Early Times Report
JAMMU, Jan 21: PDP founder member and former finance minister and presently Lok Sabha member Tariq Hameed Karra, who from the day one bitterly opposed the PDP's alliance with the BJP and didn't attend a single meeting of the PDP-BJP Coordination Committee, finally had one-on-one meeting with the party president Mehboba Mufti at her Fairview residence, Srinagar. As expected, he expressed himself against any type of relations with the BJP and confronted her with a choice between tie-up with a secular party and fresh elections.
"Yes, I met Mehboobaji on Tuesday. My views on the alliance with the BJP are known in public domain, you can refer to them any time," Karra was quoted as saying.
Karra, as per reports emanating from Srinagar, conveyed his "reservations and apprehensions" about continuing the party's alliance with the saffron outfit and urged her "not form the government with the BJP". "Either the PDP should tie up with secular forces or go to people seeking a fresh mandate. They should admit to the people that they committed a wrong by aligning with the right-wing BJP," he, according to credible reports, further told Mehbooba Mufti.
That Karra suggested that the party leadership should apologize for stitching an alliance with the BJP only indicated the nature his opposition to the BJP, which compromised its ideology to become part of the government in Jammu and Kashmir. His stand on the alliance with the BJP only contradicted Mehboooba Mufti, who only last month had admired the BJP ministers and complimented them for following the coalition dharma.
Karra has been consistently saying that he has no personal animosity with the BJP or the RSS, but he is against their ideology. "I have no personal animosity with BJP or RSS. But their core agenda is ideological ingression, administrative ingression, political and religious ingression," he has been saying, adding that the PDP lost much of its political space in the Valley by doing business with the communal BJP. Not only this, he has been publicly saying that apart from a few leaders and workers, "no one in the PDP supports its alliance with the BJP".
The fact of the matter is that the bulk of Kashmiri Muslims are against any kind of truck with the BJP. And as for Kashmiri opinion-makers and commentators, they are all for fresh elections, suggesting that re-alliance with the BJP would mar the political and electoral prospects of the PDP in the Valley.
"Today, the situation for PDP is tricky. For the party, it has become a question of survival. PDP is a Valley-centric. While it has to consider its larger constituency and its base in Kashmir, the party also has to consider its base in Jammu. One option for Mehbooba and PDP is to wait for six months and then go for re-election. In this manner she can sell two things to the people of state. She can claim that she did not seek power, and hence did not rush to take over chief ministership after January 7, when her father died. Second, PDP's cadre will get six months to reshape their dented image in rural areas in general, and in south Kashmir in particular, where PDP has a strong vote share," Kashmiri commentators and opinion makers like Daanish Bin Nabi have been saying, adding that "It's no secret that the funeral of Mufti Sayeed was attended by only a few hundred, which points towards the aggression that PDP is facing on its home turf".
It's no wonder then that Mehbooba Mufti is taking her own time to take a final call on the government formation. It would not be surprising if she decides against an alliance with the BJP taking into account the mood of the people of Kashmir and opposition from such senior leaders as Karra. She has built up the party brick by brick and she will ensure that her party consolidates it position and expands its support-base in and outside the Valley. She just can't afford to ignore the power-hungry and provocative NC. |
