Several attempts by the BJP to jump-start the dialogue on government formation in Jammu and Kashmir with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) failed to take off on Wednesday as PDP president Mehbooba Mufti insisted on sharing her “assessment of nine-month progress with the highest level in the BJP” before taking over the reins.
Mourning calls by top BJP leaders and Union Ministers like Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadhkari, besides BJP national general secretary Ram Madhav, “were highly political in nature and were not limited to condolence messages”.
Top sources in the PDP told The Hindu that Ms. Mufti, during her meetings with BJP stalwarts, which include Arun Jaitley in New Delhi, conveyed her “displeasure to the top BJP leadership over the progress of agenda set by the coalition in March last year”.
“Till Mr. Mufti breathed his last, he had faith that this coalition will deliver despite the bitter experiences of the past nine month. His last query on the dead bed was about the relief money and package for displaced Pandits over which the government of India not only dragged its feet and haggled,” a top PDP leader and close aide of Ms. Mufti told The Hindu . He expressed displeasure over New Delhi’s failure to “make an attempt to end the triangle of hatred among Srinagar, New Delhi and Islamabad through reconciliation from Kashmir.”
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit in November could have been a game-changer in J&K had he talked about peace with Pakistan and addressed not only Muslims of the country but the world at the same, He would have left the State like a statesman,” he said.
Mr. Modi, in his address in Srinagar on November 7 last year, snubbed Mufti on broaching Pakistan and advising on reaching out to those outside mainstream politics in Kashmir.
Sources said the government formation would be delayed till Ms. Mufti got guarantees from the BJP leadership in New Delhi on “implementation of the Agenda of Alliance”. It is reliably learnt that several attempts on Wednesday by middle-rung leaders of the BJP to reach out to Ms. Mufti were turned down.
“Mr. Mufti risked his own constituency by joining hands with the BJP. He thought the implementation of the ‘Agenda of Alliance’, a common minimum program agreed upon by the two coalition partners in February last year, would be reassuring to people. And we failed on that in the past nine months,” said the PDP leader.
He alleged that the last minute pruning of the Prime Minister’s relief package discouraged the State from buying back the power projects from the NHPC, delay in relief amount for flood victims further drifted well-earned constituency of the PDP.
In her meeting with the BJP leaders in the past two weeks, Ms Mufti is believed to have raised the issues like failure to grant smart cities to J&K, poor funding for flood prevention measures and reluctance to vacate the security forces from unauthorised occupation of the government land and property.
Jammu and Kashmir remains under the Governor’s rule since January 8.
