BJP president Amit Shah is sending Ram Madhav to Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday, to try and re-stitch the alliance with Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti. Yet the Central government’s Intelligence Bureau (IB) has no clue as to what she’s thinking.
A mini-crisis has been brewing in the state since Mehbooba’s father, the sitting chief minister Mufti Mohd Sayeed, passed away on 7 January. He had run a government in alliance with the BJP in J&K for ten months, which was unpopular in the Valley and led to a huge plunge in the party’s popularity. There is no doubt why Mehbooba hasn’t rushed to become CM – though everyone, even her rival Omar Abdullah of the National Conference (though tauntingly) – has been telling her to do so. She’s got herself into a bit of a cul-de-sac, which would make any input from the IB more valuable to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval.
Mehbooba, however, keeps her own counsel. She trusts no one. IB officials privately describe her as paranoid, though that may just be out of sheer frustration.