Mufti Sayeed’s Health

Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed has been in Intensive Care Unit of AIIMS since December 24. He is “sick, requiring oxygen therapy”. A recent statement issued by the hospital said he is “on antibiotics, antifungal drugs and supportive therapy and is being closely monitored by a team of experts”. More media reports about his health have talked about a “severe respiratory tract infection”. This is the second time over the ten months of the state’s PDP-BJP coalition that Mufti’s health issues have kept him from discharging his duties. The CM was flown to New Delhi in a state aircraft when he complained of fever and chest pain. Earlier in August, Mufti was in Delhi for a series of medical check-ups, an unannounced break that set the Valley agog when Mehbooba broke down through a public speech while referring to her father’s illness. Following this, Mufti’s advanced age and health suddenly became a major public concern which he unsuccessfully tried to dispel on his return to state on September 1. He rushed to office from the airport, met some ministers, MLAs and visitors and cleared some files. This did reign in the speculation and rumour but it didn’t put them to rest.  At 79, and weighed down by the age-related health issues, few in J&K believe that Mufti will last the six-year term. And his ongoing treatment at AIIMS has only wrapped Valley in further uncertainty. The obligatory time of recovery could only reinforce a sense of governance vacuum.  More so, in Valley reeling under the harshest period of winter and the shift of Darbar to Jammu.

The CM’s health has also given rise to a fresh talk for a change of guard in the state.  Will Mufti’s recurrent health issues advance the transfer of power to Mehbooba? The answer may be obvious but the partner BJP seems yet to warm up to the idea of Mehbooba’s takeover.  In a recent statement BJP General Secretary Ram Madhav ruled out an imminent transfer, saying Mufti will be Chief Minister for the full term. PDP, on its part, has only fanned such reports with Mufti himself talking of Mehbooba’s worthiness to take over.

But Mehbooba’s ineluctable takeover has become a fraught prospect, not only with BJP which harbours lingering suspicions about her ideological leanings but also within PDP with its share of ambitious senior leaders. However, Mehbooba’s stature as a vaunted mass leader will be too much for them to take on. She is credited with turning PDP from a tentatively forged political party of the out-of-work politicians in 1998 to a formidable mainstream political force which has now even eclipsed once monopolistic National Conference.  But where BJP might take exception is that she has built her political stock by echoing the narrative of the separatist movement, if not its intent, and by playing to the amassed grievances from the human rights excesses through the nineties which NC under Farooq Abdullah was ill-equipped to handle. Mehbooba has been the force behind PDP’s incrementally better electoral showings since.

In case BJP relents and lets Mehbooba take over, the major challenge for her would be to straddle the yawning gulf between the contradictory expectations in New Delhi and Kashmir: to ensure New Delhi’s faith in her politics and to retain credibility in her core constituency in Valley about her middle-of-the-road ideological bonafides.  For now, one hopes and prays that Mufti recovers fast and gets back to his job. But in case he finds it difficult to carry on, there is a need to speed up the change of guard to ensure the delivery of optimum governance.

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