Mehbooba a hard nut to crack

Arun Joshi
Tribune News Service
Srinagar, October 15

More than any other detained leader, it is the PDP chief and former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, the government is scared of in the current situation.

Given the current situation and the potential of leaders to summon people to the streets, Mehbooba Mufti figures on top of the list, according to official sources monitoring the utterances and activities of the leaders in detention.

“She will prove problematic,” said a highly placed source. The PDP chief, according to him, had not given up on her plans to agitate in the streets against the abrogation of Article 370.

Mehbooba Mufti is mulling her plan of action and has given expression of that while in detention. She is relentless. She has not softened her attitude and is quite adamant on protesting against the abrogation of Article 370, the sources said.

Mehbooba, who was the Chief Minister of the PDP-BJP alliance government from April 2016 to June 2018, had been warning the Centre of dire consequences against tampering with the special status of J&K. In her last public speech, before she was detained on the mid-night of August 4 and 5, on July 28 marking the 20th anniversary of founding of her party, she had declared “anyone attempting to fiddle with the special status would perish”.

The government’s attempts to reach out to her and soften her stand, a report on the detained leaders, the sources said, had yielded no results.

About two former chief ministers – Farooq Abdullah and his son Omar Abdullah, who are detained at separate places –about 1000 yards apart on Gupkar Road, Srinagar, the report says, they may be less troublesome on their release, though senior Abdullah has been booked under the PSA.

Gradually, the government has started releasing some of the detained leaders as the authorities are gauging the situation on their release. The government is counting this as a positive sign.

The government had allowed a National Conference delegation from Jammu to meet Farooq Abdullah on October 6 and had also permitted a PDP delegation to meet Mehbooba Mufti, though it was deferred, to send a message that there was no restriction of the political workers meeting their leaders.

“We knew that they will not take part in the Block Development Council polls, but we wanted to facilitate their meeting with their party workers,” the source said.

These sources disclosed that the political leaders would be set free in phases. But Mehbooba Mufti may have to stay longer in detention given her current mood of aggression.