Will Mehbooba Mufti Stay With Her Father’s Decision?

Jammu and Kashmir waits for a functioning government as PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti continues to be in a dilemma over her party’s alliance with the BJP. 

- Shujaat Bukhari

Jammu and Kashmir has gone without an elected government for more than a month now. The State came under Governor’s rule after incumbent Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed passed away on January 7 and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) leader and Mufti Sayeed’s daughter, Mehbooba Mufti, refused to assume charge as Chief Minister. Party leaders first claimed that she was reluctant to take the oath of office since the oath-taking ceremony was scheduled during the mourning period. Subsequently, they cited another reason for her reluctance, that she was rethinking the PDP’s coalition in the State with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). A stalemate ensued with Mehbooba Mufti coming out with a fresh demand that the BJP spell out certain confidence-building measures.

After meeting the Governor, N.N. Vohra, on February 3, Mehbooba Mufti asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP to be more considerate towards Jammu and Kashmir by taking confidencebuilding measures and creating an atmosphere for efficient governance. “I am not like Mufti Saheb. I don’t have his experience, wisdom,” she said, making a point that she was in a way inexperienced to head a State that is caught in conflict. Although she endorsed the alliance with the BJP at a meeting in Srinagar and vowed to carry forward her father’s vision, she later admitted that this alliance was unpopular but “Mufti went ahead with it in the interest of carrying the entire State together”.