Why New Delhi chose Union finance secretary RP Wattal to handle political crisis in Jammu & Kashmir

SRINAGAR: Union finance secretary RP Wattal, who was close to late chief minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed, has become New Delhi’s troubleshooter for any possible crisis between Jammu & Kashmir and New Delhi.

Wattal’s relevance — and importance — for J&K can be gauged from the fact that last year, Sayeed offered him the post of chief secretary of the state. However, PDP sources said that he was not relieved by the central government to assume his new role.

But now with confusion gripping the state over formation of government, New Delhi has sent Wattal, a senior bureaucrat, instead of a politician, to tackle the situation, underlying the Centre’s resolve to focus on Centre-state relations rather than BJP-PDP alliance.

Last week, when PDP hardened its stand and announced its decision to review the ‘Agenda of Alliance’, a common minimum programme with BJP, Wattal came to Srinagar in a special plane to meet Mehbooba at her Fairview residence, and had an hour-long discussion with her, the details of which were not made public.

Wattal was the man behind the Rs 80,000-crore package announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in November last. During his meeting, Wattal is believed to have assured Mehbooba of timely progress on financial allocation and funds transfer mentioned in the Agenda of Alliance (AoA).

Significantly, three days after RP Wattal’s visit, PDP held a meeting and mellowed its stance towards BJP. After the meeting, senior minister and PDP functionary Naeem Akhtar described the Agenda of Alliance a “sacred document”, and said the party wanted its unconditional implementation in good faith.

The party, however, maintained its ambiguous silence on government formation, which only Mehbooba Mufti is authorised to take a final call on. Wattal, a 1978-batch IAS officer, is also close to Jammu & Kashmir governor NN Vohra and had several meetings with him during the 10-month PDP-BJP rule in the state.

“Now everything revolves around Agenda of Alliance, and Mehbooba wants assurance from New Delhi on this. Wattal knows the financial and development aspects of the agenda very well,” said a PDP leader, requesting anonymity.