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| Shri Mufti Mohammad Sayeed called on PM Modi (Image: Flickr User - Narendra Modi) |
By Sanjay Kumar
A chief minister’s sudden death exposes political fault lines in India’s only Muslim-majority state.
Had politics taken its normal course, Mehbooba Mufti should have become the first female chief minister of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir by now. But, for the last month, she has been delaying that historic moment. It was widely assumed that Mufti would assume office immediately after the death of her father, the sitting chief minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed last month. Even four weeks after her father’s death, she is not willing to assume the mantle of the politically volatile state.
Speaking her mind for the first time in a month, she called for “new confidence-building measures for Jammu and Kashmir” and the renewal of her party’s alliance with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), India’s ruling and nationally dominant political party.
Her decision not to form the government has injected political uncertainty into Jammu and Kashmir. It has put a question mark over the alliance between her People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the BJP. The regional PDP feels betrayed by the BJP for not honoring its political and economic commitments made in the state ten months ago, when the alliance was formed.
The BJP promised to provide huge support in for the reconstruction effort in the state and toned down its divisive and nationalistic agenda in the Muslim-majority state. However, the BJP’s financial package never reached the state. On top of that, the issue of a beef ban vitiated the political atmosphere in the predominantly Muslim state, exposing tensions between the Hindu nationalists of the BJP and local population.
Read the full story at The Diplomat