by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
By Sheikh Qayoom,
Srinagar : Beware of predators and poachers, take care of your flock. This is the classic warning for shepherds while they graze their flock in the Himalayan meadows. In Kashmir’s political meadow of expedient opportunities, the same warning is now visiting mainstream politicians.
After the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) withdrew from the ruling alliance in Jammu and Kashmir, the politics of make and break is back with a vengeance.
Dissident MLAs of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), including the influential Shia leader and former minister Imran Ansari and his uncle, Abid Ansari, who is also an MLA in the 87-member legislative assembly, were the first to hit the road against Mehbooba Mufti, the former Chief Minister and the PDP president.
Three more PDP MLAs — Abbas Wani, Abdul Majeed Paddar and Javaid Hussain Baig — found common cause with the Ansaris to rebel against the party leadership.
Encouraged by the trend set by rebel MLAs, two PDP legislators from the upper house of state’s bicameral legislature, Yasir Rishi and Saifuddin Bhat, also joined the dissident group.
Alarmed by the cracks in her party, Mehbooba Mufti warned the Centre against attempting a split.
“The breaking up of my party will produce more Sallahuddins and Yasin Maliks,” Mehbooba said on July 13, the day Kashmir remembers its martyrs who fought against the autocratic rule of the erstwhile Maharajas.
BJP leaders including Ram Madhav, the party’s national general secretary who played a pivotal role in forging an alliance with the PDP that brought the coalition to power in 2015, washed their hands off.
“This is an internal issue of the PDP and we have nothing to do with it. Our priority is to improve the situation in the Valley under governor’s rule,” Madhav said.
Former Chief Minister and regional National Conference (NC) Vice President Omar Abdullah came out strongly against encouraging dissidence in the state’s regional parties.
Omar has been pleading from day one after the imposition of the governor’s rule by N.N.Vohra that keeping the state assembly in suspended animation gives an opportunity for horse trading.
The NC Vice President wants dissolution of the state assembly and announcement of fresh elections to restore democracy in the state.
Omar’s worry has valid reasons. His father and party president, Dr.Farooq Abdullah, lost the Chief Minister’s post in 1984 when NC dissidents, with the support of the Congress Party, installed his brother-in-law, G.M. Shah, as the Chief Minister.
Sajad Lone of the Peoples Conference (PC), who was a minister in the Mehbooba Mufti led coalition, is believed to be the front-runner for the Chief Minister’s post if a viable third front supported by the BJP is able to take shape.
Forty-four MLAs is the minimum number to stake claim to power in the state. In the 87-member assembly, the PDP has 28, BJP 25, NC 15, Congress 12, PC 2 and CPI-M 1, while four MLAs are unattached.
Sajad Lone was given a ministerial berth in the erstwhile PDP-BJP ruling coalition out of the BJP quota.
J&K has a tough anti-defection law which makes changing parties very difficult for the rebels.
What irks the regional parties is the fact that seven BJP MLAs who were expelled by the party in the former state assembly were allowed by the then Speaker to sit separately in the assembly without losing their membership.
The top leadership of both the NC and the PDP are worried about such a situation arising again if horse trading succeeds in breaking the PDP to reach the magical figure of 44 with BJP support.
“That would be the darkest day for democracy in the state”, said a senior NC leader.
There are no indications at present that the NC faces a similar crisis as the PDP does, but as the saying goes — once bitten, twice shy.
Some senior BJP leaders in the state, including the former Deputy Chief Minister Kavinder Gupta, have started saying that the tradition of having a Muslim Chief Minister in the state has no constitutional basis.
“Anybody who becomes the leader of the majority in the assembly can be the Chief Minister. There is nothing in the constitution that debars a non-Muslim becoming J&K’s Chief Minister”, Gupta said.
Ironically, the growing voices in Jammu for a Hindu Chief Minister could prevent the PDP dissidents from fishing in the troubled waters.
“Why should the dissidents give up their claim to have one of them as the Chief Minister? After all, none of the dissidents has stuck his neck out to pave way for a Chief Minister who is not among them,” asked a senior PDP leader who owes unflinching loyalty to Mehbooba Mufti.
