The elusive stability

Surprising outcomes have always been the cornerstone of political chaos that is inflicted due to divergent interests and arguments. Of course, keeping into account the 'democratic' context of such a chaos is essential since the heated dissent of any such political drama has the very democracy as its epicentre. Congress leader Manish Tewari, Loktantri Janata Dal Chief Sharad Yadav, and Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav opined on how 'undemocratic' the recent dissolution of J&K's Assembly has been. Their stand against this haphazardly taken 'coincidental' decision of dissolving the Jammu & Kashmir Assembly comes right after the great rivals, namely PDP-NC-Congress, decided to take claim to the 6-month-old suspended Assembly citing the need to rescue the state from the mess it has since been in. Confusion prevailed for a short while on how the three rival parties brushed aside their disparities to create an optimal solution in the state's interest. However, as things stood, the Governor, Satya Pal Malik chose to do what JKNC, independently, had been demanding for five months. He dissolved the Assembly to nip the ambitions of the grand coalition. However, Omar Abdullah remains of the opinion that it was not a coincidence as he tweeted the same. It is interesting to note how the timing of the dissolution seems to be perfectly aligned as a retort to Mehbooba Mufti's letter to the Governor vis a vis claim. Adding to the situation is the curious case of the fax machine which did not work in Mufti's case, however, stood perfectly functional when issuing the order of dissolution, as stated by Mufti in her tweet. But technical glitches can always be given the benefit of doubt, no matter how dubious the situation may seem. However, P Chidambaram heavily disagrees stating that "As long as no one staked a claim to form the government, J&K Governor was happy to keep Assembly under suspension. The moment someone staked a claim, he dissolved the Assembly! Parliamentary democracy standing on its head!" He brings the attention towards the BJP- appointed Governor puppeteering his way into the whims of BJP. Former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Ghulam Nabi Azad told PTI: "It is clear that BJP's policy is either we or nobody" which broadens the implicitly hovering possibility of BJP's insecurity regarding the probable grand coalition and their collective interest of claiming the suspended Assembly. "The best option in such a scenario is to go in for a fresh election at the earliest. This assembly cannot produce a stable government," is what BJP concluded with after the Governor's actions which nulled the seemingly impossible effort of forming an alliance between the rival parties. Mehbooba Mufti condemned this unforeseen development but praised the rival leaders for their intent.

BJP's remark of "combination of terror-friendly parties" for the probable coalition of rivals, however, did not fit in the scenario. BJP national general secretary Ram Madhav accused PDP and NC of acting at Pakistan's behest and later retracted his words upon being dared to prove his allegations, just hours later. It is highly unlikely that his words, even if retracted, got hidden in the altercation revolving around this surprising episode in the J&K Assembly. "You have RAW, NIA & IB at your command (CBI too is your parrot) so have the guts to place evidence in the public domain. Either prove this or be man enough to apologise. Don't practice shoot & scoot politics," Omar Abdullah posted furiously on Twitter signifying his pro-India ideology that was conveniently questioned by Ram Madhav. Amidst the turmoil, the situation of J&K has been subjected to an exercise which further complicates the already chaotic scenario. A strong determination to resolve the issues that the state is currently embroiled in should be the way ahead irrespective of whether it is Governor's rule or a grand coalition of rivals. The fact is that political stability is absolutely necessary and an undeterred focus towards it is what is needed to effectively handle the predicaments. Political instability fuels the complicated fire that the state is engulfed in and rhetorics by politicos certainly doesn't help the situation. The words of Frank D. Roosevelt — "In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way", reverb all over the recent episode.