Addressing her first rally after losing power, former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said that the alliance with the BJP was like “drinking a cup of poison.” Mehbooba said she had reservations about the alliance with BJP but had fallen in line after her late father Mufti Mohammad Sayeed overruled her, arguing the coalition was to bring development and end sufferings of Kashmiris. On its face, the contention looks good. In fact, this has been a familiar PDP justification for its alliance with the BJP. It has two dimensions: one that the coalition was for the good of the people and for resolving Kashmir. Second, there was no option but to ally with the saffron party considering the nature of the mandate. The arguments did have some resonance when alliance was being forged in 2015 but now when the coalition is over, they look disingenuous. More so, when the two-party government has fallen following the BJP’s withdrawal of support. It can be asked why the PDP itself didn’t pull out support when it saw the coalition going nowhere and the BJP using the government to push its ideological agenda on the state. Or why Mehbooba didn’t have any rethink on the partnership when the BJP-led government at the centre pursued a militaristic approach towards the state.
To be fair to Mehbooba, initially in her dealings with the BJP, she tried to hold onto her political turf. For example, after the sudden demise of her father, she held out for three months before agreeing to renew the alliance with her ideologically divergent partner. She wanted the centre to deliver on some of the mutually agreed commitments in the Agenda of Alliance before renewal of the coalition.
But from the moment she resumed the alliance without BJP giving in to any of her demands for development concessions, the quick unravelling of Mehbooba began. It confirmed to Kashmiris as an article of faith that all that the mainstream leaders sought was power. And that they had little qualms about abandoning their ideological moorings for the same. Mehbooba proved no different than her NC predecessor Omar Abdullah and in fact, in parts turned out to be less effective than him. Mehbooba completely lost it during the five month long unrest that broke out following the killing of the popular militant commander Burhan Wani in 2016. She didnt step down even when close to 100 persons died and several hundred were completely or partially blinded. On the contrary, she made the heartless remarks which almost justified the killings and blindings.
Now for Mehbooba to turn around and claim she drank cup of poison by allying with the BJP is sheer dishonesty. And this is why there are fewer people ready to accept her explanation. If anything she has only lived up to and reinforced the stereotype of a mainstream separatist politician in the Valley. The only way she can hope to regain some faith is by owning up her mistakes and wrongs and promising not to repeat these in future.
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