J&K poll: Will PDP promise of achche din work?

Sajjad Gani Lone condemns Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He even ridicules the party patron Mufti Muhammad Sayeed. He says Mufti has already ordered an achkan for his swearing in ceremony as he believes he will be next chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir. Lone says PDP is New Delhi’s party, created by agencies (agencies here mean intelligence agencies) and it has no credibility. The party, he adds, is shocked over the bonhomie between him and BJP. The PDP’s win is a pipe dream, Lone adds. He says the party was responsible for the imposition of AFSPA (Armed Forces Special Powers Act) and killings of Kashmiris in early 90s. He says credibility of Sayeed was so low in J&K that he would have to contest elections from Muzaffarnagar in UP. The PDP has baggage, he says, whereas he has none. 

Despite all this “baggage” PDP is a strong force in Jammu and Kashmir today. Unlike Lone's Peoples Conference and Omar Abdullah's National Conference, PDP has set high goals for itself. Peoples Conference wants to make a mark, while National Conference is keen to retain its 28 MLAs. But like BJP, PDP dreams big, of formng the government in Jammu and Kashmir. 

In the parliamentary elections, Dr Farooq Abdullah had wished to blast the PDP with guns and grenades. Like BJP’s Hina Bhat, Farooq later modified his statement and said he was talking about political grenades and guns. Farooq has wit. He says his people are his guns and grenades. Hina Bhat had said she would pick up the gun if Article 370 was revoked. Later she said she was talking about the political gun. 

In the Lok Sabha polls, however, Farooq's political guns and grenades didn't work. Perhaps NC has forgotten how to use them. The PDP won all three Lok Sabha seats in the Valley. And in the Assembly elections the party is campaigning in all regions of the state. When all the focus is on the BJP, Modi and Mission-44, PDP is keeping a low profile, deliberately, with Mufti Muhammad Sayeed allowing all renegades of the NC and other parties. The party’s self-rule agenda is out of the window. PDP does talk about the self-rule in its manifesto but in its rallies the party talks about governance. The party has created a notion about its three year rule from mid 2002 to mid 2005, saying they were the state's achche din.

Why and how has the PDP created a niche for itself when some 15 years ago its leaders were looking for safe constituencies in UP to fight elections? 

The PDP, over the years, has invested in its three year rule. It has projected them as the best model of governance. It has taken credit for the Mughal Road that links Muslim-dominated regions of Rajouri Poonch to the Valley. It has over the years repeatedly stated that it was PDP which opened road link between two Muslim areas possible. Mufti says it was because of the PDP government that Muzaffarabad-Srinagar road was opened. In Ladakh, PDP promises a road to Khasgar. In Jammu, they promise a road to Sialkot. 

Since BJP president Amit Shah revealed its Mission-44 agenda, the PDP has not been silent. The party has positioned itself as the only party that can stop the Modi wave. The PDP started engaging Kashmiri pundits by talking about their dignified return to valley, by calling for minority status to Sikhs, by seeking ST status for Paharis. Mufti in rallies say says separatists have the right to call for poll boycott but at the same time asks people to vote. His MLAs ask people to vote and then they remind them that if they do not vote, a Hindu may well become chief minister of a Muslim majority state. 

In political rallies, Mufti Muhammad Sayeed behaves differently. He doesn't criticise Omar Abdullah and instead gives best practices from his three year rule. He behaves as if he has already secured enough seats to form the government. We will know on December 23 whether his strategy has succeeded or note.