The Centre may script a change in Jammu and Kashmir and explore all options including the imposition of Governor’s Rule. Speculation to this effect became rife after BJP president Amit Shah, who is visiting the Himalayan state for two days, ruled out talks with the separatists, a demand persistently raised by the dissenting voices within the PDP as well as the opposition parties. Shah has, however, asked the BJP lawmakers to initiate talks with all Kashmiri stakeholders. The effort aims at toning down the challenges that await Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti when she shifts her “durbar” on 8 May from winter capital Jammu to Srinagar, currently witnessing a spate of protests, more notably by students who took to the streets after their social media activism was clipped by an internet gag imposed by the government.
As per newspaper reports, J&K Governor N.N. Vohra has been summoned to New Delhi for consultations about the present situation in Kashmir. Although Vohra has dismissed reports that he has been called to New Delhi as Centre is likely to impose Governor’s Rule, informed sources said the option is still on the table.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, who is said to have been questioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval during her recent visit to New Delhi on her failure to contain the street unrest, is determined to improve the ground situation in peak summer months.
On her part, J&K’s Cabinet ministers told this reporter, Mehbooba Mufti has explained to the Centre the futility of her government’s hard policy to restore normalcy unless they were complemented by a “programme to reach out to people”.
The People’s Democratic Party is seriously thinking of pulling out from the coalition, if the Central government does not initiate any immediate forward movement on the agenda of alliance agreed on between the regional party and the BJP before they joined hands to form government in J&K.
When CM Mufti starts her six-month durbar on 8 May in Srinagar, the summer capital, her first challenge will be handling the growing students’ protests across Kashmir valley, without the use of coercive means. She has been in a hurry to crack the whip on the state administration, especially on the police as she has been accused by the opposition and by her ally BJP that she is very weak in delivering governance. CM Mufti, in her last Cabinet meeting in Jammu on Friday not only changed the state’s Chief Secretary B.R. Sharma, but ordered a huge reshuffle.
CM Mehbooba and the PDP are rattled by the Election Commission’s decision to hold the Anantnag bypolls on 25 May, as they had appealed to the ECI to postpone the elections indefinitely, keeping the worsening situation in south Kashmir in mind. “It would be suicidal for us and for the overall situation if Anantnag bypoll is held on 25 May. The situation may spiral out of control and may even impact the Amarnath Yatra in the Kashmir valley,” a senior PDP leader and Cabinet minister told this newspaper. The ECI has asked the Union Home Ministry to provide 47,000 securitymen to the valley to hold the elections.