PDP-BJP alliance in the state of Jammu and Kashmir had nothing in the common. It was full of contradictions and was expected to fall apart any time as it was proving counterproductive for both the parties, ethically as well as politically. BJP was losing the ground in the Hindu dominated Jammu province while PDP was losing its base within the Muslim predominant province of Kashmir.
In the year 2014 when the general election were held in the state BJP had won all it’s 25 seats from the Jammu region while PDP had managed to win as many as 26 seats from the Kashmir Valley. The two parties had earlier on as well maintained a similar kind of a lead during the parliamentary elections held in the state. As a result of this two parties had no option but to forge an alliance to form a much needed stable government in the state.
Mufti Muhammad Sayeed was initially reluctant to get into such any alliance, and took a long time to deliberate on this issue. He became disillusioned with this alliance shortly after he was sworn in as the Chief Minister of the state, second time round. He was not at all happy with it during his last days in power. Particularly when Mr. Modi had said in their first ever public meeting together that he does not need any body’s advice on how to deal with the Kashmir but will be guided by his own instincts and deal with it on his own terms and in his own way.
It was for this reason that Mehbooba Mufti was herself not keen on continuing this alliance when she took over as the next CM of the state after her father’s sad demise. But ultimately she had to give in because of the pressure built up from within the party by some of her colleagues who began to lose patience and were all set to explore other possibilities to regain their lost power. Therefore she chose to step in on a bare promise that the agenda alliance between the two parties will be followed up and taken to its logical end. A promise as usual meant to be broken.
Therefore despite two stints in power, one under the leadership of Mufti Muhammad Sayeed and another under his daughter, the two parties failed to reconcile their political and ideological differences. They were poles apart then and have remained so even now. Mufti Saheb was quite right when he had called it an alliance between North and South pole. As the two parties have accomplished nothing except for sharing of power to the dismay and disadvantage of the both the parties.
PDP on its part may have tried its best to persuade its BJP partners that Kashmir was a political issue and needed to be addressed politically. Nonetheless the BJP and Mr. Modi himself continued to assert that Kashmir is nothing but a socio-economic problem which can be addressed by development and development alone. This basic policy contradiction, cost ex-finance minster Haseeb A Drabu his job although it was he who had been instrumental in bringing about this alliance between the two parties despite of their sharp policy and political differences.
Mehbooba Mufti on her part has missed many opportunities to call it a day and snap her ties with the BJP in order to relieve herself from carrying the burden of BJP and day to day killings on her shoulders for too long. While as BJP has taken up her by surprise and terminated their alliance with her midway.
Whether or not BJP or any other party or person may gain from it remains to be seen. But for now the state has come under third consecutive term of governor’s rule which is expected to last for a longer period this time, or at least till the BJP may manage to install an alternative government in the state with the help of some other likeminded persons or parties from wherever they come.
Be it as it may , state in the past has not seen any let up in the situation and nor is there any such likelihood any time soon.
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