Indian Ruling Party Quits Kashmir Alliance
The Chief Minister of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, Mehbooba Mufti, has resigned after the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) quit a coalition with her party.
The BJP said the three-year alliance with the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) had become “untenable” in the wake of increasing violence.
The PDP’s decision to ally with the BJP had been seen as controversial.
Its time in power was marked by rising violence in the Kashmir valley. Influential Kashmiri journalist Shujaat Bukhari was killed by unidentified gunmen as he was leaving his office in Srinagar last week.
Mr Bukhari’s death was cited as one of the reasons for the BJP pulling out of the alliance.
The decision also came days after the UN’s human rights office called for an independent inquiry into human rights violations in both parts of Kashmir, run respectively by India and Pakistan. The BJP and PDP alliance was an uneasy one even at the best of times, with the two being very unlikely coalition partners on paper.
Since its formation in 1951, the BJP has maintained a hardline stance on the Kashmir issue and has stood for the repeal of Article 370 of India’s constitution which grants special autonomous status to the state.
In sharp contrast to the BJP, the PDP has been seen as a pro-Kashmir party. Critics accuse it of peddling “soft separatism” revolving around reconciliation with Pakistan and separatist groups fighting against Indian rule in Kashmir. When the alliance was forged between then PDP leader Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and the BJP, many of the party’s supporters saw it as a betrayal of its people and backers. This uneasiness marked the entire three years the coalition was in power.
BBC