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| “Death came faster than what Mufti planned for” | | Could not get time to see Mehbooba succeeding him as CM | 
By Rahul Jalali
As Jammu and Kashmir waited for its Chief Minister to assume office, this trouble torn state started a new precedent. Normally delays in appointing a CM take place because it becomes difficult to arrive at an acceptable consensus on a name, but in the case of J and K this conventional norm was turned on its head, when instead of WHO, the reason for delay became WHEN? Mahbooba Mufti the universal choice of her party as a successor to her father Mufti Mohd. Sayeed was taking a long time to say yes. Though the official explanation was that the lady was in mourning, but this inordinate delay gave a field day to the media to trot out stories about possible change of alliance partners and also saw the bizarre drama enacted by the Chief Spokesperson of the ruling party PDP Mahboob Baig. The gentleman in question first gave a virtual Press Conference claiming that the alliance with BJP was intact and Mahbooba Mufti will be sworn in as Chief Minister once the seven day mourning period was over. Adding that as Swearing in was a celebratory occasion this could not take place during the time of mourning. He later backtracked and took refuge under the favorite ploy of politicians; blame the Media for twisting his words. But even as Baig was swearing allegiance to the BJP another senior PDP leader Tariq Karra was queering the pitch for a smooth Mahbooba takeover. A Member Parliament from Srinagar Karra struck a contrary note by issuing a statement asking his leadership to ditch BJP and for the “sake of secularism and saving the party” and switch to Congress. Even as all this was going on the opposition, National Conference was taking potshots at the PDP ruing the lack of a government and the extremists through a series of encounters in the valley were boldly declaring that any new Chief Minister will have to deal with the question of increased militancy. However, for Mahbooba Mufti terrorism and matters of administration were not her immediate concern. What agitated her was finding the right answer to her conundrum: Whether she break the alliance with BJP for “secular” Congress and risk antagonizing the centre and the Jammu region , or continue with BJP and weather the storm caused by the dissidents within the party. It is at times like these Mahbooba must have sorely missed her father Mufti Sayeed, a person who with bare minimum fuss had weathered this storm ever since he took over as Chief Minister ten months ago. But the senior Mufti also started his political innings as a firebrand..
In early 1960’s Kashmir saw the arrival of a bright young law graduate from Aligarh Muslim University. Belonging to the ancient south Kashmir town of Bijbehara, Mufti Mohd Sayeed initially had dreams of joining the local government, but in the during the course of his practice he came in touch with a group of lawyers who belonged to the progressive group of individuals within the National Conference. At that time in Kashmir Shiekh Mohd Abdullah, the tallest leader of Kashmir was in house arrest in Kodiakanal and Bakshi Ghulam Mohd as the Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir presided over an administration that was rated to be authoritarian and corrupt. This group of progressive lawyers and others that Mufti came in contact with were planning to form a new party by splitting the truncated National Conference that would adhere to the principals of secularism and socialism. It was on the verge of the formation of this new party that Mufti came in contact with this group. Led by Ghulam Mohd Sadiq and D P Dhar this group formed the Democratic National Conference (DNC) and Mufti became its foremost members. Soon Mufti gravitated towards the group that was close to DP Dhar and this former advisor to Mrs. Indira Gandhi became a mentor to the young Mufti..
It was during this period that Kashmir saw one of its major political upheavals known as the Holy Relic case. The agitation that followed the disappearance of the Holy Relic saw the removal of Bakshi Ghulam Mohd from the post of the Prime Minister of the state by the leader of the opposition Ghulam Mohd Sadiq. It also saw the abolition of the title of Prime Minister to be replaced with that of Chief Minister. The young Mufti who by now had given up his dreams of joining the government as an official was appointed a junior minister by Sadiq in the new cabinet and DNC was converted into Indian National Congress. This was perhaps the best period of Kashmir when peace and tranquility prevailed and Bollywood used the valley to shoot nearly every second romantic film produced during this time. Mufti too saw his elevation from a junior minister to a senior rank in the cabinet. During this time he held portfolios as diverse as Forests, Power, PWD, Works and Housing. It was during this time that Mufti’s mentor DP Dhar moved to New Delhi as one of the advisors to Mrs. Indira Gandhi. It was also at this time that Mufti became an active leader of the Indo Soviet Cultural Society (ISCUS) and travelled to erstwhile Soviet Union especially Dagestan (now Chechnya) a state that enjoyed fraternal relations with Kashmir. During this period on the political front in the state Mufti and his mentor started having differences with the Chief Minister Ghulam Mohd Sadiq. In the valley Mufti came close to senior Congress leader Syed Mir Qasim and he along with Ghulam Rasool Kar and another Congress leader M L Fotedar formed a trio that pleaded the case for replacement of Sadiq by Mir Qasim as the Chief Minister.
In 1971 this trio achieved success Mir Qasim replaced Ghulam Mohd Sadiq as Chief Minister and Mufti Sayeed became one of the senior most ministers in Qasims cabinet. This status quo prevailed till 1975 when Mrs. Indira Gandhi inked her historic deal with Shiekh Abdullah. Under this deal called the Indira- Shiekh Accord, Sheikh Abdullah would head a Cabinet of his choice with support from the Congress legislatures. Syed Mir Qasim the existing Chief Minister was made a Central Minister and Mufti Sayeed was elevated to the post of the President of Pradesh Congress Committee..
