Waiting for government

There was a polarisation along religious lines with the Peoples Democratic Party winning most of its seats in the Valley, and the Bharatiya Janata Party failing to get a single seat outside of Jammu.

After a bitter campaign and a hotly contested election, political parties in Jammu and Kashmir could not possibly have come to a quick agreement on power-sharing and government-formation. With the post-poll negotiations complicated further by the nature of the verdict — different communities in different regions voted differently — Governor’s Rule was perhaps inevitable in the short term. Clearly, there was a polarisation along religious lines with the Peoples Democratic Party winning most of its seats in the Valley, and the Bharatiya Janata Party failing to get a single seat outside of the Jammu region. Ladakh, incidentally, favoured the Congress. As the single largest party with 28 seats in the 87-member Assembly, the PDP took the lead in the negotiations to form a government. But contrary to what PDP leaders would have the people of J&K believe, the sticking points in their negotiations with the BJP are not Article 370 or the Armed Forces Special Powers Act. Assurances on such serious issues cannot possibly be obtained or given by political parties as part of bargaining for power. What is at stake for the PDP is the chief ministership for the entire six-year term. For the BJP, similarly, getting a shot at the chief ministership, even if only for half a term, is extremely important as a step forward in its expansion plans in J&K.

The offer of support from National Conference leader and former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah only made matters worse for the PDP. Although the BJP is its ideological opposite, the PDP would have preferred a power-sharing agreement with the saffron party than with its main rival in Kashmir, the NC. With the opening up of the possibility of support from the NC and the Congress, the PDP now will have more trouble explaining to its support base any tie-up with the BJP. For the PDP, sharing power with the NC would also have meant conceding some of the ground it had wrested from that party in the last few years. The PDP can hope to expand only at the expense of the NC, and too close an identification with the NC could harm the PDP’s long-term prospects in the Valley. Forming a government under these circumstances is certainly difficult, but J&K surely deserves an elected government after the people turned out to vote in large numbers. Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with justifiable pride about the peaceful election and the high voting percentage, but the democratic process would not be complete until J&K gets an elected government committed to its growth and development. All parties might need to rethink their negotiation strategy. What is required of them is the scaling down of personal ambitions, and a readiness to be more accommodative to political rivals.