Facing the most difficult challenge of outsmarting her rivals for the first time in her political career, the PDP President and the incumbent Chief Minister Mehobba Mufti is crowing over a single statement of Home Minister Rajnath Singh over the Central Government’s willingness to hold talks with the separatists but she is not herself taking even a single bold initiative over the release of the detained youth against whom there are no serious charges of involvement in unlawful activities. Mehbooba Mufti may offer the review of the cases of youth detained on charges of involvement in stone pelting students few months later when Lok Sabha elections due to be held in April 2019 will be round the corner but youth can’t forget Mehbooba’s outright rejection of the demand for a judicial probe into civilian killings reported during more than six month long unrest in Kashmir in 2016. Chief Minister also holding the presidency of her party has all reasons to promise review of the cases of such detained youth who have been arrested on charges of involvement in stone pelting incidents during last two years of unrest in Kashmir valley. Since National Conference President and three time former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah is trying hard to generate a sympathy wave for himself by giving the people a notion that he stands for the resolution of Kashmir issue through dialogue with joint separatist leadership and the Government of Pakistan, the incumbent Chief Minister and PDP President Mehbooba Mufti is trying hard to neutralize Farooq Abdullah’s abortive attempts to generate an anti-incumbency wave against the PDP candidates ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha elections .
Though even naives can understand the compulsions of Mehbooba Mufti in divorcing the agenda of soft separatism during last two years of non stop unrest in Kashmir valley but outsmarting her rivals in the absence of dialogue with Pakistan and continuing skirmishes on the International border has become a much bigger challenge for Mehbooba Mufti .
The bigger challenge for Mehbooba Mufti is to settle scores over opposition NC-Congress alliance amid increasing chaos and law and order disturbances triggered by massive protests near the encounter sites and unprecedented increase in the encounters across Kashmir. Though Chief Minister Mehbooba Muftis is beating drums on the statement of Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh in which he expressed the incumbent central government’s willingness to hold dialogue with the separatist leadership but in the absence of Indo-Pak dialogue process beating drums on a single statement of Home Minister Rajnath Singh over dialogue with the Joint Separatist Leadership(JRL) won’t take Mehbooba to the people at the grass roots agains. While Farooq Abdullah and his son Omar Abdullah are arousing popular passions, the PDP president and the incumbent Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti does not find herself in a position to counter the campaigning of Abdullahs’ on the separatist agenda. Though even naives can understand the compulsions of Mehbooba Mufti in divorcing the agenda of soft separatism during last two years of non stop unrest in Kashmir valley but outsmarting her rivals in the absence of dialogue with Pakistan and continuing skirmishes on the International border has become a much bigger challenge for Mehbooba Mufti .
