Cong ‘alone’, PDP is at home

However, sources also said that the tone of today’s meeting was set by the PDP’s insistence that it would either head the Government or sit in the Opposition.

This aggressive stand has come to mark the PDP’s attitude, emboldened by the gains it has made in these elections. It has now begun to think big—even eyeing an early poll as an option and seeing itself as taking the political space that for years has been with the Hurriyat.

At one level, this may be wishful thinking and, as some critics say, ‘‘politically naive and risky,’’ but the PDP’s charismatic crowd-puller Mehbooba Sayeed is taking her chances. And has begun making daily trips to her party’s new south Kashmir bastion.

At these rallies, she cites her party’s ‘‘uncompromising’’ stand vis a vis the Congress as evidence of ‘‘sacrifice for the honour and dignity of the Kashmiri people.’’

The PDP’s first post-poll public meeting was held on October 18 in the party’s prized catch, Ganderbal, where Qazi Afzal defeated Omar Abdullah.

Mehbooba did not address this rally except for issuing three slogans which spoke volumes: ‘‘Maslai Kashmir hal karo (Resolve the Kashmir dispute), Bar-e-sageer ke aman ki khatir Hind Pak dosti zaroori hai (For peace in subcontinent, Indo-Pak friendship is essential) and Grenade se na goli se, baat bane gi boli se (neither with a grenade nor with a bullet, the issue will be resolved through talks).

Meanwhile, her father and PDP chief Mufti Mohammad Sayeed directly appealed to ‘‘boys with guns in the mountains’’ telling them there was no longer any need for violence because ‘‘now your representatives are in the Assembly. Whether in government or outside, we will put forward their (militants) voice.’’

The next day as Mufti was busy holding talks with the Congress, Mehbooba was out again—this time in Qazigund. Today also, unfazed by the Congress decision in Delhi, she was out in Anantnag addressing rallies, stressing her party’s commitment to stay away from power on ‘‘moral grounds.’’

Why all this posturing? Why this steadfast refusal to join the government if it doesn’t get the CM’s job?

The answer lies in the gains that the PDP has made. One, it toppled the National Conference after 27 years and two, it made a substantial dent into the separatist bastion and sees itself as the only mainstream platform which accommodated the sentiment for an ‘‘honourable resolution of Kashmir dispute.’’

Its manifesto is a clever rewrite of the Hurriyat agenda: accepting Kashmir as a dispute and demanding its peaceful resolution through dialogue. It has also stressed on ‘‘state terrorism’’ and alleged human rights violations by the Army and police, besides seeking the disbanding of ‘‘barbaric’’ Special Operations Group.

It also promised to clip the wings of the Army by calling for a repeal of the Armed Forces (Special) Powers Act, the Disturbed Areas Act and POTA, a probe into the cases of youths missing from Army custody and a commission to investigate custodial deaths.

This unusual stance by a mainstream political party—mixing the role of regional National Conference and the separatist Hurriyat—has been adopted by the party as its USP.

Confidence that the party can improve its numbers substantially, in fact, is at the core of the PDP’s rigidity. It had a few options: accept Congress as the leader of the coalition, accept the Deputy CMship with key portfolios, including Home, and then wait for a ‘‘suitable occassion’’ to ditch the Congress and seek a fresh mandate. This ‘‘occasion’’ would be if their key demands are not met.

This strategy has its risks. ‘‘There is every likelihood that once our people taste power, they will get closer to Congress and not join us fail the party’s startegy at the last minute by refusing to resign. This will finish us as a political force,’’ a PDP leader said. ‘‘But if Mufti Sahib leads the coalition, we will be in the driver’s steat. We can resign and recommend dissolution of the Assembly at our own will and on an issue of our own choice.’’

Parallel to this is a growing feeling in the party that it can hijack the agenda of the Hurriyat. To that end, it has shrewdly used the Kashmir- Jammu regionalism as an effective card to oppose Ghulam Nabi Azad’s candidature.