BJP must not play with fire

The Kashmiri parties have made it loud and clear through their unambiguous statements that they would contest elections -- as and when held -- only on emotive, divisive, and unsettling planks

The Kashmiri parties have made it loud and clear through their unambiguous statements that they would contest elections -- as and when held -- only on emotive, divisive, and unsettling planks
The Kashmiri parties have made it loud and clear through their unambiguous statements that they would contest elections -- as and when held -- only on emotive, divisive, and unsettling planks

Polls for Abdullahs and Muftis mean the opportunity to hurt India

The BJP National Executive (NE) is scheduled to meet in New Delhi on January 16 and 17. A report suggests that “it will also discuss the political and security scenario in the J&K UT, along with nine other states where Assembly polls are due this year”. According to the report, “the J&K BJP leaders (have) said that Assembly elections in J&K will be discussed just like nine other states…and tasks will be assigned to the UT leaders”. The report further said: “On its part, the BJP wants to be fully prepared for the Assembly elections, though a call on the polls has to be taken by the Election Commission in March after taking the assessment of the situation from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and J&K administration”.

Grave evils

It is difficult to predict the outcome of the NE because the BJP is known for springing surprises. Things would become clear only on January 17. However, the national interest, statesmanship, and exigency of the time demand a detailed and serious discussion on the grave evils which would follow the installation of a Kashmiri-led separatist and terrorist-friendly government in J&K UT. That election would automatically mean retransfer of the state power to the fundamentally separatist Kashmiri leaders could be seen from the fact that they would win all 47 seats in Kashmir and also capture at least 10-12 seats out of 43 in Jammu province. In other words, the Kashmiri parties, which are backed to the hilt by the patently subversive Congress, will win almost 60 seats in the 90-member House.

Exercise in self-deception

The oft-repeated claim of the BJP that it will win “50+ seats and form the government on its own strength” is nothing but an exercise in self-deception. The BJP may not win even all the 30-odd Hindu-dominated seats in Jammu province. The elections in J&K UT would for the first time lead to the installation of a 100 percent Muslim ministry. This is the ground reality. To overlook it would be only to play with fire and help the subversive Kashmiri leadership create Kashmir-like situation in Jammu province and further hurt India.

Wrecking the state is their motto

The Kashmiri parties have already made it loud and clear through their unambiguous statements that they would contest elections — as and when held — only on emotive, divisive, and unsettling planks. A reference to just what two parties – National Conference (NC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) – have said in this regard would be quite an in order.

On December 13, 2022, an ardent believer in the concept of limited accession, NC vice-president and former J&K CM Omar Abdullah, inter-alia, said: “The abrogation of Article 370 will be an issue in the Assembly elections…It is obvious that this election will not be contested merely on bijli, sadak, and pani (electricity, roads, and water). Whatever has happened since August 5, 2019, will be an issue in the elections. Let’s see what the people’s verdict is…The NC will repeal the Public Safety Act (PSA) if it forms the government in the UT after the Assembly elections”.

Not content with what he said on December 13, Omar Abdullah on January 11, 2023, went several steps further and explained what the Kashmiri leadership would do after the formation of the new government in the UT. He, among other things, said: “Election is our constitutional right. However, we will not beg for this right before New Delhi. We are not beggars. BJP doesn’t want elections here. They are fond of harassing people. They know if polls are held the elected representatives will come to the side of common people and heal their wounds that BJP inflicted after August 2019 till date”. “That’s why they are not holding elections. They want to ‘harass’ the people. Instead of applying balm to the wounds of people, they seem to have a penchant to aggravate the hurt…The BJP government knows that an elected government will try to heal the wounds of the people while they only rub salt and chilli into them,” he also said.

Earlier on November 14, 2022, protagonist of shared sovereignty and self-rule, PDP chief and former BJP-made J&K CM Mehbooba Mufti had said in Srinagar that “our identity and our existence are at stake. It’s not about Article 370 and 35A; it is about the issue of J&K. If people of J&K unite, we can achieve more than the restoration of special status”.

And 13 days later, she further explained her party’s position and, inter-alia said: “I swear by Allah whatever BJP snatched from us on August 5, 2019, would be brought back with interest…We have formed a bond of heart with this country, the constitutional bond, but what did you do? You played with our dignity, our identity. You destroyed the whole State. This will not work… Kashmir is connected to India through its constitution. But you’ve (BJP) destroyed the constitution. India doesn’t belong to BJP. Till the time you don’t resolve the Kashmir issue, you won’t see any results no matter how many troops you send here”.

The stand of other Kashmiri parties on J&K, on New Delhi, Pakistan, and China, on August 5, 2019, and on elections and what will they do after they win elections is no different. All the Kashmiri parties are on the same page. They all work against India. They all want not just restoration of “special status” but something more than that. Their motto is to convert Jammu, separate J&K from India, establish Nizam-e-Mustafa, and wreck India. Take it from me, they will be more ruthless this time; they will avenge what they call “the August 5, 2019 humiliation” in a manner you just can’t imagine; and they will misuse the floor of the Assembly to defame India.

Hope

One can only hope and pray that good sense will finally prevail and the Narendra Modi government will take serious cognizance of what the Kashmiri leaders said on August 5, 2019, and what they have been saying since then and act accordingly. It has only one choice to exercise and the choice is: reject outright the idea of polls, segregate Jammu from Kashmir and convert Kashmir into Chandigarh-type UT forthwith so that the state power remains with the Union Home Ministry.

Note:
1. Text in Blue points to additional data on the topic.
2. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.

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2 COMMENTS

  1. That is the only workable solution- give statehood to Jammu and declare Kashmir as an UT administered by the Central. In the mean time, dig the crimes of the Abdhullas and Muftis and others divisive leaders and put them behind bars.

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