Politics being the art of the possible can make for strange bedfellows, but definitely not those who take risks for somebody else to get the top job in Kashmir.
(Sheikh Qayoom can be contacted at sheikh.abdul@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics

BJP General Secretary Ram Madhav
New Delhi : BJP General Secretary Ram Madhav on Wednesday said the decision of pulling out of ruling coalition with the PDP in Jammu and Kashmir was a “difficult thing to digest” for him but it was taken in the “larger interest” of people of the state and India.
“I was one of the persons involved in bringing this alliance together. I worked for 40 days with (PDP leader) Haseeb Drabu on building this agenda agreement. It was very difficult thing for me to digest when I was communicated that I should take this step now,” Madhav told CNN-News18 channel.
The BJP on Tuesday suddenly exited the coalition it had formed with the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in 2015, prompting Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti to resign and Governor’s rule imposed with Governor N.N. Vohra putting the state assembly in animated suspension.
Madhav also revealed that there was “enough progress” in bringing the Hurriyat leadership to the negotiating table.
“I won’t say beyond that but the developments in the last two weeks have pushed us back to square one,” he said.
About the strains in the BJP-PDP alliance, Madhav said that political activists in the Valley were not playing any role (towards normalisation) even after suspension of operations by the security forces.
“And then the insistence (by PDP) that you talk to Pakistan, extend suspension of operations even after broad daylight killing of journalist Shujaat Bukhari, we felt there was a growing mismatch and for us the larger interest of the state and national integrity (are more important),” he said.
Asked why Mehbooba Mufti — who was taken by surprise — was not intimated in advance of the BJP’s decision to pull out as per the coalition dharma, he said he tried to contact her but “could not reach her”.
“I did try to reach out to her before we actually sent out the fax message to the Governor. We could not talk before we sent out the fax. But it is not breaking any coalition dharma. We came together, we decided to part ways and sent this message to the Governor,” said Madhav, who is party in-charge of Jammu and Kashmir.
Responding to Mehbooba Mufti’s statement that a “muscular policy” cannot work in Jammu and Kashmir, he said that her political approach was different from that of the BJP’s.
“We disagree with her on the usage of this term (muscular policy). Innocent policemen being killed, a journalist like Shujaat Bukhari being killed and not controlling all this — if this is the soft approach, I am sorry we don’t want that kind of a soft approach,” he said.
Asked if the Ramadan ceasefire did not go down well with the people of Jammu, the core voter group of the BJP, Madhav said: “It’s not about the people of Jammu. When innocents get killed, when policemen get killed, when regular attacks happen on army and CRPF convoys and security forces are seen as to be not doing anything in retaliation, naturally a bad impression is created in the rest of the country.”
He said that the “risk” of suspending the operations was taken as a “goodwill gesture” but there was no reciprocation from the other side.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : More than three years after they formed an uneasy coalition, the BJP on Tuesday pulled out of the PDP-led Jammu and Kashmir government, citing growing terror activities and radicalization in the valley making its continuance “untenable”.
Announcing the party’s sudden decision at a hurriedly-called press conference, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) General Secretary Ram Madhav said that Deputy Chief Minister Kavinder Gupta and nine other ministers from the party have tendered their resignation to Governor N.N. Vohra and Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti. The state leaders were called to the national capital for urgent consultations.
The move came less than a year ahead of the 2019 general elections and a couple of months after the BJP had replaced its Deputy Chief Minister in the wake of outrage over Kathua rape incident.
It also came two days after the Centre decided not to continue with the ceasefire.
“After reviewing the work of the government in the last three years and after consultations with the Home Ministry and the agencies and after consultations with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah, we have come to the conclusion that it is difficult for the coalition to move forward in Jammu and Kashmir.
