Tightrope in a Divided House

Mehbooba is facing a backlash from within PDP and ally BJP isn’t making it any easier.

- Naseer Ganai

THE PDP-BJP ruling alliance is about to complete two years. To many observers, that is quite a feat considering the two parties don’t see eye-to-eye ideologically and the alliance’s architect, former chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, is no more. The latest survival test it scraped through came last month when Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, in her speech at the Legislative Assembly, described as “anti-nationals” all those who demand the abrogation of the Article 370 of Indian Constitution, which gives special status to Jammu and Kashmir. Speaker Kavinder Gupta, who calls himself a “proud RSS worker”, saved the coalition by adjourning the assembly the next day. A BJP member had wanted to get the reference to “anti-nationals” expunged from the records, and with Gupta’s permission, it would have amounted to a no confidence motion against the CM.