Why a boiling Kashmir makes a poor scorecard for CM Mehbooba Mufti

To Mehbooba Mufti must go the unfortunate distinction of losing popularity, clout, moral legitimacy and political authority within weeks of becoming the chief minister.

As Kashmir burns in the aftermath of Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Burhan Wani’s death, her government has almost become paralysed, its leaders have become invisible — some have reportedly gone out of public glare — and the CM herself has become a subject of anger, ridicule and public backlash.

South Kashmir, especially Anantnag district, is considered a stronghold of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). That her own backyard is not just burning, but has become the epicentre of massive protests is a damning indictment of the PDP’s inability to provide leadership or the healing touch.

“Today, it is not possible for an MLA to step out in his constituency, especially in south Kashmir. MLAs have limited security, and no bullet-proof vehicles,” PDP legislator Ashraf Mir told The Indian Express on Monday in a candid confession of his helplessness. Mir represents Sonawar constituency in Srinagar. He had defeated former CM Omar Abdullah in the 2014 elections.

Leadership, as an old saying, is revealed in the time of crisis. The moral legitimacy and political authority of leaders is revealed in their ability to restore calm and peace in a situation of madness, anger and violence, to lead from the front and change the course of events through the force of their personality.

In his biography of Mahatma Gandhi, Stanley Wolpert describes the pain the Indian leader went through to quell the post-Partition violence in India. “… the sole penance Gandhi could perform was to spend the remaining days of his life in Pakistan, trying to protect minorities there from extortion and violence by the Muslim majority. He resolved to leave India, moving either to Karachi or Lahore on that final pilgrimage, but first he would visit Noakhali once again to bring what little comfort his unarmed presence could to Hindus living there in daily fear of death,” Wolpert writes.

Mufti and her MLAs are no Gandhis. But, their absence from Kashmir’s theatre of violence in spite of being the elected representatives, is a sordid indicator of not just the level of disconnect, but also of gaping holes in the moral fibre of the state’s polity.

That Mufti has been forced to appeal to separatist leaders to help restore peace is a sad commentary on the competence and relevance of the state government. In some other country, a combination of absence and helplessness may have been panned as dereliction of duty, if not abdication.

Her failure in assuaging Kashmiris and controlling violence that has led to 31 deaths could be huge setbacks for the new CM, a stigma she may never be able to wipe from her government’s forehead.

“Kabhi baap-bete ki sarkar, kabhi baap-beti ki sarkar,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi roared during the Jammu and Kashmir election campaign.

In retaliation, the two dynasties in Modi’s firing line competed with each other in the Valley, vying for support to keep the BJP out. When the results were announced, the BJP was wiped out from the Valley. All its 34 candidates, except Moti Koul, who contested from Srinagar’s Habba Kadal, lost their deposits.

After the elections, when the PDP formed the government in alliance with the very party that had derided it as ‘Papa-Daughter Party’ and the one it had promised to keep out of the Valley, the broad outline of the state’s future politics was defined.

From a custodian of the faith of the people, overnight, the PDP became a party that was seen as a harbinger of the BJP — and by inference of Hindu majoritarianism — through backdoor in the Valley.

The alliance changed the perception of PDP leaders in public. Suddenly they were suspected of being vulnerable to BJP’s influence and of becoming its proxies in the state. From a party that the Valley had chosen as the BJP’s counter, the PDP morphed into its extension.

This trust-deficit has been exposed by the absentee government’s handling of the violence that has followed Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani’s death and the anger of Kashmiris against the CM and her legislators.

It is widely believed in the Valley that Omar Abdullah’s inept handling of the 2010 violence that led to the death of more than a 100 civilians contributed to his political downfall.

The summer of 2016 could be the beginning of Mufti’s incipient career.