Mehbooba: Not shocked, PDP wasn’t in alliance for power

Majid Jahangir

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, June 19

Shortly after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) pulled out of the J&K coalition government, which came as a surprise to its alliance partner PDP, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti submitted her resignation to Governor NN Vohra. 

After her exit, Mehbooba said she was not "shocked" by the BJP decision and made it clear that the Peoples Democratic Party was not looking to explore any fresh alliance.

“I am not shocked by the decision of the BJP to pull out of the alliance,” Mehbooba said at a press briefing after an emergency meeting of the PDP top leadership at her Gupkar residence this afternoon.

She said her party had not formed the coalition with the BJP for power. “We had not done it for power. Had we done that, there were numbers with the NC (National Conference) and the Congress but we did it for some objective,” she said, adding that “we tried our best to continue in the alliance”.

Mehbooba, who had taken over as the first woman Chief Minister of the Muslim-majority J&K in April, 2016, further said that 

the PDP had entered into an alliance with BJP “after much thought”.

“We had gone for this alliance after much thought and with the thought that the big party will help bridge the gap between the two regions. Our alliance was not liked by people but the ideas, for which it was made, were bigger. These included talks with Pakistan, ceasefire, reconciliation and confidence-building measures,” she added.

Mehbooba said they had defended the special status, Articles 370 and 35A and withdrawn cases against 11,000 youth.

“The Prime Minister visited Pakistan for talks but the initiative could not be taken forward. Even the ceasefire was not positively responded to,” she said. 

Mehbooba stressed that mascular policy would not work in Kashmir. “This was the reason we went for the unilateral ceasefire. We dealt with the Kathua rape-murder case and we tried our best,” she said, adding that “one can’t treat Jammu and Kashmir as an enemy territory”.

Taken by surprise 

The news about the BJP pulling out of the alliance came as a complete surprise to Mehbooba Mufti and her party leaders. She was at the civil secretariat when the news started making the rounds of the possible BJP pullout. She returned to her Gupkar residence around 2 pm. The Chief Minister later headed to the secretariat. After the news about the BJP decision became public, she called her senior party leaders and ministers at her residence and discussed the party’s immediate response. Mehbooba sent her resignation letter to the Governor through a party leader.

What Chief Minister said

• One can’t treat Jammu and Kashmir as an enemy territory
• We had gone for this alliance after much thought and with the thought that the big party will help bridge the gap between the two regions
• Our alliance was not liked by people, but the ideas, for which it was made, were bigger. These included talks with Pakistan, ceasefire, reconciliation and confidence-building measures
• We defended the special status, Articles 370 and 35A and withdrew cases against 11,000 youth

806 days of Mehbooba govt

• December 29, 2014: Five-phase polls end; PDP wins 28 seats, BJP 25 in Kashmir and Jammu divisions, respectively; no party gets clear majority
• March 1, 2015: PDP-BJP Agenda of Alliance comes into effect; PDP’s Mufti Mohammad Sayeed takes oath as CM of PDP-BJP coalition government
• January 7, 2016: Mufti Sayeed passes away; Mehbooba refuses to take over; Governor’s Rule imposed
• April 4: Mehbooba takes over as CM, carries on with Agenda of Alliance; Governor’s Rule ends
• June 19: By-polls to Mufti Sayeed’s Anantnag Assembly seat held
• June 25: Mehbooba wins seat; resigns from Anantnag Lok Sabha seat
• July 8: Hizb commander Burhan Wani killed in Anantnag encounter, triggers six-month-long Kashmir unrest
• May 16, 2018: Centre announces suspension of anti-militant operations during Ramzan
• June 17: A day after Eid-ul-Fitr, Centre announces revocation of Ramzan ceasefire
• June 19: BJP central leadership decides to pull out of coalition govt with PDP 

Seven times under Guv’s rule

• March 1977: Governor’s Rule imposed for first time after Congress withdrew support to government headed by NC founder Sheikh Abdullah
• March 1986: Imposed second time after Cong withdrew support from government led by Ghulam Mohammad Shah of Awami National Conference 
• January 1990: State again came under Governor’s Rule after resignation by then Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah
• October 2002: Imposed fourth time when then caretaker Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah refused to continue after his party’s defeat in Assembly elections
• July 2008: Imposed for 174 days when PDP withdrew support from Ghulam Nabi Azad-led Congress-PDP government over the Amarnath land row
• January 2015: Governor’s Rule was back after the state election results threw up a hung Assembly
• January 2016: The final instance came following the death of incumbent Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed