Page 16 - Tehelka Issue 13 - July 15, 2018

CoverStory

n Kashmir, the real shock of the break-up of the government largely Kashmir-centric, an avoidable
PDP-BJP coalition was not in the abruptness situation in a state comprising three distinct geo-
of the development but in the BJP choosing to graphic and cultural regions.
I do it. It was always taken for granted that if the Ditto for an alliance with the National Confer-
coalition was ever going to come apart, it would be ence, once a pan-J&K party, now largely confined to
because of the withdrawal of the support by the PDP. Kashmir.
This thinking was based on a solid rationale: The Thrust together by the nature of the electoral
alliance with the PDP had enabled the BJP to become verdict, mutual convenience, and not to mention
a ruling party in India’s only Muslim majority state, the lure of power, the PDP and the BJP had set about
an otherwise improbable prospect considering the forging terms of their engagement which became
party’s aggressive Hindu nationalist credentials and known as the Agenda of Alliance. On paper, the
implicit antagonism towards Muslims. agenda seemed to make an eminent sense. It obliged
Confined largely to Hindu majority districts of the BJP not only to provide more means for the de-
the Jammu province, the BJP on its own can hardly velopment of the state but also committed it to take
hope to secure a majority and depends sorely on steps towards resolution of Kashmir by holding talks
support from a state-level party to become a part of with Pakistan and the separatists.
the government. But considering the BJP’s hardline The coalition government was formed and rest as
ideological position on the state, a J&K party depend- they say is history. From the day one, the government
ent on the support from Muslim majority is instinc- got off to a rambunctious start. While the issues of
tively loath to partner with it. Such an association is governance took back seat, the ideological tug-of-
deemed to be potentially detrimental to the electoral war moved to centre stage. The contradictions and
chances in the Valley. So, when the PDP partnered the conflict only grew by the day, much of it to the
BJP to form the state government in 2015, the deci- detriment of the PDP in the Valley.
sion went against the conventional political wisdom The BJP being the disproportionately more pow-
in the state: two ideologically antithetical parties, erful party could always get away with an ideological
with divergent policies on the state, choosing to join overreach — albeit, on sensitive issues like the Arti-
hands to rule the state. cle 370 and Article 35A, citizenship of West Pakistan
Was power the glue that held the two together? Refugees, etc. the two parties managed to maintain
It was but there were other powerful factors that an uneasy trade-off. The BJP also worked to secure
left them little choice. PDP-BJP coalition was the a larger say in the governance. So, it was always pre-
best possible ruling arrangement for the state. With sumed that if push came to shove, it would be the
BJP almost sweeping the Hindu majority Jammu by PDP which would take a bow.
securing 25 seats in 87-seat Assembly, a new state But that didn’t happen. Counter-intuitively, it was
government could only have left it out at its own the BJP that walked away. And adding further insult
peril. For, this would not only have kept an entire to the injury, waved bye to the PDP from New Delhi.
region out of its due share in political power, a trigger What made the development further inexplicable
for a destabilizing regional discord, but also then a was that there was apparently no discord between
resurgent BJP backed by its own majority govern- the parties. Though privately the PDP wanted an
ment at the centre. More so, when the prevailing extension of the ceasefire, it hadn’t made any pub-
political trends in the country pointed to the BJP get- lic demand to the effect, nor had objected to the
ting only stronger by the day and becoming more union government calling it off. In fact, Mehbooba
influential on the national scene. had blamed militants and separatists for not recip-
PDP, the largest single party with 28 seats, could rocating the gesture from the centre. In several state-
also go with the Congress, an ally from the party’s ments, she had called on the Hurriyat to respond to
previous stint in power from 2002-08. But it would the talks offer from the centre. She also appeared to
have still needed the support of four more legislators be ready to play along with the centre’s recourse to
to secure the requisite majority of 44 to form the gov- hardline policy on the state.
ernment. Also, a PDP-Congress alliance, apart from
its abstract logic of both being secular in their out- Pulling the rug out
look would hardly have been in a position to deliver. On June 19, Mehbooba as J&K Chief Minister was sit-
Congress, despite also being a Jammu-centric party ting in her office on the third floor in Kashmir’s civil
in the state, had got only two of its 12 seats from the Secretariat when news of the withdrawal of support
province. In fact, a majority of its seats came from by the BJP started trickling in, first as a rumour, then
Kashmir Valley. So, a PDP-Congress coalition gov- as a tentative story in some newspapers followed by
ernment would have made the consequent state the sudden confirmation. Mehbooba had just fin-

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