Ending the Abdullah grip over power, the Mufti Mohammed Sayeed government had come as a welcome replacement in Jammu and Kashmir a year back. The substantial poll victory on a political agenda that was Kashmir-centric and sympathetic to the separatist cause had helped them to counter even the politics of Hurriyat Conference. As Mufti became Chief minister, heading a coalition that included Congress, Panthers Party, CPI(M) and a band of independents — who now call themselves People’s Democratic Front — it was clear that the road ahead would be long and treacherous. A year later, Mufti highlights the ‘‘sense of security’’ that his government ‘‘managed to bring back’’ accepting that the return of normalcy is still a dream. ‘‘I don’t claim everything has changed. I don’t claim we have brought normalcy back. But tell me, aren’t people out on the streets feeling a sense of security,’’ he told The Indian Express recently. ‘‘If you compare our one-year with the past, it is certainly far better. The police and the security forces are now much more accountable’’ Mufti also cites the example of the return of tourists to the Valley — which touched a record number this summer. ‘‘If there is an end to militant violence, we will be back in the race for development in no time,’’ he says. ‘‘But we cannot wait till total normalcy returns.’’ Mufti talks of the funds released by the Centre and the job-package announced by the Prime Minister. In Kashmir, however, Mufti and his party are judged more by the deliverance or failure of their political agenda — the promise of an early dialogue process both between the Centre and the separatists as well as between India and Pakistan. This promise was the main focus of PDP’s poll manifesto. ‘‘I know how important the dialogue process is. We have said that we want to make Kashmir a bridge between India and Pakistan and we do believe that there is no way other than dialogue to resolve this problem,’’ he said. The recent peace initiative launched by New Delhi inviting the moderate Hurriyat leadership for a dialogue after raising the level of the negotiations to the Deputy Prime Minister level has certainly come as a big help to Mufti and his party. A political morale booster, this offer has provided them with something to defend their poll agenda but the PDP leadership is not entirely happy with the way the process is heading forward. ‘‘This peace initiative is a big relief to us. They (the Centre) have atleast conceded to two of our demands — raising the dialogue process to the highest political level and opening up of the Srinagar-Rawalpindi road,’’ a senior PDP leader said. ‘‘But it is not enough. We can’t go back to our constituency here without delivering. And to make the peace process work, there should have been an open and unconditional invitation to all separatists including local militant groups like Hizbul Mujahideen,’’ he said. ‘‘We have left the hardliners (among the separatists) out of the process at the very beginning. how will it work? We should have atleast given them a chance to reject the offer — that would have made some sense.’’ In fact, Mufti and his party had stripped Hurriyat off its agenda when they raised similar issues in their poll campaign. But now they are finding it extremely difficult to manoeuvre between their ‘‘separatist-sympathetic politics’’ and the handicaps of being a ruling mainstream party. Then there is a cold war going on among the coalition partners — whose political agendas as well constituencies are at variance with each other. Congress being a national party finds it hard to fit in PDP manifesto. Locally also, Congress party’s traditional stronghold is Jammu which is extremely opposed to PDP’s political agenda. The Panthers Party with just four legislators in the coalition is actually more vocal than the Opposition in their criticism of the Mufti government. The PDF — which has ties within a moderate separatist party — has been aiming at dislodging Mufti’s government for several months now. The highlight of the Mufti government’s first year in office — the release of prisoners — had certainly given it a moral high ground. The government take-over of Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences and Muslim Auqaf Trust — bodies run by the National Conference — were generally lauded but the public support would sustain only if the Mufti manages to improve these public institutions. Proactive rehabilitation measures was another major promise of the government. But little has come out of it except the personal interest his daughter and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti has taken to support victims of violence. One important contribution that the new government made was to expand the ambit of government-run Rehabilitation Council to all the victims of violence. This body earlier supported only the victims of militants alone. On the development front there have been few achievements but the grudge of the people is that the focus has been the South Kashmir strongholds of PDP or the individual constituencies of few strong ministers. A year of mixed results behind him, Mufti cannot do much himself to change the perception of his government. One issue on which everything in J-K depends is the Indo-Pak peace process. On this count, the CM is entirely dependent on the Centre.
