JKNEWS TODAY
Jammu, November 12 ( JKNT)
It is now clear that Peoples Democratic Party of Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti is effectively moving away from Bhartiya Janta Party with which it is ruling as an alliance partner in Jammu and Kashmir .
The recent meetings of PDP in the Kashmir Valley and Jammu region have adopted a strict discourse of dialogue with Pakistan and all the stake holders in Kashmir, which in translation means the Hurriyat Conference . And, BJP is opposed to this line at the moment after terror attack at the army base in Uri on September 18th and regular border firing from Pakistan on borders .
Internally, too, PDP is feeling heat in the Valley for its alliance with the BJP. It has suffered a major blow to its image as a Kashmir-Muslim centric party after it allied with BJP to form government with a justification that it was the only way available to “ meet aspirations of Kashmir and Jammu region “ and also to strengthen bonds within the state. But its leaders, have also realized that this is a stale line of argument , which has no takers in either of the regions of the state.
PDP president and Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti while maintaining the “ strengthening of the regional bonds and coalescing the divergent aspirations of the peoples of the two regions ,” never forgets to place friendly-Indo-Pak relations and dialogue with stake holders to resolve Kashmir issue on the highest pedestal . That brings out a clear distinction between her and her party’s agenda and that of the priorities of the BJP.
Mehbooba Mufti and PDP have seen through the weakness of the BJP, and they are riding over all the occasional voices of dissent of the ally’s leadership. The BJP ministers have become habitual “ yes boss” type subordinates to the PDP ministers in the matters of policy decisions and the administration .
To regain its ground in the Valley, where PDP had been making its presence of political landscape , the party has started sending clear signals that it won’t mind pursuing its agenda at the cost of the alliance government . It knows the political compulsion and greed of BJP to stay in power at any cost . So it is steamrolling the alliance partner to reverse the loss of its fortunes during the four-month –long unrest in Kashmir.