“It has become untenable for the BJP to continue the alliance in Jammu and Kashmir in the situation that has developed today. Terrorism and violence have increased in the valley and radicalization is fast spreading. Fundamental rights of citizens and right to free speech of people have come under threat in the valley as symbolized by the murder of senior journalist Shujaat Bukhari in broad daylight in Srinagar,” Madhav said.
The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the BJP formed a coalition more than two months after the December 2014 elections returned a hung verdict, in which the PDP got 28 seats and the BJP 25, while the National Conference with 15 and Congress managed to win 12 in a House of 89. The government came to power on March 1, 2015.
The BJP leader said that the coalition was formed with an intention of restoring peace in Kashmir and encouraging fast development in all the three regions of the state including Jammu and Ladakh.
“The BJP did its best to give a good government. The Centre had also given a package of Rs 80,000 crore. The Home Minister (Rajnath Singh) had made several visit to the state and the central government had also appointed a interlocutor in a sincere attempt to resolve issues in Kashmir. On the border also, we took steps to contain violence by erecting 4,000 bunkers. Whatever the state government wanted we were ready to give,” he said.
But, Madhav said, they were sad that the government failed to discharge its responsibilities and the feeling of discrimination towards Jammu and Ladakh regions continued.
“After three years, today we have come to the conclusion that in the interest of the entire nation of which Jammu and Kashmir is inalienable part and in the interest of integrity and sovereignty of the country, keeping in mind the larger interest of the security, in order to bring situation under control, we have decided that is it time the reins of power be handed to the Governor for a spell of Governor’s rule. After the situation is restored, we will consider what to do in the future and take the political process forward,” he said.
He said the ceasefire was announced by the Centre with the intention of bringing peace to the state and to give relief to the people of Kashmir during the holy month of Ramadan. “It was our hope that we will get a good response from terrorists and separatist forces like Hurriyat. We were under no compulsion. It was a goodwill gesture and we did it from a position of strength,” he said.
In any case after the killing of senior journalist Shujaat Bukhari, there was no question of extension of ceasefire. If terrorists can enter into the city and kill Bukhari in broad daylight in a high security area, there was no question of continuance of ceasefire, the BJP leader said.
Madhav also said that over 600 terrorists have been neutralized in the last three years to stop radicalization. “Our campaign against terrorist will continue and there is no doubt about it. That is why we are going out.”
Replying to questions, he said apart from the reasons given, there were no other reasons for the decision to pull out of the government. “We are not concerned about losing ground in the state.”
He said the coalition was formed to respect the mandate of the elections and two parties came together and tried to give governance.
He said that state has faced such situation in the past when there was rising violence and periods of it being controlled. “All we are saying now is we have come to the conclusion that in present scenario and in the present juncture, we find our continuance untenable.”
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
By Sheikh Qayoom,
Jammu : The decision by Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti to drop Haseeb Drabu from her council of ministers for his remarks at a business meet in Delhi is being hotly debated in political circles – especially what its consequences could be on the state’s PDP-BJP ruling coalition.
By doing what she has done, the Chief Minister has proved that she is prepared take political risks — and taking her for granted is something her colleagues and allies should learn not to do.
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leaders were aghast after Drabu, who was the Finance Minister, was quoted as telling a meeting organised by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry in New Delhi that Kashmir was not a political problem and a conflict state but a “social problem”. He said this while seeking investments in the state from businessmen and saying the conditions in the state were conducive to business “where you will find some very interesting opportunities” not just to make money but also to have “a lot of fun and enjoy yourselves”.
PDP Vice President Sartaj Madni had said this was something which negated the very existence of the PDP because it is the firm belief of the party that Kashmir is political problem that needed political remedies to resolve.
Interestingly, instead of voices being raised in Drabu’s favour by his own party men, leaders of the PDP’s coalition unlikely partner Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) seem to be more worried about the decision to drop him.
Some senior BJP leaders have rushed to Delhi to discuss the development and its fallout on the ruling coalition with the central leadership of the party.
How important Drabu had been for the PDP was proved not once, but many times in the past. The late Mufti Muhammad Sayeed trusted him to work out the terms of the agenda of alliance with BJP National Secretary Ram Madhav that finally paved the way for the present PDP-BJP coalition.
