An unmourned alliance exits

THERE were too many failings foretold for the demise of the three-year-old run of the BJP-PDP alliance to be mourned by any of the major players in Kashmir. New Delhi had a long laundry list of grievances; from considering PDP a reluctant ally in ridding Kashmir of militancy to suffering the political humiliation of dropping its ministers following the sordid Asifa rape-and-murder case. The PDP, squirming from an eroding support base, was occasionally inclined to play the separatists’ tune and managed to persuade the Centre into releasing stone-pelters and declaring a Ramzan ceasefire, both of which turned in negligible returns but impacted the BJP’s Hindutva base. 

It wasn’t as if the Centre was doing well in areas where it had a free hand. The inability of the surgical strikes to persuade Pakistan from staying its hand from mayhem and mischief on the border surely cannot be laid on the PDP’s door. In Jammu, where again there is no PDP, the BJP was unable to tame its cadres into observing coalition dharma once its top leadership had negotiated an alliance for governing J&K. The PDP can also hardly be faulted for the Centre’s inability to turn the page with Pakistan, an important intruder in Kashmir. Now that all the excuses about impediments are behind us, New Delhi now has one clear year till the 2019 election to paint Kashmir in the colours of its choice. 

At the same time, New Delhi needs to be mindful of history: Kashmir’s moments of serenity were orchestrated by a confluence of factors including a favourable international situation, near-normalcy with Pakistan and a popularly elected state government largely in sync with New Delhi. In the absence of several of these necessary ingredients and against the backdrop of high voltage election in Pakistan, New Delhi will need to work on several fronts at the same time. Sole reliance on a security-centric approach carries the risk of backfiring if the BJP, with an eye on the 2019 polls, succumbs to the exigencies of playing to the gallery elsewhere in the country.