Srinagar: In less than three weeks since she assumed the office of Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti is beset with two major issues - the fracas at the National Institute of Technology(NIT) and the Handwara killings. Handling these sensitive issues, and many more that can confront her ahead, would determine the kind of leader that Mehbooba would be, or wants to be.
Mehbooba is not done yet with these two crucial issues, and how she handles them would be watched very keenly by observers in Srinagar and Delhi. Her maiden test as head of a sensitive state, which is always under Centre’s radar, begins now.
All the non-local students of NIT Srinagar are yet to join classes after they set difficult conditions to return to the campus, and the issue has the potential to blow up in the face of the Mehbooba government in the coming days. They have demanded setting up of a permanent CRPF camp on the campus and delinking of local faculty from the exam grading. Although they did climb down on their initial demand of transferring the NIT to Jammu, the matter is still hanging fire.
The immediate crisis over maintaining law and order may be over but Handwara poses a serious challenge to Mehbooba the leader. Four young boys and an elderly woman lost their lives in firing by security forces, after a violent clash threatened to go out of hand. The incident poses big questions to Mehbooba who has been busy fighting the fallout of the killings while promising fair investigations. Would the probe have a different meaning this time around? Would it reach a conclusion and fix accountability? Would any uniformed man be punished, or would it be just another probe to contain swirling anger.
An entrance gate of NIT, Srinagar (File Photo)
Unfortunately, on both issues of NIT and Handwara, Mehbooba was found wanting. In the NIT crisis – so what,if it started during the last leg of Governor NN Vohra’s rule – she was found missing in action. Rather that leading from the front, she kept hiding behind the BJP, handing over the floor to deputy chief minister Nirmal Singh. Her reluctance to come forward, to listen to students on both sides of the divide, did betray a sense that she was not in control. In fact, she seemed naive when Centre decided to post CRPF columns inside the campus – rare for an educational institute. Her colleagues would argue she dealt with the issue properly because the students would be more comfortable with BJP. The fact, however, is that we are not talking party politics. She is the head of a government, not president of a party. The issue is still alive, and that gives her a chance to make amends and take charge.
On the contrary, in Handwara, Mufti was quick to hit the ground after violence spiralled out to Kupwara neighbourhoods. Yet she was lucky that it did not travel to Srinagar and further to south Kashmir like the 2010 summer uprising. Her reaching out to families with compensation did help to stem the violence, but her job does not end here.
File photo of protests in Srinagar on April 19, 2016, following the Handwara killings. (Getty)
Mehbooba has to ensure that accountability is fixed in all the five killings. For example, how was a 70 year-old-woman killed, six km away from Handwara – where security forces fired to quell a protest that was getting bigger. She needs to cross check the charge levelled by villagers that security men exceeded their brief and breached standard operating procedure.
She also needs to seek explanation how a 16-year-old girl’s confessional video – that she was molested by village boys and not by a soldier - was leaked out and then owned by the Army. She needs to punish the officials who did not protect the identity of the girl against the apex court's norms. If Mehbooba had her way, heads would have rolled by now. At least, being the boss of the police, she could have set an example. Will she, or won’t she, make an example? That will show her character and how she acts in future if a wrong is committed.
By now Mehbooba would have figured out there is a huge difference between heading a government and opposing it. In Opposition, you hold all the aces. It gives you unbridled licence to hit out at the government left, right and centre; but power in strategically important Jammu and Kashmir can actually shackle you. With power comes responsibility and fine balancing, and in J&K, a king's or queen's crown always weighs heavy.
Whether she faces critical issues like these chin up, or she choose to continue as just another chief minister, is what people in the Valley would like to know. Will she assert herself and go against the tide, or will she reconcile to the fact that the chief minister in this part of the country has very little say on matters of security and policy? That is a question she needs to pose, more to herself than to anyone else.
Unlike for her father, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, and the other former chief minister Omar Abdullah, Mehbooba’s stakes are higher. She has been a firebrand leader who calls a spade a spade. She has been unsparing in her criticism of the government – whether the one led by her father or the one led by Omar. She has been vocal on issues confronting people’s security and human rights.
As opposition leader, she used to edge out separatist leaders in championing human rights causes in Kashmir. Mehbooba used to travel to godforsaken villages to question alleged excesses by police and security forces. She used to take up issues concerning women, children and the deprived. As Mufti Mohammad Sayeed said during his first tenure as chief minister: "She is the bigger opponent to my government, more than those facing me in Assembly."
Mehbooba's success as chief minister would depend on how she manoeuvres on an ice-slippery ground. As chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, she needs to cut concessions from the Centre on economic, political and security fronts. She would have to bridge the trust deficit between Srinagar and Delhi, find ways to re-engage with separatists, reduce the footprint of security forces and take the state towards peace, reconciliation and development.
How much she extracts from the Centre now determines the kind of leader she would become in future.
On the party front, she needs to repose trust in people who can build it into a strong and vibrant platform. She would need to blood young, educated, serious people. Or find a pool of talent which would carry the party's agenda to the grassroots.
Mehbooba will face a crucial test in both Assembly and Parliamentary by-polls later this year. She will contest to the state assembly from a constituency that was held by her father. She will also vacate her Anantnag Parliamentary seat, and hope her brother or a family member emerges victorious. The two seats pose a challenge to her family and to her party. Retaining both would be the target she has set herself.
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