How governor Satya Pal Malik prevented a political crisis in the valley

At the end of a dramatic day, Jammu and Kashmir Governor Staya Pal Malik on Wednesday night dissolved the State assembly.  On one hand People’s Democratic Party (PDP), National Conference (NC) and Indian National Congress (INC) claimed to form the government, whereas, on the other hand Sajjad Lone from Jammu & Kashmir People’s Conference along with the Bharatiya Janata Party claimed a stake in the same.

PDP’s Mehbooba Mufti teamed with its nemesis National Conference along with Congress claimed for a shot at government with the support of 56 legislators in 87-member Jammu & Kashmir assembly. Challenging the above claim Sajjad Lone claimed to form the government with the support of 25 legislators of the Bharatiya Janata Party and “more than 18” others.

Bringing both claims to a halt, acting swiftly, Governor Malik dissolved the government, “The impossibility of forming a stable government by the coming together of political parties with opposing political ideologies including some which have been demanding dissolution of the Assembly; whereas the experience of the past few years shows that with the fractured mandate that is there in the Assembly, it is not possible to form a stable government comprising of like-minded parties,” he said in a statement.

Adding to this he said, “The coming together of such parties in a grouping is nothing but an attempt to gain power rather than to form a responsive government.” He also spoke of “reports of extensive horse trading and possible exchange of money”.

PDP and NC coming together came as a shocker in the political backyard as both these parties have been arch-rivals of each other for a long time. Omar Abdullah offering his support to PDP in forming the government later on proved Governor Malik’s stance of ‘impossibility of the political ideologies coming together’ as he went on to tweet:

The very first line that Omar wrote,” And I never thought I’d be retweeting anything you said” clearly goes on to show their enmity with Mufti, which can also be seen as the their (PDP & NC’s) hurried attempt to form the government.

What added more spice to the whole controversy was a ‘fax-machine’, Yes a fax machine!

Mehbooba Mufti was trying to send her letter to the Raj Bhawan but that didn’t reach Governor Malik. He clarified it by saying that, “he had no prior communication about either PDP-NC or PC-BJP wishing to form a government. He said he did not receive Mehbooba Mufti’s letter sent by fax, which she also put out on twitter, because the fax machine at his residence and office was broken.”  

In 2014 assembly elections in the state PDP and the BJP had formed an alliance that could only last 40 months as BJP parted their saying, “it had become impossible to continue in the government given the growing radicalism and terrorism in J&K.”

Today in the morning, BJP J&K state President Ravinder Raina said, “The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has called for an important meeting with all its MLAs today and we will decide the future course of action. We wish that the Assembly elections in J&K should be conducted along with the Parliament elections”.

Rather than seeing it as an autocratic decision, Governor Satya Pal Malik’s decision should be seen as a well thought out idea since giving a nod to PDP, NC and INC alliance wouldn’t bear fruit as the reluctant marriage between the two parties wouldn’t have lasted long. It would only result in political unrest and the state of Jammu & Kashmir would not get a stable government.

The idea of fresh elections will only benefit the state and till the dates are not announced the PDP, NC and INC can actually ponder over whether they can last long and can tackle the third-front that Sajjad Lone has come up with.