Burhan's death has exposed the deep rot in PDP-BJP alliance
Today is Union home minister Rajnath Singh's 65th birthday, a milestone for which elaborate celebrations were planned.
The party is still on, but is likely to be subdued, as the death and funeral of the Hizbul Mujahideen militant, Burhan Wani, has triggered off another bloody cycle in Jammu and Kashmir.
16 people have died, 200 are injured and around 50 are critical as Singh rushed off a special Air India flight with extra forces.
The bloody new cycle poses the stiffest street challenge to newly minted chief minister Mehbooba Mufti, especially in her own backyard of South Kashmir.
Kashmir's return to violence and unrest after a calm decade neatly underscores the fault lines in the power sharing arrangement between the BJP and PDP, currently running the government in alliance.
There is huge administrative incompetence and political confusion.
Singh is believed to have briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi late Saturday night, but a curiously tone deaf PM continued to tweet business as usual from his official Twitter handle, while Kashmir burnt again.
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| Sixty per cent of the Valley's population is below the age of 30 and Burhan Wani's exploits on social media touched this core. |
This is identical to the Pathankot episode when as the siege continued Modi tweeted about yoga.
National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval, is accompanying the PM and the home ministry officials who rushed in extra forces to Kashmir, I am told, are relieved that the NSA is not in India to micro-manage as he did during the disastrous Pathankot siege.
As former CM of Jammu and Kashmir, Omar Abdullah, pointed out in his tweet:
Aftr many yrs I hear slogans for "Azadi" resonate from the mosque in my uptown Srinagar locality. Kashmir's disaffected got a new icon y'day
— Omar Abdullah (@abdullah_omar) July 9, 2016
Abdullah also wrote:
Mark my words - Burhan's ability to recruit in to militancy from the grave will far outstrip anything he could have done on social media.
— Omar Abdullah (@abdullah_omar) July 9, 2016
This flip between Abdullah and Mufti, with her famed calling card of the "healing touch" to militants, is a pointer to the smoke and mirrors power game that is Jammu and Kashmir.
Thousands turned out for Burhan's funeral procession, which was entirely predictable, yet the paralysed administration under Mehbooba Mufti didn't have any contingency planning to counter all too expected episodes of violence.
Three police stations were set ablaze and people died.
All that the government of Jammu and Kashmir did was to suspend the mobile internet and detain the separatist Hurriyat leaders, who had already called for a huge turnout.
Says a senior official: "If the thousands who turned out had taken to stone pelting, only God could have saved us. They were largely peaceful. But, the drift has to stop. Or, after a decade, Kashmir will slip back to its romance with blood and militancy."
Home ministry officials are circumspect about what they think off Mufti's handling, but Rajnath Singh was forced to appeal publicly for peace yesterday (Saturday) as Mufti kept silent.
A top source close to her reveals to me Mehbooba Mufti is anguished. She is still to get over the loss of her father Mufti Mohammed Sayeed - the architect of the alliance with the BJP. The alliance makes his daughter hugely uncomfortable.
Top officials sympathetic to her say that while Mehbooba is a charismatic leader, she is not very comfortable as an administrator, lacking the capacity to rein in a compromised local machinery.
Sixty per cent of the Valley's population is below the age of 30 and Burhan Wani's exploits on social media touched this core.
Mufti's PDP, which was once known for its soft separatism, ill-starred in the tie-up with the BJP, and is now being viewed by this restless young as a threat to "Kashmiriyat".
Mufti has not been able to connect with this generation of youth, in their teens and early twenties, who now view her as a "power hungry opportunist", which is now providing the impetus for next generation "azadi".
The Army has repeatedly flagged its concern about the hyperactive generation next on social media growing in to an uncontrollable movement, but Delhi and Srinagar have not reacted.
The alienation is huge and growing. Burhan, a brilliant student who chose the gun, knew he was going to his death, but has unfortunately become the poster boy for the alienated.
While we celebrate the news of young Kashmiris qualifying for the UPSC, why do we forget the scores of young who are angry and alienated? This fundamental question, coupled with Kashmir's youth bulge, is haunting Mehbooba Mufti.
The alliance with the BJP has caused a huge rupture with her own constituents who see the tie-up as a betrayal. Since the violence broke out, Mufti has been in touch with BJP's Ram Madhav, who negotiated the alliance, and of course, Rajnath Singh.
Top sources tell me she was agitated and anguished. I can confirm that even Ram Madhav has not spoken to Prime Minister Modi.
Points out an MHA official: "Obama cut short his Europe visit after the violence in the USA. If the PM is not rushing back, he should at least stop tweeting about his foreign visit."
Singh has spent his birthday morning chairing a meeting of the IB chief, home secretary and joint secretary (Jammu and Kashmir) division at his home as fresh violence broke out in the Valley.
A family birthday havan is planned for the afternoon. Let's hope that Singh can propitiate the gods to calm Kashmir down as crisis looms.