Drabu was the architect of the PDP-BJP alliance in J&K. He was sacked from the cabinet for his comment that Kashmir is a social, not political issue.
New Delhi: Haseeb Drabu, the articulate, media-savvy face of Mehbooba Mufti’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), was happier in the company of his old friends from the world of finance or the media in New Delhi than sitting in Srinagar or Jammu and playing trouble-shooter for the PDP-BJP government.
The timing and ostensible reason for his ouster from the government, which he was also mainly responsible for cobbling together, may have surprised many; the fact that he has been shunted out won’t.
Ever since Mehbooba’s father and predecessor Mufti Mohammad Sayeed passed away after a brief illness in January 2016 and she took over – after months of dithering and hectic backchannel talks with the BJP – Drabu was not in her good books even though he was appointed finance minister.
Mehbooba’s mistrust
The buzz within the PDP has always been that while the late Mufti liked him, Mehbooba never trusted him completely.
The lack of trust, more on Mehbooba’s part than Drabu’s, was aptly summed up by a senior PDP leader about a year ago. “Mehbooba ji knows he (Drabu) is very close to senior BJP leaders in Delhi and can destablise her government whenever BJP wants. As it is, she isn’t very trusting of her party colleagues, as she thinks they don’t hold her in the same esteem as her father. But Drabu isn’t completely blameless – he is not too discreet about his views about the CM and these things have a way of coming back,” the leader had said.
An economist-turned- Business Standard journalist-turned banker (he was chairman of J&K Bank for a long time in mid-2000s) who then turned politician, Drabu is adept at finding his way around the power-circles of Delhi; the powers that many say control the levers of power in J&K.
Architect of the alliance
Along with BJP general secretary Ram Madhav, Drabu was involved in stitching together the alliance between the two parties – one of which (BJP) draws its strength mainly from the Hindu-dominated Jammu region while the other (PDP) is more Kashmir-centric in its political outlook.
After the 2014 assembly elections in J&K threw up a fractured mandate, the PDP and the BJP entered into an alliance, the contours (popularly known as the ‘Agenda of Alliance’) of which were worked out by Drabu and Madhav over several rounds of secretive meetings, which began after Mufti and the BJP leadership had taken the formal decision to form the government together.
But trouble began after Mufti passed away in January 2016, and his heir Mehbooba came under pressure from the hawks in the party not to continue the alliance. It was again Drabu and Madhav who held several rounds of meetings and finally persuaded Mehbooba – after keeping the post vacant for almost three months – to take over as CM.
However, Mehbooba isn’t like her late father. He was an old-school politician, well-versed in the art of political negotiation, calm, composed; she is much more aggressive, one who doesn’t trust easily, and never for too long.
From day one, there were many in her party who couldn’t digest the growing clout of Drabu, especially in view of his perceived closeness to top central BJP leaders. The knives were never too far from sight.
“On at least two occasions, there were indications that Mehbooba was of the opinion that Drabu was trying to destablise her hold over power, one reason she inducted her hitherto non-political brother Tassaduq Hussain Mufti in the cabinet in December last year. She may have shunted Drabu out from the ministry much earlier had she been sure the BJP wouldn’t object or make life difficult for her,” said a senior J&K bureaucrat.
Beginning of the end?
Drabu himself provided Mehbooba the opportunity via his controversial statement at a conference in New Delhi, where he said Kashmir wasn’t a “political issue” but a society with “social issues”.
Many in J&K feel Mehbooba, waiting for an opportunity to ease him out, leapt at the one provided by Drabu himself.
However, politics in Jammu and Kashmir is nothing if not full of surprises – after all, didn’t the “nationalist” BJP join hands with the “pro-separatist” (an oft-mentioned charge) PDP for the sake of power in J&K?
Drabu may yet make a comeback again; it’s something that can’t be ruled out in view of his closeness to the RSS and the BJP.
Or will his departure hasten the beginning of the end of the PDP-BJP rule in J&K?