Almost two weeks after the Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeeds demise, J&K is yet to get an elected government, something that has been a source of deep concern for the former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah. In a blog Omar said that no state should be denied an elected governmentand blamed Mehbooba for the uncertain state of affairs. Even otherwise, people are curious about the government formation. And the continuing suspense is only heightening the interest. The situation, as it stands now, seems to be hopelessly stuck. While PDP seeks some action on the Agenda of Alliance, especially on some of its core points, BJP has apparently shown little interest in addressing its coalition partners grievances.
It is true that the PDP and the BJP have not been able to get along on contentious issues, or at least stick with a trade-off in line with their Agenda of Alliance. While the PDP has congratulated itself for stalling the Sangh Parivar’s bid to revoke Article 370, the BJP has moved the political discourse on Kashmir away from the resolution of the dispute to the integration of the state into India. Also, in the valley, the BJP is perceived to have reneged on all its commitments like revocation of the AFSPA, return of power projects, vacating of land held illegally by Army, to say nothing of initiating dialogue with the separatist groups.
PDP is sore that BJP hasnt kept its side of bargain in the Agenda of Alliance, treating the document as a scripture which need not be implemented. The party is skeptical of the BJPs willingness to implement the agenda, something that is borne out by the record of the past ten months. Some of the complaints have been aired publicly. For example, PDP is angry about “unilateral last minute pruning” from the Prime Minister’s Rs 80,000 crore J&K economic package of an agreed assistance of Rs 27,000 crore for buying back the state’s power projects from the NHPC. Similarly, the measly aid for the flood victims and the reconstruction of the flood-damaged infrastructure is also an issue. However, soon after Mufti passed away, centre released Rs 1194 crore to the state for providing financial assistance to flood-hit families for rebuilding their houses. But the small assistance, come as did more than a year after the deluge hit the state, is cold comfort to PDP and also to the flood victims.
PDP also wants BJP action on the vacation of land held unlawfully by the army in the state. It also wants the army to pay rent for the land under its occupation. Besides, the coalition’s single most redeeming promise of economic recovery and rehabilitation of flood victims has been realised only in breach. The situation now is that while the political and ideological confrontation between the parties has hurtled to the centrestage, almost hobbling the government, governance hasn’t made any headway, with rehabilitation of flood victims turning out to be a hope bitterly betrayed. So PDP president Mehbooba Muftis holding out does, indeed, make a sense. The ideologically divergent alliance enjoys little rationale if it is not able to implement the common minimum programme for which it was forged in the first place.
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