Jammu and Kashmir Finance Minister Haseeb Ahmed Drabu claimed that the alliance between the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which no one thought would last a week, has now turned into a durable one.
Speaking at the “India Ideas Conclave 2017” in Goa, Drabu said, “It is true that it is a very fragile and contentious alliance. As Mufti saab (former JK CM Mufti Mohammad Sayeed) used to say, it is the North Pole and South Pole coming together. But with some degree of maturity displayed by either side, it is really working towards the developmental of Jammu and Kashmir.”
Speaking about the alliance, Drabu said that right on day one itself the alliance had issues. “But Mufti saab was a confident leader all his life. When he started in the 1960s, the Congress and any party from the rest of country was looked down upon. He (Mufti) ensured through consistent hard work that the Congress becomes an acceptable part of life,” the minister said.
Drabu said that when the PDP was contemplating to form an alliance with the BJP, people were asking the party (PDP) why it was not working with the Congress. The minister said that the alliance with the BJP was a “bold decision” taken by Mufti.
“We had contested elections on an anti-BJP plank and yet we decided to have alliance with them (BJP). I happened to work very closely with him at that particular time,” he said. “All of us told him that it is suicidal and that we won’t be able to step out of the house, we will get lynched,” Drabu recalled telling the former chief minister.
“He (Mufti) stuck to it. He said the people of India have voted for the BJP. He said that he was not engaging with the party (BJP), he was engaging with the people of India,” Drabu recounted.
Drabu added that Mufti Mohammad Sayeed brought back the whole concept of civil society into the decision and went ahead and formed the government with the BJP. Drabu called the alliance a “huge experiment” and said it actually displays certain leadership quality to set in motion a process to create a framework to resolve the most contagious issues in the state.
