“The BJP is not targeting Pakistan or separatists or militants. It is attacking PDP only," says PDP's youth leader.
While analysts in the Valley are writing off Peoples Democratic Party after the break-up of its alliance with the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party saying after people the party also lost power, the party leaders say the PDP will perform better in coming months.
Well-known political analyst of Kashmir Ajaz Ul Haque says in striking a deal with the BJP, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed lost everything. “His person. His party. His people. A bad deal in the end. A father's dream finally turned a daughter's nightmare”, Haque argues.
However, the PDP leaders say after the break-up of the alliance, Mehbooba Mufti is a relieved person. She meets party delegations at her residence and regularly interacts with the party legislators.
“The BJP is not targeting Pakistan or separatists or militants. It is attacking PDP only. It says the PDP didn’t allow pursuing a muscular policy in the State. That is not our indictment but it explains how pro-people who have tried to be all these years,” Waheed-ur-Rehman Parra, PDP’s youth leader said.
While the PDP General Secretary Peerzada Mansoor says that “the BJP’s charge sheet against the PDP” is enough to explain the PDP’s “pro-people” politics, he argues that the PDP was not a silent partner in the alliance. “We called for talks with the separatists and Pakistan; we wanted more and more cases against stones throwers to be withdrawn,” says Mansoor. He says his party while being in the coalition government defended the special status of Jammu and Kashmir.
The petitions challenging Article 35-A have been filed by We The Citizens-an NGO considered close to the RSS and other organisations. Their plea says the state government, under the guise of Article 35(A), which grants special status to the state, has been discriminating against non-residents who are debarred from buying properties, getting a government job or voting in the local elections.
In 2016, when the petitions were filed, Mehbooba Mufti had met Union home minister Rajnath Singh and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to convey her concern as the attorney general of India did not file any counter-petition against the petitions challenging Article 35(A). Mufti had said there would be no one to “hoist the tri-colour” in Jammu and Kashmir if Article 35(A) is tinkered with.
The PDP maintains that the narrative being adopted by the Central government over pulling out the support is in itself an endorsement of the fact that the PDP government strived for the safety of the people of the state and kept pleading for the extension of the ceasefire so that the people bearing the brunt of hostilities, bloodshed and mayhem could heave a sigh of relief.
The PDP leaders argue that the working atmosphere between the coalition partners deteriorated after two BJP Ministers, Chowdhary Lal Singh and Chander Prakash Ganga joined a rally of Hindu Ekta Manch that sought the release of seven accused involved in the rape and murder of an eight-year-old Tribal girl in Kathua in January this year.
The PDP leader says the PDP-BJP alliance was the only credible arrangement for a long time as Kashmir centric party had gone for an alliance with ultra-nationalistic Hindu party. “If this is not acceptable what else is acceptable to them,” says a senior PDP leader. He says Jammu and Kashmir will taste political instability for long now as no party would like to have an alliance with the BJP in the State.