The arrangement with Shiekh continued for two years when under active persuasion from Mufti Sayeed Indira Gandhi gave permission to the local Congress to withdraw support to Shiekh Abdullah. Shiekh dissolved the assembly and in the ensuing elections in 1977 though Congress did manage to get a sizeable number of votes in the valley, but it could not be translated to a single seat. After this defeat Mufti as Congress state President started the task of building the party in Jammu and Kashmir and slowly occupied the main opposition space in the valley. In 1980 Sheikh died and his son Dr. Farooq Abdullah was appointed Chief Minister. It was during this time that the rivalry between Mufti and Farooq became intense and often degenerated into slanging matches. In 1984 Mufti once again managed a major coup when he engineered a defection in the state, when G M Shah the brother in law of Dr Farooq Abdullah broke National Conference and became Chief Minister with Congress support.
However, here too Congress withdrew support in a year and a half, Dr Farooq came to power. Meanwhile, Mrs. Gandhi was assassinated and Rajiv Gandhi took over as Prime Minister. Rajiv aligned with Dr Abdullah despite opposition from Mufti. To placate Mufti Rajiv made him a Cabinet minister in Delhi, handing over the Tourism portfolio. Mufti was not happy with his removal from the state and when Jan Morcha was formed in 1989 by VP Singh, Mufti shifted sides. In the ensuing elections Mufti won from Muzzafaranagar in UP and became India’s first Kashmiri Muslim Union Home Minister.
This was also one of the most controversial periods for Mufti. His daughter, Mahbooba’s sister Rubaiya Sayeed’s kidnapping, her release and the subsequent outburst of terrorism in the valley is too well known to be repeated here. But Mufti has been unfairly been blamed for the decision. Actually in the Cabinet meeting conducted on the exchange of hostages for Rubaiya, the final decision to do this swap was taken by the Prime Minister VP Singh and not Mufti. The Home Minister kept silent. The other major error of judgment that Mufti made as the Home Minister was the appointment of Jagmohan as the Governor of Jammu and Kashmir. Jagmohan, a favourite of Mrs. Indira Gandhi had been Governor before in 1984, during the time Dr Farooq Abdullah lost power to his brother in law. Farooq who in 1990 was the Chief Minster opposed this move, resigned leading to a collapse of the civilian government in J and K and the imposition of Governor’s rule.
Later after VP Singh lost power and with the onset of terrorism Mufti remained in politically dormant till 1996 when he rejoined Congress as PCC Chief in Jammu and Kashmir. Elections were held again in Kashmir after a gap of nine years. Mahbooba who had too joined Congress, contested elections from Pahalgam in South Kashmir, won and she was made the Congress legislative committee chief. Incidentally this post that entitled her to be the leader of the opposition is the only executive one that Mahbooba has ever held. This was a period that Dr Farooq Abdullah and his National Conference was the only mainstream party in the electoral fray. The opposition space was occupied by the separatist Hurriyat Conference which never took part in the Assembly elections, thus virtually leaving the space open for National Conference.
In 1999 Mufti than took a historic decision. He with his daughter Mahbooba decided to float a regional party to offer a “democratic regional alternative” to the voter in Jammu and Kashmir. Thus the People’s Democratic Conference (PDP) was born. PDP which was a mirror image of National Conference barring a few changes in political rhetoric gave the voter of the state, especially in the valley a regional alternative to National Conference. They contested elections for the first time in 2002 and to everyone’s surprise won enough seats in the assembly to form the government in the state in alliance with Congress party. Under a rotational agreement for the post of Chief Minister, Mufti assumed office first. His tenure as the Chief Minister was a fairly productive one. He reigned in the brutal local police, made the administration more responsive and also became a major votary of Indo-Pak peace. It was during his tenure that the Srinagar-Muzzafarabad Peace bus started and the road to Pakistan was reopened. Three years later Mufti was replaced by Congress and two years later PDP broke up with Congress on the issue of Amarnath land row. In the elections that followed National Conference won the largest number of seats and they aligned with Congress to come to power in J and K. Omar Abdullah became CM and Mufti occupied the opposition space.
In the last elections to the Jammu and Kashmir assembly tables were turned again, Mufti and his party the PDP won 28 seats to emerge as the single largest party. BJP for the first time with 25 seats became the second largest party in the state and the only stable government that could be provided was an alliance between PDP and BJP. After 40 days of hectic negotiations the unthinkable happened, BJP gave up its insistence on abrogation of Article 370 and agreed to Mufti being the Chief Minister for the entire term. For Mufti it was a crowning glory, the alliance that he described as the “meeting between North and South Pole” largely favoured the PDP agenda. Mufti had finally realized his dream of becoming the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir for a full term. However, his death has once again brought the fissures in PDP to the fore. Perhaps Mufti and his daughter Mahbooba’s only regret would be that the old man of Kashmir politics did not get the time to ease Mahbooba Mufti into the chair of the Chief Minister. Death came faster than what he had planned for.
(Rahul Jalai is Delhi based senior journalist, political commentator & expert on Kashmir /Pakistan affairs)
Courtesy Frontline
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