Vijay Gupta
Although the package of overtures, announced by Mufti Mohammad Sayeed immediately after taking over as Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir for the pro militant lobby in Kashmir valley, did carry an unwritten statutory warning – for consumptution in Kashmir valley only, it did invoke a not so unexpected response from rest of the country. A disgruntled partner of the ruling NDA
Government in centre – the Shiv Sena, did a fine job of fanning it into a massive outrage.
The TV channels had a field day, in fact many field days, bisecting the oddity of BJP/PDP alliance and also speculating on its ‘imminent’ break up. Both the Media and Shiv Sena interalia provided a much needed back up to Mufti for achieving a desired target of emerging as the most popular leader in the Valley. Eventually, the alliance has passed its litmus test and warded off successfully the Ides of March. The alliance stays put and all credit goes to the architects of the CMP of BJP/PDP Alliance. These architects took their time but in the end crafted it well.
Paradoxically Mufti’s detractors in the Valley suddenly found that they have no live ammunition in their armoury. To their dismay they found that Mufti has deftly removed the fuses. The much planned jingoistic rhetoric by his detractors simply passed as wind.
The reasons for making these overtures, however, are not too far to seek. We need to revisit the election mandate 2014. The PDP has won 28 seas- a number which was seven less than the minimum of thirty five PDP had expected to win. From among these 28 as many as a dozen have barely managed to the goal post. This group, low on confidence, constituted a soft target for Mufti’s detractors in the Valley who covertly had been proactive in their effort to destabilize any alliance with the Hindu BJP. A think tank in NC had even prepared a list of 20 odd constituencies which they had lost to PDP and Congress Party candidates by very small margins. This think tank had nourished a fond hope that in the event of re-elections they would focus on these and win them back and along with their safe seats emerge as front runner for forming a Government. This vulnerable group within PDP also needed the confidence which accrued to them from Mufti’s planned overtures.
A Valley centric package in the very first week of his second tenure as CM, however, has dented considerably his constituency in Jammu Province. It needs to be emphasized once again that Mufti’s popularity graph had been growing steadily up in Jammu Province. Mufti’s outreach to people of Jammu has not gone unnoticed. In fact during election campaign and after the results were out a large number of BJP sympathizers had no hesitation in admitting, privately though, that Mufti Mohammad Sayeed would be a far better Chief Minister. Many non partisan admirers of Mufti, considerably vocal and influential too, now feel isolated as well as embarrassed.
Presently the entire 25-member BJP Legislature Party is now seen standing with Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and so do the people of Kashmir Province, but some efforts need to be made to put some balm on the singed feelings of Jammu people.
An equally bold initiative for Jammu Province may not be possible in the present scenario but the Mufti can win the hearts of Jammuites by unraveling the PDP “Jammu Vision Document” which he had promised in early September 2014 while addressing a large gathering of Jammu glitter and glitterati.
A balancing act is the need of hour.
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