimidating his opponents. Earlier this month, two corporators accused him of intoxicating them at a Srinagar hotel. His name has also been dredged up by rivals, including former deputy mayor Sheikh Imran (who led the no-confidence motion), in an alleged case of vandalism, a purported stalking bid and the discovery of a live grenade at the house of a corporator.
“It has become a royal mess inside the SMC. An unprecedented level of disrepute has been brought to the institution,” a senior government official said.
While Jammu & Kashmir Police have initiated an inquiry into the incidents, no FIR has been registered so far.
Srinagar Senior Superintendent of Police Haseeb Mughal confirmed that police are investigating the matter but said it was too premature to make their findings public. “We are inquiring into all possible angles. That is all I can share for now.”
Mattu, meanwhile, has blamed the whole affair on Imran’s “ambitions”. Imran was the deputy mayor at SMC until he was removed through a no-confidence motion last year.
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Exchange of charges
The SMC council has 74 members but four seats are vacant. In the vote Tuesday, 42 members voted in favour of Imran’s no-confidence motion while 28 abstained.
Given that the SMC is the only elected public institution that continues to function in J&K, which has been without an elected government since the PDP-BJP alliance collapsed in June 2018, it has become a hub of political activity.
The no-confidence motion that led to Mattu’s unseating is at least the second such bid since 2019, when the BJP was accused of trying to lead a bid to remove him.
With several senior leaders detained at the time, on account of the detention exercise that followed the Modi government’s Article 370 revocation move, there were allegations that the BJP’s local unit was taking advantage of the uncertainty in the Valley to “stoke a rebellion” within the SMC.
The fresh allegations lend this months-long drama a new turn.
Among the incidents that are being looked at by police is the recovery of a live grenade from the residence of an SMC corporator named Naziya, who was among the 42 who voted against Mattu, in the days after the vote.
“There are many angles police are looking into. One is the possibility of the individual herself orchestrating the entire incident and number two that it is a genuine case of political violence,” said a senior police officer.
“But the disturbing part in both the scenarios is the grenade itself, which might take the investigation into a different territory altogether. The question that needs to be answered is how the grenade was procured in the first place or if there are any militant links involved,” the officer added.
“There are no militant bases or insurgent safe havens in Srinagar and that makes the recovery of the grenade a murky affair.”
Furthermore, Imran and some corporators alleged at a press conference that he was being followed by “some men in a grey Santro car”. A second police officer told ThePrint that the three men had been apprehended “but nothing incriminating was found in the car”.
However, Imran has claimed that it couldn’t be a coincidence that one of the three men is the brother of a corporator from Peoples Conference, and alleged a conspiracy. Asked about the apprehensions, the second senior police officer said one of the men apprehended had a history of crime and it “was not completely impossible that they were indeed following Imran”.
That’s not it. Two corporators claimed at the same press conference that Mattu had called them for a meeting at a Srinagar hotel and allegedly intoxicated them. While one of the corporators was not affected by the intoxication, “the second one remained in a near unconscious state for days”. Another corporator said her car was vandalised in the days following the SMC vote, in a move she described as political vendetta
“We want police to investigate all the matters and let the public know the truth. All the corporators who voted against the former mayor are being targeted. We voted out corruption and nepotism,” Imran told ThePrint.
Mattu, however, said Imran’s moves were detrimental to democracy in Kashmir, which “is already in a fragile state”.
“If there is instability in a democratic institution due to two different ideologies, it is fine, but if an organisation is destabilised because of one man (Imran) who keeps defaming me, it is problematic,” Mattu said. “The exemplary work we were doing to fight Covid-19 has been held hostage due to ambitions of this one man. This is poisonous for democracy,” he added.
Mattu said he had visited the house of the corporator where the grenade was discovered.
“I am concerned about her safety and the safety of others. I have also appealed that the case be thoroughly investigated. I make an appeal to everyone to not use these young children, who have participated in grassroots democracy under unforeseen circumstances, for political gimmicks,” he added.
Background
The SMC council comprises corporators affiliated to various political parties, including the Congress, the National Conference (NC), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peoples Conference (PC) of Sajad Lone.
Of the current 70 members, 17 belong to the Congress and four to the BJP. The PC, which was not allotted a party symbol ahead of the 2018 local body elections, fielded its candidates as Independents. Around 22 council members, including the mayor and his deputy, have expressed their affiliation to the PC.
The NC and the PDP had boycotted the urban local body elections but some of the corporators declared their affiliation to both the parties after the polls.
Following the vote, Mattu took to Twitter to accuse the BJP and the NC of forging an alliance to remove him, a charge strongly denied by the National Conference.
The “independent Corporators” ploy has been repeatedly abused to hide a covert nexus between two political parties:
Here are the floor numbers in SMC:
1. @JKPC_ – 16
2. @INCIndia – 16
3. @BJP4India – 4 (+5)
4. @JKNC_ – 11
5. LJP – 1That makes 53. Leaves 17!
1/2
— Junaid Azim Mattu (@Junaid_Mattu) June 17, 2020
The former deputy mayor Imran, who was among the political leaders detained last August, was removed after a similar no-confidence motion was moved against him last year. Imran has claimed earlier that the motion was orchestrated by Mattu in alliance with the Congress.
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