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Journalism of Courage
Jammu and Kashmir witnessed high-voltage political drama since Wednesday after Governor Satya Pal Malik issued an order dissolving the state assembly.
The Governor’s move soon after PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti staked claim to form a government with the support of the National Conference and Congress — she cited a collective strength of 56 MLAs in the 87-member House. A separate claim to form a government was made by Sajad Gani Lone of the two-member People’s Conference who claimed support of the BJP and 18 MLAs from other parties. He sent a letter while flying home from London.
The dissolution of the Assembly, kept in suspended animation since June when Governor’s Rule was imposed after the BJP ended its alliance with the PDP to bring down the Mehbooba Mufti coalition, marked the culmination of high-voltage politics through the day that saw the PDP, NC and Congress joining hands to announce “a grand alliance of like-minded secular parties”.
The three parties buried differences to foil a BJP move to stitch an alliance and prop up a government with ally Lone as Chief Minister. Two days ago, PDP leader and former Deputy Chief Minister Muzaffar Hussain Baig had backed Lone, saying he would “seriously consider” joining the third front if it was formed, and Lone had welcomed his statement.
Following yesterday’s development, BJP called for a party meeting with state MLAs on Thursday to decide the future course of action. BJP General Secretary Ram Madhav alleged that NC and PDP boycotted the local polls in Jammu and Kashmir at Pakistan’s behest. “PDP and NC boycotted local body polls last month because they had instructions from across the border. Probably they had fresh instructions from across the border to come together & form govt. What they did prompted Governor to look into the whole issue,” Madhav was quoted as saying by ANI.
Soon, former chief minister Omar Abdullah took to Twitter and daring Madhav to prove his allegations. He wrote on the microblogging site, “You have RAW, NIA & IB at your command (CBI too is your parrot) so have the guts to place evidence in the public domain. Either prove this or be man enough to apologise. Don’t practice shoot & scoot politics.”
Madhav’s statement set off a duel between both leaders with the former later retracting his statement. However, he continued his veiled attack and remarked that the sudden love between PDP-NC led to ‘many suspicions and political comments’ and that the alliance should fight the next state elections to prove their love was genuine.
Clearing the air, Abdullah in a press conference today said that the NC-PDP-Congress alliance would not be fighting the polls together and the arrangement was only to protect the state from the current mess. With a sarcastic undertone, Abdullah said that “a fax machine had become a hurdle to democracy.”
Abdullah was referring to yesterday’s event when CM Mufti took to Twitter to state that her fax to the Raj Bhawan in Jammu was “strangely not received” and Governor Malik remained unavailable. Clarifying his stance, Malik said Wednesday was Eid, resulting in his office not receiving the PDP’s letter staking claim to form the government.
Meanwhile, Malik addressed the media and said: “I would instead want that elections are held and selected government rules the state.” He alleged that he had been receiving complaints over the last 15 days, of horse trading and MLAs being threatened and said that he would not let such a thing occur in the state.
Both the party chiefs, Abdullah and Mufti took to Twitter to express their dismay over the governor’s communique which was issued soon after PDP-NC’s announcement to form a coalition in the state.
Mufti slammed the Centre and tweeted, “Since the past five months, regardless of political affiliations, we shared the view that the state assembly be dissolved immediately to avert horse trading and defections. Oddly enough our pleas fell on deaf ears. But who would have thought that the very idea of a grand coalition would give such jitters.”
Abdullah also expressed suspicion on the timing of the governor’s move to dissolve the assembly. “JKNC has been pressing for assembly dissolution for 5 months now. It can’t be a coincidence that within minutes of Mehbooba Mufti Sahiba letter staking claim the order to dissolve the assembly suddenly appears,” he tweeted.
The Congress termed the Governor’s decision as “undemocratic and unconstitutional”. “Mehbooba Mufti wrote to Governor only after Congress & NC supported PDP & Governor should’ve given her a chance,” ANI quoted Congress leader Saifuddin Soz as saying.
Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said that they did not have any complaints from the governor, but the central government because the assembly should have been dissolved 4-5 months ago when BJP withdrew support from PDP. Azad attacked BJP and insisted that the party had dissolved the assembly when it failed to muster the majority in the state.
While PDP chief Mufti claimed the support of 56 MLAs, including those of Congress and the National Conference, PC chairman Sajad Lone claimed he had support of 25 legislators of the Bharatiya Janata Party and 18 other independent MLAs. PDP is the single largest party in the state with 29 MLAs, however short of the 44 midway mark in the 87-member assembly.
The six-month tenure of the governor’s rule ends on December 18 which will be followed by President’s rule.
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