J&K CM convenes meeting of senior PDP leaders and MLAs to discuss the open support given by BJP ministers and leaders to the alleged rapists & murderers.
New Delhi: The People’s Democratic Party (PDP)-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) coalition government in Jammu & Kashmir could be on the edge.
Chief minister Mehbooba Mufti has convened a meeting of her party’s senior leaders and legislators in Srinagar Saturday to discuss the PDP’s options in view of the open support given by senior BJP leaders, including two ministers in her government, to the alleged rapists and killers of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua.
The chief minister is learnt to have also conveyed her anguish to the BJP high command, stating that if the saffron party didn’t cooperate with the coalition partner in delivering justice to the victim, she might be forced to end the three-year-old coalition. She is also said to be under extreme pressure to sack the two ministers—forest minister Chaudhary Lal Singh and industries and commerce minister Chander Prakash Ganga—who had taken part in a rally by Hindu Ekta Manch in support of the alleged rapists.
“Mehbooba ji has given an ultimatum to the BJP to support her in delivering justice to the eight-year-old-girl who was gangraped and murdered in Kathua. If they fail to do so, the PDP will take a call on pulling out of the alliance. The entire leadership of the PDP is anguished and that’s why a meeting of the party has been called to discuss the way forward,” a PDP insider told ThePrint.
“She (Mehbooba) has tried her best to get the promises made to the people fulfilled. She repeatedly requested New Delhi to start a dialogue with Pakistan but there has been no response.”
Another issue on the agenda at Saturday’s meeting is the issue of killings of civilians by security forces, which drew angry reactions from the people in the Valley.
A stormy coalition
The PDP and the BJP, which entered into a coalition arrangement to form the government in 2015, have had a stormy relationship since the beginning, given the ideological and political chasm between the PDP, a Valley-based party, and the saffron party that calls itself a champion of Hindu nationalism.
Following the death of chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, in 2016, Mehbooba, a known hard-liner, made the BJP wait for about three months before giving her consent to continue the coalition and take over the reins of the state. The inherent contradiction in this coalition government, however, resulted in frequent face-offs between partners, which have had a bearing on the development programmes in the state. The Kathua horror has only sharpened the differences between the two allies.
Mehbooba broke her silence on the gruesome Kathua rape-and-murder case, saying that she will bring in a new law that makes death penalty mandatory for those who rape minors in the state.
“We will never ever let another child suffer in this way. We will bring a new law that will make the death penalty mandatory for those who rape minors,” she tweeted Thursday evening.
“I want to assure the entire nation that I stand committed not just to ensure justice but also seek exemplary punishment for those responsible for a crime whose brutal savagery has shamed humanity.”
What brought things to breaking point
Divisions in the PDP-BJP government over the handling of the incident surfaced after the two ministers, Singh and Ganga, criticised the police for arresting “one or the other person at will” and demanding that the case be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), a move that has put the chief minister in an embarrassing situation.
The Hindu Ekta Manch recently held a rally to oppose the settlement of Gujjar and Bakerwal tribes in Kathua and demand the release of a police officer arrested in connection with the incident. Vijay Sharma, state BJP secretary, was part of the march.
“The ministers who attended the rally were sent by the party (BJP) to talk and address the people. They would have been sacked had they not gone there. Before they are ministers in Mehbooba Mufti’s cabinet, they are members of the BJP,” Ashok Kaul, the state general secretary of the BJP, told ThePrint.
Rejecting the charge that the issue was being made “communal”, he said that when civilians in Kashmir protested during encounters to “help the militants escape”, no one called that communal, but if demands were made in Jammu, “the issue is looked at as communal”.
One analyst said the PDP’s decision to join hands with the BJP had obviously gone wrong and was showing.
“There is a clear division between PDP and BJP. Basically, they are unequal partners and she is the weaker party in this alliance. She expected generosity from her alliance partner BJP but the latter did not reciprocate,” Kashmir-based political analyst Noor Ahmed Baba told ThePrint.
“This alliance was a risk for the PDP, and now it reflects the obvious. The decision has gone wrong for it,” he added.
Recently, Mufti dropped the architect of PDP-BJP alliance Haseeb Drabu from the cabinet following his controversial remark that Kashmir is not a political issue. Mufti and Drabu had been at loggerheads over many issues and Drabu had grown closer to the alliance partner, the BJP.
Ammo for opposition
The chink in the ruling coalition has given a handle to opposition parties to target them. Former chief minister Omar Abdullah sought action against the two BJP ministers without naming them. He tweeted, “Action by @JmuKmrPolice against the Kathua mob masquerading as lawyers let’s not forget the mob were emboldened by the actions/words of two BJP ministers in @MehboobaMufti’s cabinet. What about action against them?”
While Mufti’s PDP has been backing the state crime branch investigation, her alliance partner BJP is a part of the chorus in demanding the case to be handed over to the CBI. At a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi Monday, Mehbooba had assured a fair probe into the incident by the state police.
The same day, the crime branch filed the chargesheet at Kathua’s chief judicial magistrate’s court, leading to massive protests and blockade by the bar association of Kathua. As the chilling details about the execution of the rape and murder created an uproar, the opposition blamed Mufti, saying that “not taking action against the two BJP ministers emboldened the lawyers”.
“The communal tensions in Jammu are a result of the incapability of the chief minister. Her silence and non-action has emboldened the lawyers, who resisted the filing of the chargesheet in the most horrific crime in this time,” National Conference general secretary and MLA, Ali Mohammad Sagar, told ThePrint.
“She has not been able to control her government and rather surrendered to the BJP completely. She should have sacked the two ministers long back but not doing so has resulted in her complete failure as the chief minister.”
Saving her future
Mufti, who was known as a firebrand opposition leader, has been relatively subdued since taking over as chief minister, and refrained from taking any firm stand against the BJP publicly despite growing differences, be it the raids by National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Hurriyat leaders or the lodging of an FIR against the Army for alleged civilian killings. The chasm between the two has only widened with the ongoing cycle of unrest across the valley over the Kathua incident.
Mufti had adopted a soft separatist stand on issues of militancy when she was out of power. She would often travel to the treacherous interiors to mourn with families of those killed — mainly militants. This earned her the sobriquet of “rudaali” (professional mourner) from her political opponents.
Since the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani, many incidents, including the use of pellets against protesters, and civilian killings are perceived to have undermined her popularity in her stronghold in south Kashmir.
Political observers believe that Mehbooba can no longer afford to tolerate the BJP’s increasingly aggressive political tactics in the state. A hardening of stance over the Kathua incident might help her salvage her declining political fortunes in the Valley.
On Wednesday, BJP leader in-charge of party affairs in Jammu & Kashmir, Ram Madhav, sought to soothe the frayed tempers in the PDP camp, condemning the Kathua incident and also the attempts to “communalise” it. The PDP is, however, unlikely to pipe down unless the saffron party withdraws the two ministers from the government, according to PDP sources.
thanks to the author for taking his time on this one.
This fire and ice coalition could have been an inspired moment in bringing peace and calm to Kashmir, starting with a sincere dialogue with both the Hurriyat and Pakistan, as promised in the Agenda for Alliance. Mufti Saheb had experience and seniority, but Mehboobaji is struggling. No one is making life easy for her. It is just a question of timing and an appropriate issue on which to impale the inevitable.