A panic reaction by governor & Centre

The timing of the dissolution of the J&K Assembly by governor Satyapal Malik on Wednesday night, in a move that is likely to be premeditated but gives the public impression of suddenness, is apt to raise questions about the Centre’s sincerity of purpose.

Soon after Governor’s Rule was imposed in the state on June 20, National Conference leader and former CM Omar Abdullah asked for fresh elections on convincing grounds, but the Centre was not listening. After ejecting the PDP’s Mehbooba Mufti from the chief minister’s position, the Centre was in triumphalist mood. It wanted to run the show all by itself in the first instance, as it looked around to cobble together a pliant government that it could steer.

The BJP was way short of numbers even after counting in its local ally, Sajjad Ghani Lone of the People’s Conference. The only way forward was to break the PDP through inducements of every kind. The stage was thus set for a return to the days of pre-militancy politics when on several occasions the Centre did everything conceivable that was unholy — all in the name of stability and keeping the nation’s enemies at bay.

After June 20, the younger Abdullah argued persuasively that in the political milieu of the day, only an opportunist government could be formed —put together by horse-trading — with the BJP’s blessings. Thus, to avoid mockery of the popular will, it might be best to go back to the electorate. Subsequently, the Congress and the PDP proffered the same argument.

But the Assembly was kept in suspended animation, not dissolved. In light of the farcical municipal election which the NC and PDP — the two most consequential regional parties in the Valley — boycotted, permitting the BJP to capture municipal bodies practically uncontested, the regional parties found it necessary to change the basic political coordinates.

The sworn adversaries began moves to come together and rope in the Congress as well. This alarmed the Narendra Modi government and the governor was activated. If the PDP, NC and Congress came together, they would have overwhelming strength in the Assembly. To abort this move, efforts were stepped up to break the PDP. While in a probing move, Ms Mufti wrote to the governor to sound him on the prospect of forming a government, Mr Lone also wrote staking his claim on the strength of the backing of BJP MLAs and “others”, without specifying their affiliation. This gives the game away, of course.

It was evident that the BJP’s micro-mini partner People’s Conference hadn’t been able to rope in enough defectors and would never be able to best the PDP-NC-Congress move. Sensing political trouble ahead if the BJP’s opponents were permitted to come to power through the normal route, the governor dissolved the Assembly. This is panic in the face of democracy succeeding.