Mehbooba Mufti’s unending challenges after Kathua case

Arun Joshi

Tribune News Service

Jammu, April 21

The challenges for the PDP-BJP government, particularly of Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, have multiplied manifold after the communalisation and politicisation of the Kathua rape and murder case that has dented the image of the country.

She is shocked the way the whole thing has been twisted into a communal and political frame.

Mehbooba had spoken to Prime Minister Narendra Modi that how “two ministers and some other BJP leaders participated in pro-rapist rallies with a flag (Tricolour) in hand. He was fully shocked about it.”

She took up the matter with the BJP leadership, reiterating her own conviction that these ministers had to go. With the victim’s case in the court and the BJP making its two ministers quit, the challenges should have diminished. But they have not.

The primary reason is that things have not gone the way that the alliance partners, particularly the PDP, had envisaged. Her late father Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s experience of working with the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee from 2002 onwards had made situation better.

But, she feels that this time the situation was very different from that time. Unfortunately, the things have changed globally too and that have had impact on the mindset of the young people as is happening everywhere around the world, especially in the Muslim countries. This has proved to be a hurdle in the PDP-led alliance taking off, like in 2002-2005. Hence it is not a good situation.

What has added to her problems is that the peace process that was initiated from 2003 onwards and the confidence-building measures that were taken then had had a great impact on the ground situation.

Everything had moved in a positive way — ceasefire on borders, opening of dialogue process with all stakeholders, including separatists and Pakistan, and the opening of roads.

“This came to a standstill at some point of time after the transfer of power (post-November 2005 when Mufti Sayeed stepped down and Ghulam Nabi Azad took over as Chief Minister),” felt the CMwhile recalling the old days. The momentum was lost somewhere and the chance and opportunity that was there during Parvez Musharraf’s time and the UPA tenure was lost. There was nothing that could have acted as a balm from where Mufti Sayeed left. The 2008 Amarnath land row only became a turning point.

Mehbooba is not shy of admitting that when she started her political career in 1996, the challenges were less than what she faces today. There are both external (borders are alive) and internal challenges (new dimensions of militancy and villagers thronging encounter sites). It is true that so many things are happening all at once. She is not responsible for these but it is something that had been building up over the years.

She sums up it like this, “When my father took over in 2002, people were really fed up with crackdowns. search operations, and wherever there was an encounter, they would leave their homes. Now it is different. Now people are not scared of anything.” So it has become a huge challenge for her.

So many forces have got unleashed that the government’s steps are not making much impact. Centre’s special representative Dineshwar Sharma wants to talk to people all, but things are not happening the way they should.

It looks that the situation is captive to something which one is not able to put finger on. Youth are involved in protests, their education is suffering. Nobody seems to be thinking about all these things. It is like that grab an issue and storm the roads. Her challenge mainly stems from, which she notes with a regret, that despite the Kathua case having been solved, Kashmir students are still on roads.