“Mufti Sahib always loved him and would overlook what some of his party men would say about Drabu Sahib,” said a PDP insider, not wishing to be identified.
In a letter released to the media after he was dropped from the cabinet, Drabu expressed sorrow for not being told by the Chief Minister or her office about the decision to drop him.
“I read it on the website of daily ‘Greater Kashmir’. I tried to call the Chief Minister, but was told she was busy and would call back. I waited, but my call was never returned,” he rued.
He also said in his letter that he had been quoted out of context by the media and that he what he had said was that Kashmir is not only a political problem, but that “we must also look beyond this”, Drabu clarified.
Sayeed made Drabu his economic advisor during his 2002 chief ministerial tenure and later made him the chairman of the local Jammu and Kashmir Bank. In fact, Drabu became the point man between the PDP and the BJP after the 2014 assembly elections.
The problem is that many PDP leaders had of late started saying that Drabu was more of “Delhi’s man in Kashmir rather than Kashmir’s man in Delhi”. Drabu is reportedly very close to Ram Madhav, the powerful BJP leader who is in-charge of Kashmir affairs, which many say “cost him his job”. It is this image that has been floating around in the PDP that finally cost him his berth in the state cabinet.
While even Mehbooba’s political adversaries, including the National Conference President, Dr. Farooq Abdullah, have welcomed her decision, her allies in the BJP are not happy at all about her decision.
“What did he say? He said it is a social problem and Kashmir is a society in search of itself. Is this wrong? We don’t think this is something for which such a harsh decision should have been taken,” a senior BJP leader told IANS, not wanting to be named.
His successor, Syed Altaf Bukhari, who has been assigned the finance portfolio, took a major decision immediately after taking over. Bukhari announced that the decision to replace the old treasury system by the Pay and Accounts Office (PAO) has been put on hold. The ambitious PAO system was Drabu’s brainchild.
Bukhari’s decision has been welcomed by hundreds of contractors in the state who had been on strike during the last 13 days demanding their pending payments and suspension of the PAO system at least till March 31.
Would Drabu’s ouster be a storm in a teacup or would it have repercussions on the PDP-BJP ruling alliance in the immediate future? Ironically, Drabu’s PDP colleagues say it won’t be, while the BJP leaders in the state say it would.
(Sheikh Qayoom can be contacted at sheikh.abdul@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics

COURTESY: TWITTER/J&K PDP
Jammu : Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti’s brother Tassaduq Hussain Mufti was sworn in on Thursday as a Minister in the PDP-BJP coalition government and given the important portfolio of Tourism.
The other Minister sworn in on Thursday, Javaid Mustafa Mir has been allotted relief, rehabilitation, reconstruction and floriculture portfolio.
Abdul Rehman Veeri, state Revenue Minister, has been given additional charge of Hajj and Auqaf department.
Hajj and Auqaf portfolio had fallen vacant after Farooq Andrabi, who held independent charge of the portfolio, resigned from the state council of Ministers to pave way for Tassaduq’s induction.
Earlier, Governor N.N. Vohra administered the oath of office to Tassaduq Mufti and Javaid Mustafa Mir at the Raj Bhawan’s lawn here. Both were sworn in as cabinet ministers.
Tassaduq Mufti, 45, is a trained cinematographer, who earned critical acclaim for his camera work in the Vishal Bhardwaj directorial “Omkara”.
When his father, former Chief Minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed passed away on January 7, 2016, Tassaduq came back to support his mother and sister.
He was earlier in-charge of the Chief Minister’s Grievance Cell. Prior to his nomination as a member of the upper house of the state’s bicameral legislature, Tassaduq Mufti resigned as head of the cell.
Mir, senior PDP leader and MLA from Chadoora constituency in Badgam district, earlier also served as a cabinet minister in 2015 under the senior Mufti.
He was dropped when Mehbooba Mufti took over the Chief Minister in April 2016.
The Tourism and Culture portfolio was earlier with Mehbooba.
—IANS