PDP wants 'clear-cut assurances' from BJP on future tie-up

Some PDP leaders feel BJP not respected the ‘Agenda of the Alliance’.

Srinagar

: It was anguish and bereavement at ‘Fairview’, the official residence of former Chief Minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed, until a week ago when hordes of his party men, supporters and admirers would turn up all day to share the grief of the family.

Though, in contrast, relative quiet prevails at the villa in the lap of Zabarwan hill overlooking the Dal Lake, the death of the patriarch carries a greater reality that life will not be the same for the family without him. Particularly his daughter Mehbooba Mufti has yet to come to terms with “the most poignant loss” and, in fact, continues to be in a deep and inconsolable grief, the sources said.

Tassaduq Hussain, Mufti Sayeed’s cinematographer son and the only male in four siblings, has since returned to Mumbai to complete an assignment left mid-way after his father’s death on January 7. But he has promised his sister and Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) president Ms. Mufti that he would be back in Srinagar soon to supplement her effort to carry their father’s ‘mission’ forward.

The 44-year-old Hussain, an American Film Institute graduate who lensed Bollywood blockbusters like Omkara and Kaminey, is likely to be assigned ‘immense responsibility’ and given important party work in the PDP as well after he announces his joining active politics formally which may be done sooner than later. Several senior party leaders too have gone down to winter capital Jammu or relocated to Delhi, mainly to escape the Valley’s subzero temperatures. But they too have assured her that they would be around when needed or called.

Meanwhile, Ms. Mufti has convened a meeting of senior party leaders and district and zonal heads at her residence on January 31, necessarily to receive ‘feedback’ on important issues including government formation. “In spite of not being emotionally ready to take up the issues the way she used to during Mufti Sahib’s lifetime, she has had consultations with senior party colleagues on party matters and government formation,” said a senior PDP leader adding the January 31 meeting would be a broader spectrum of activity.

One such one-on-one meeting she has held was with Tariq Hameed Karra, the alienated PDP Lok Sabha member from Srinagar who has repeatedly said that its tie-up with ideologically-divergent BJP has only proved detrimental to its (PDP’s) interests and halted its growth, particularly in Kashmir Valley, and that the BJP has not respected the ‘Agenda of the Alliance’, the common minimum programme reached between the two sides for the government formation last year.

Similar views have been expressed by some other PDP leaders and lawmakers during internal party discussions and, in fact, there is strong line of thinking in the rank and file that it should look for alternatives regarding government formation.

However, as already reported Ms. Mufti has been authorised by the party to take the final call on the crucial question of continuing with its alliance with the BJP or call it off. In fact, following a meeting of its extended core group held here on January 17, the party dropped enough hints that it might form new government with its alliance partner BJP only. “We’re working on how to move ahead on Agenda of Alliance,” senior PDP leader and former education minister, Naeem Akhtar, had said after the meeting. Elaborating on ‘Agenda of the Alliance, he had said it was the “holy scripture” for PDP and many things have happened under late Mr Sayeed as chief minister.

The party sources said that Ms. Mufti is waiting for certain clear-cut assurances from the BJP leadership and the government at the highest level on the future relationship between the two sides and also on the Centre-State dealings, mainly on economic front, before moving forward on the issue of government formation. As already reported, the PDP wants liberal funding from the Centre to ensure revolutionary development of Jammu and Kashmir and, as first step towards this direction, an inclusive package for the rehabilitation of the sufferers of the September 2014 floods.

It also has asked for return of the power projects presently under National Hydel Power Corporation (NHPC). It is quite unhappy over the Centre’s “unilaterally trimming” from the Prime Minister’s ‘development package’ the equity assured to the state for buying back two power projects from the NHPC that had received clearance from the PMO. It has also said that the lakhs of acres of land under illegal occupation of Army and other security forces would be taken back or would be asked to pay compensation for it as per the market rate.

On political front, it wants an assurance from the BJP that the Sangh Parivar will no more use proxies to fiddle with the State’s special status, guaranteed under Article 370 of the Constitution, nor will be the contentious issues like State Flag raised by it as such pastime only causes embarrassment to the PDP in its bastion-Kashmir Valley.