NEW DELHI: Mehbooba Mufti’s tenure as Jammu and Kashmir chief minister came to an abrupt end on Tuesday with a call from Governor NN Vohra, who informed her that the BJP had pulled out of its alliance with the PDP, officials said.
It was a working day just as any other for Mehbooba, who was in her office in the Civil Secretariat when Chief Secretary BB Vyas received the phone call that signaled the end of her maiden tenure as chief minister, reports the Indian media.
The governor asked Vyas where the chief minister was and asked him to immediately arrange a call with her, they said. This was minutes before the BJP General Secretary Ram Madhav addressed a press conference in the national capital around 2pm to announce the decision.
Vyas duly arranged the call. The governor, according to officials in the know of developments, informed Mehbooba about the BJP's decision, which was conveyed to him in a letter sent by the BJP state president Ravinder Raina along with the resignation letters of the BJP ministers.
Mehbooba, 59, listened to the news in silence, and after a pause said there was no need for talks with the BJP and she would be submitting her resignation, the officials said. Soon after, Madhav made his announcement in Delhi, ending the uneasy, often fractious alliance between the BJP and PDP and setting the stage for another round of governor's rule for the valley.
Madhav said the security situation in the state had worsened and it should be put under the "governor’s rule", or direct rule from New Delhi. "Basically, keeping in mind the larger national interest of India’s integrity and security, in order to bring control over the situation prevailing in the state, we have decided that it is time the reins of power be handed over to the state governor," Madhav said.
Mufti lashed out at the BJP for pulling out of the alliance. Addressing a press conference in Srinagar soon after, Mufti announced her resignation. "I have resigned from chief ministership, shook hands with the BJP for the sake of serving the people," she said.
"It took us several months to form a mutual agenda with BJP," Mufti said, maintaining that the Kashmir issue could only be resolved through talks.
She also stressed the need for talks with Pakistan and the Kashmiri people for the resolution of the decades-long conflict. She said the BJP had betrayed the agenda of the alliance by pulling out of it.
"PDP's agenda for the state was the one for boosting reconciliation through the alliance; the BJP betrayed the same," Mufti stated. She added that muscular policy in a state like Jammu and Kashmir, or a policy backed by force (sakhti), cannot succeed. "Peace and reconciliation is the only way forward," she noted.
Meanwhile, the state is already warming up for the imposition of Governor's rule eighth time in a row. Jammu and Kashmir Governor NN Vohra has forwarded his report to the rresident of India for imposition of Governor's rule under Section 92 of the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir.
Governor Vohra concluded his consultations with all major political parties in Jammu and Kashmir earlier Tuesday. Jammu and Kashmir has come under Governor's rule on seven occasions before in the last four decades. It will be for the fourth time that the state will be placed under central rule during NN Vohra's tenure as Governor. Vohra, a former civil servant, became the Governor on June 25, 2008.
The BJP entered into an unlikely alliance with the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) — a regional party after an inconclusive election in 2014 to govern the Muslim-majority state, where the Indian security forces have struggled to quell an indigenous struggle for independence for decades.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi won a general election earlier in 2014, vowing to end the freedom movement in the valley but violence has worsened in recent months. Last week, India rejected a UN report that accused it of having used excessive force in the IHK to kill and wound civilians since 2016. The United Nations also called for an international inquiry into accusations of rights violations.
Direct rule by the central government would give the BJP a free hand to control the state ahead of a general election that must be called within a year. The BJP has long favoured a tough approach to quell the freedom movement, while the PDP had advocated a softer touch to address the grievances in the state where thousands of people have been martyred since the movement began in 1989.
More than 130 people have died in escalating violence in the IHK this year. The withdrawal of BJP from its alliance with the PDP earned the former severe criticism from prominent politicos. Congress President Rahul Gandhi said, "The opportunistic BJP-PDP alliance set fire to Jammu and Kashmir, killing many innocent people including our brave soldiers.
"It cost India strategically and destroyed years of UPA’s hard work. The damage will continue under President's rule. Incompetence, arrogance and hatred always fails," he wrote on Twitter. Congress leaders Tom Vadakkan and Shashi Tharoor blamed the Centre and the ruling parties for the failure and the current situation in Jammu and Kashmir.
"This was waiting to happen. The truth is that BJP has failed. They gave the same reasons while forming the government and same reasons were given to exit it. The reality is they have messed Jammu and Kashmir up," Vadakkan told ANI.
Tharoor called the alliance as an unnatural marriage with strange bed-fellows. Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray too criticised the BJP for their failure. Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah said the decision was long-awaited.
"We don't enjoy this. Nobody who supports a democratic system will enjoy this break-up. We are mourning the demise of democracy. I am not surprised by the decision but with the timing. I was expecting it later in the year. All of us have seen the deterioration of the state." He refused to govern the occupied state.
