Mehbooba Mufti took over as chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir after a delay of nearly three months following the death of her father Mufti Mohammad Sayeed in January 2015. The reluctance to sit in the hot seat was projected by her People’s Democratic Party as testimony of her not being “power hungry” or an opportunist daughter. In fact, she herself went on record to say that she wanted certain J&K-specific “confidence building measures” before she could actually give a serious thought to stepping into her father’s shoes. She also insisted on unspecified concessions and incentives as a prerequisite for government formation.
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But finally she held a “broader reconciliation” meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi in March and returned home to proclaim her renewed fondness for the BJP, which in turn asserted the one-on-one meeting between the two was an affirmation of mutual understanding. No CBMs, concessions or incentives even being announced by the Centre though. Seemingly the 56-year-old Kashmiri leader, whose rise was inextricably linked to her promoting an approach of “soft separatism”, favouring talks with separatists and Pakistan and even once choosing to mourn the deaths of militants at their homes, chose for herself a tough path to tread upon by going with the ideologically-divergent BJP, also seen as being anti-Muslim by a majority of the voters. It was reported that internal strife and the inclination among some PDP lawmakers to form a government with the BJP after bypassing, rather swindling, their leader prompted her to climb down from her earlier stand and give in to the BJP.
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Going against the tide is no easy task. Not only did she find it difficult to sell the PDP’s “unnatural alliance” with the saffron party, openly accused of being “anti-Kashmiri, anti-Muslim” even by some of her senior party colleagues, she also had to take the people along. That became even more difficult after the killing of Burhan Wani in a military operation in July, that became a trigger for the anger brewing in the Valley. Within the PDP, there had been, from day one, realisation of the fact that going with the BJP to share power would be steering the boat in the uncharted waters of murky Kashmiri politics. Ms Mufti had a track record of her own as an organisational leader but unlike her father lacked an effective and strong leadership in the sphere of administration.
Even her sworn loyalists acknowledge the fact that she failed to deal with the unfolding situation following Wani’s killing calmly and effectively and virtually lost her grip over the administration, particularly the security forces, who would receive orders directly from home ministry officials. Also, her pleas for greater restraint in dealing with law and order and other hostile situations were virtually ignored, leaving her open to criticism and contempt by political opponents. The administration virtually disappeared, and all that could be seen along the streets of the Valley were the security forces using tough measures and the separatists calling the shots, issuing “protest calendars” from jail cells or besieged homes. J&K’s first woman chief minister began giving contradictory statements, many of which stirred up controversies on her home turf and beyond. She would justify killings, saying these occurred in security forces’ “retaliatory actions”, and, at the same time, also term the slain youth “innocents” and seek to sympathise with their families.
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With the situation on the ground somewhat improving, she is trying to rethink her strategy and make a comeback, but if she wants to rebuild genuine bridges with the people she has to develop governance and administration capabilities. Equally crucial for her is to change her attitude and again make people feel safe and secure. The composure of a leader is reflected in his or her attitude, body language and overall presence. She has to prove her critics wrong that her leadership role was just too big for what she was capable of handling. It may be difficult for her to build up the level of trust her father enjoyed, but she can again use the talents that are very different to those possessed by most other contemporary politicians by returning to her roots and enhancing ground-level political engagement.
