Mehbooba’s quest for army’s accountability

Days after Chief Minister Mehbooba renewed her demand for dialogue with Pakistan over Kashmir situation the BJP General Secretary Ram Madhav virtually snubbed the Chief Minister with the remark that not the Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister but the Government of India has to take a call on the resumption of bilateral dialogue with Pakistan. Ram Madhav is not the first top BJP functionary to deny a role to Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti but ever since the formation of PDP-BJP alliance in the state the BJP’s top central leaders have been denying PDP the right to talk about the demand for dialogue with Pakistan. Not only the incumbent Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti but her father late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed was in his life time asked not to give sermons on Indo-Pak bilateral dialogue over Kashmir by none else than the Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself during his address to a rally in Srinagar. After the demise of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed in 2015 the top central BJP leaders outrightly rejected Mehbooba’s demand for dialogue and CBMs over Kashmir as a pre-condition to the formation of new PDP-BJP coalition ministry. During last two years of PDP-BJP coalition rule under the leadership of Mehbooba Mufti the top central BJP leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and BJP Chief Shah almost half a dozen times questioned the right of the Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti to talk about Indo-Pak bilateral dialogue over Kashmir.
Though PDP General Secretary Rafi Mir in response to Ram Madhav’s remark on Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti’s demand for dialogue with Pakistan over Kashmir said that PDP is firm on its view over dialogue with Pakistan over Kashmir but question can be asked what is fun of renewing a demand for dialogue with Pakistan over Kashmir when the people who hold key to such a dialogue are categorically denying to accept the demand. Unfortunately BJP’s central leaders are not taking serious the views of the Chief Minister on resumption of Indo-Pak bilateral dialogue and renewing the demand makes no sense when the other side is not even ready to take the demand of the Chief Minister seriously. Better for Chief Minister not to raise a demand which is not taken serious by the BJP’s central leaders who are openly denying her any role in initiatives taken on India’s bilateral relations with Pakistan. .
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