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| Challenges before Mehbooba | | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Jan 8: PDP president and member of Lok Sabha Mehbooba Mufti will take over as J&K Chief Minister at a very critical time. Her task would not be that easy. She has to tackle the highly radicalized Kashmir Valley and deal with separatists like Syed Ali Shah Geelani and, at the same time, maintain good relations with the Government of India. It will be tightrope walk considering the fact that she was more vocal as far as the political aspirations of the people of Kashmir are concerned. Her major problem would be to conciliate the Kashmiri people and make the people of India to believe that the State is safe in her hands. The people of India and the mainstream political parties in the country would want her to rein in separatists, maintain peace in the Valley and hasten the process of the State's integration into India. They would not like the repeat of the 2008 and 2010-like situation in the Valley. They, in short, would want Mehbooba Mufti to set things right in the Valley. Indeed, a very difficult task.
Her other major problem would be Jammu. She knows it well that the people of this region are a dissatisfied lot. She also knows that the political perceptions of the people of Jammu region are totally different from those of the Kashmiri people. But more than that, she knows that the PDP has little or no support-base in Jammu region. Whatever little support-base the PDP has it is confined to only a couple of constituencies where the Muslims are somewhat more numerous. The late Mufti tried his level best to create a strong constituency in Jammu, but with no result, as the people of the region didn't appreciate the PDP's insistence on self-rule. In 2014, the late Mufti addressed dozens of rallies and meetings in different parts of Jammu region hoping that the people of the region will turn towards the PDP, but nothing of the sort happened. That's the reason he described Jammu and Kashmir as north and south poles and repeatedly said that his fundamental problem was to bring these two disparate regions closer to each other. She has to reckon with those in Jammu whose single point agenda is to obtain the status of statehood for the region and they are many. She has to recognize and appreciate these stark realities and devise and implement policies which suit the Jammu's psyche. She has to accord equal treatment to Jammu with Kashmir at all levels and in all spheres. There is no other alternative.
Similarly, she has to deal with Ladakh, which, like Jammu, is bitterly opposed to the politics, Kashmir-style. The bulk of population in the trans-Himalayan region has been struggling since decades to obtain for the region Union territory status, saying they do not want any kind of truck with the Kashmiri leadership. Only a few days ago, a high-level delegation of Ladakhi representatives met with the Prime Minister and BJP national president at New Delhi and narrated the woes of the people of the region. They told them that the people of Ladakh will not accept anything short of UT. The people Ladakh mean what they say.
The other issues which Mehbooba Mufti has to address on a priority basis include the issues concerning the refugees from Pakistan, Pakistan-occupied-Jammu & Kashmir and the internally-displaced Kashmiri Hindus.
The fact of the matter is that she has many things to do simultaneously and in a holistic manner considering the State's diversity and conflicting aspirations, needs and compulsions. |
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