S P Sharma
Though new to the task of managing affairs of this ticklish border state, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti tactfully and without making any noise handled the recent controversies kicked up by the separatists and the opposition parties. These controversies had the potential of snowballing into major issues before the tourist season and the Shri Amaranth pilgrimage but the cool maintained by Ms.Mufti in dousing these down is worth appreciation.
She can be credited with having won the initial bouts against the mischievous elements that have made it an annual feature to create turmoil in the valley before the tourist season and the Hindu pilgrimage thereby badly hitting economy of artisans and those engaged in the tourist trade.
When Ms.Mufti took over reins of the state she was greeted with the controversy of desecration of the Indian national flag allegedly by the police in the campus of the National Institute of Technology (NIT) in Srinagar which she aptly handled despite all sorts of pulls and pressures. She successfully passed the acid test although attempts were made to dent her image at the national level.
Another feather in Ms.Mufti’s cap is that she has broken the shameful tradition of the Kashmiri rulers generally shirking from paying floral tributes on the coffins of the Indian soldiers martyred during encounters with Pakistan backed terrorists. She drove to the headquarters of the BSF in Srinagar last week to offer tributes to the three soldiers who were killed in an ambush by terrorists near Bijbehara.
Her performance within the legislature and outside indicates that she has the capacity to rule the state with a firm hand.
She was bold enough to ridicule the mischief mongers who have made it a weekly affair to indulge in stone pelting on the police every Friday after offering prayers in the main mosque downtown in Srinagar. She accused these elements of having converted the Holy Juma (Holy Friday) into a stone pelting day that causes problems for the peace loving people.
The separatists indirectly supported by the opposition National Conference, Congress and various other parties and individuals vainly tried to pin down Ms.Mufti on the issue of establishing a Sainik Colony in the Kashmir valley by creating an atmosphere as if her Government was committing some sin by taking into consideration the demand of soldiers. Instead of going into panic mode she boldly faced the situation and made it clear that in case at any stage such colony comes up it will be only for the permanent state subjects of J&K serving the armed forces and there was no question of settling outsiders.
The decision of her government to implement various centrally funded schemes that were beneficial to the common people was also a step in the right direction. Implementation of the scheme to provide LED bulbs at subsidized rate to consumers will help reduce consumption of electricity worth about Rs.300 crores. Side by side the need was to further reduce power consumption by replacing the existing street lights with LED.
Now that the tourist season and the Amarnath pilgrimage were fast approaching, the terrorists and mischievous elements were bound to create unpleasant scenes to keep the visitors away. The two terrorist strikes last week in the Anantnag district where Pahalgam is the base camp for the holy Amarnath pilgrimage indicate that they were bent upon creating trouble during the pilgrimage. However, the BSF and other security agencies have made it clear that the ultras will not be allowed to disturb the pilgrimage or cause harm to any pilgrim.
Another task that requires immediate attention of Ms.Mufti was to streamline the administration by making the bureaucracy responsive to the problems of the people. This aspect was to a large extent missing in J&K as compared to other states as most of the bureaucrats were in the habit of keeping themselves isolated from the grievances of the common people.
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