PDP’s 18 years long journey

The eighteen years of long journey of the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party(PDP) shows that party top brass after raising the expectations of people to sky rocketing heights belied their expectations by allying with the BJP the party which propagates and pursues the agenda of scraping special laws governing the special status of Jammu & Kashmir state . The huge compromises on the party’s core political agenda comprising self rule, demilitarization, introduction of joint currency and abrogation of draconian law particularly Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) by the party top brass saw the party pushing Kashmir youth to the wall. All went PDP’s way from 2002 until 2014 assembly elections when the party emerged as single largest party and for the first time in the post independent history of Jammu & Kashmir reduced once unchallengeable mass based National Conference to just 15 seats in the 87 member assembly. However one single wrong decision of the party patron late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed on alliance with BJP saw the party falling into the trap of an unnatural ally which right from the day one tended to pull the coalition government headed first by late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed from March 2015 to December 2015 and later by Mehbooba Mufti from March 2016 till June 2018 in different directions . Ironically the mishandling of the situation that developed in aftermath of the killing of top Hizb Commander Burhan Wani on July, 8 2016 resulted in the killing of over one hundred civilian and an atmosphere of insecurity pushed Kashmir valley into never ending turbulent phase of violence. Despite repeated attempts for a political outreach by some Delhi based credible civil society groups the BJP that commanding and controlled the government at the centre and shared power with PDP in the state till June 2018 bluntly refused to endorse any political initiative from any non political group for addressing the core concerns of public anger in Kashmir.
Carrying out a new pro active policy on Kashmir the central government commanded and controlled by BJP choos to take the route to excessive militarization and rubbished all demands of dialogue and political reconciliation with the main stake holders particularly the resistance leadership in the state. Now the central government through a remote controlled governor’s administration is not only carrying forward its policy of excessive militarization but takes all initiatives to subjugate the resistance leadership as is obvious from the much hyped investigation on charges of illegal funding initiated by the National Investigative Agency (NIA) against top resistance leaders and banning of Yaseen Malik headed JKLF and Jamat-e-Islami. A total shift from the agenda of self rule, dialogue, political reconciliation and demilitarization to the agenda of political hostility, remilitarization and abrogation of several state laws for enforcement of highly objectionable central laws in the state has left the PDP fragmented and disconnected at the grass roots . Now people in Kashmir look at PDP as a sponsor of BJP’s policy of political subjugation and excessive militarization and not the proponent of the agenda of self rule, dialogue, political reconciliation and demilitarization