PDP president Mehbooba Mufti has a flair for doingunconventional things in politics, and she did it again last weekend when shedissolved the Political Affairs Committee of the party to give a jolt to thewould be exiters from the party, but instead she gave a jolt to her ownleadership. This may read like harsh commentary on the leadership of formerChief Minister who was groomed very carefully by her illustrious father MuftiMohammad Sayeed.
There come tough moments in the life of each and every politicalparty. Bhartiya Janta Party that was reduced to two seats in the Parliament in1984 when Congress won unprecedented majority in the general election held within weeks after the assassination of PrimeMinister Indira Gandhi, is ruling the country with a huge majority withNarendra Modi as Prime Minister of the country. Congress had lost in 1989polls, but bounced back in 1991, and with a bigger majority in 2004 and 2009.
Closer home, there were times when National Conferencebecame a pariah. It suffered the most during the militancy, and there was aspate of resignations from the party. The workers feared for their life . Theywere not only subjected to the bullets but the party leaders had to hear theunprintable language all over. Farooq Abdullah could not shut the abusive noisecoming from the loudspeakers fitted right across her home in Gupkar Road in Srinagar. There was a plot to makehim flee the place, so that it could be exploited that the NC leader and son of Sher-e-Kashmir ( Lion ofKashmir) Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah fled the land and left the people in lurch.
He showed real perseverance and the qualities of being aleader who could overcome all the adversities stacked against him and his party. He returned mobilized the workers atthe time when being an NC member was courting death warrant . These werehorrifying times.
Mufti Sayeed was attacked in Bijbehara, and the irony was thatthe police in 1994 did not list it as an attack. He was undeterred and carriedon with his work on the ground . He worked relentlessly, and who would know itbetter than Mehbooba Mufti that how he confronted challenges and overcame thesewith his political acumen and a big quality of carrying the team along. He hadpolitical bio-data of every person around him and he always wanted more peoplewhom he could consult and interact over serious issues. He was a politician parexcellence, but never lost sight of the real issues. In 2009 , when he was outof power , he would give voice to his worries that the Valley was sufferingfrom water crisis . The situation in kandi areas was extremely worrisome . Hewould talk and listen to others. Thatwas an inspiring quality in him.
These are qualities of real leaders. Leadership is tested inthe adverse times not in the happy moments.
The dissolution of the PAC is the prerogative of the party’sleadership .If she felt that there were solid reasons to do so, then thisdecision should be seen in that light only. But what cannot be ignored is thetiming of her decision , within a day after her Pulwama district PresidentKhalil Bandh quit the party and observed that the senior leaders werehumiliated by the party leadership after the death of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. Now he has joined National Conference. It is not about Imran Ansari and other former legislators like BasharatBukhari , Mohammad Abbas Wani who quitthe party on their own . The case of party treasurer Altaf Bukhari wasdifferent. He was expelled from the party for challenging the leadership andtelling it to own the defeat and drift in the party . Whether or not he wasambitious is not the point, the moot issue is that where was the consultation process all along . It istrue that Mehbooba Mufti is a leader who was considered as an iron lady for shehad displayed all the courage to stand against all odds . She faced difficultsituation and the party stood by her at the time when she was out of power after the party could not make it to power after the 2008elections . The fact that comes to mind is that her father was alive an afterhis death Mehbooba could neither reconcile to the loss that indeed wasirreparable nor could she carry alongthe party as a whole with her. Something was missing or certain incidents and individuals wereinserted in her scheme of things, including her brother Tassaduq Mufti, thather plans went astray.
Everything is not lost for her. She can bounce back, butthen she has to be patient, because PDP was not just a group of individuals. Itrepresented an idea of alternate regional party that could fight the otherregional forces and also join hands tofight jointly against the assault on what she had called special status of theState. That is at risk of getting lost.