Alliance was bound to fail: Kashmiris

Ishfaq Tantry

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, June 19

The residents of the Kashmir valley are viewing the falling of the Mehbooba Mufti-led coalition government as the failure of the experiment of the PDP patron, late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, who by aligning with the BJP three years ago had dreamt of bringing the North Pole and South Pole together.

Locals opined that the alliance was “bound to fail” as it brought in more “alienation, anger and sufferings”, with no end in sight to the vexed Kashmir issue.

“The move to break the alliance with the BJP should have been initiated by the PDP. The party has already lost its ground by being in alliance with the BJP,” said Abdul Rasheed Lone, a resident from the remote Magam village in Handwara in north Kashmir.

“This was an unholy alliance and it should not have been there in the first place. Now, the BJP has outsmarted Mehbooba and has started preparing its ground in Jammu ahead of the 2019 election. It took the decision because the region was already slipping out of its hands,” said Sheikh Tariq from Bemina.

“This must have been a well-designed and thought-out plan as the alliance proved to be detrimental for both the parties. It was just an opportunistic alliance where both the parties had dreamt of strengthening their positions in their respective territories but ultimately, it ended badly,” Tariq added.

Bilal Ahmad from Srinagar wrote on Twitter: “This was a big slap for the PDP.” “The BJP always used the PDP under the false Agenda of Alliance. When their interests were met, they threw away the PDP as a tissue paper. It is an eye-opener for all parties in Kashmir,” Bilal posted.

“People, particularly those in the south Kashmir area, are actually liking the BJP for dumping the PDP,” Habeel Iqbal, a young lawyer from the volatile Shopian told The Tribune.

“The locals are really fed up and disappointed with the government. It has failed in all departments and hence it’s a joy to see their faces turn red,” he added.