Mehbooba Mufti: Under Siege

Buffeted by insurgency and dissent within her party, Mehbooba Mufti needs all the help she can get from a reluctant centre.

- Asit Jolly

FAIRVIEW, JAMMU AND KASHMIR CHIEF MINISTER

Mehbooba Mufti Sayeed’s official residence at the far end of Srinagar’s Gupkar Road, with its freshly painted and varnished facades and neatly manicured lawns, has never looked better. But in stark contrast to the headier times, when the late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed led his People’s Democratic Party to power in partnership with the Bharatiya Janata Party two years ago, there’s a discernible despondency to the place. It also reflects in Mehbooba’s grudging smile as she greets visitors to her home. Thirteen tumultuous months since she reluctantly agreed to succeed her father on April 4, 2016, J&K’s first and only woman chief minister has her back to the wall. This amid civil unrest that simply refuses to ebb, an increasingly obdurate central government that has rejected any possible dialogue with the separatists, murmurs of rebellion in the party and rapidly shrinking support in the PDP’s hitherto unchallenged bastion of South Kashmir.

Close to 90 civilians were killed in the unremitting violence that consumed the Valley last year as ferocious street protests were met with brutal response after the young militant icon Burhan Wani was killed in an encounter on July 8. Over 15,000, including police, paramilitary and army personnel, were injured. Scores of youngsters, including innocent bystanders like young schoolgirl Insha Malik, were blinded by pellets raining from pump-action shotguns deployed to quell the protests.

The brief pause in the violence through the winter freeze now threatens to spiral into yet another cycle of unending strife.