JAMMU: A new issue has cropped up with senior BJP leader Ram Madhav saying: “Jammu is missing from the J&K government.” What he has implied is that the most populous and Hindu-dominated parts of the region are out of the government and the National Conference government of Omar Abdullah is “Kashmir-centric.” He, as senior leader and intellectual face of the BJP, has right to interpret the government that has come into being after the historic Assembly polls.
Is it a food for thought for Jammu region? Five out of 10 districts had voted in large numbers for the BJP in the polls. It scored maximum of its 29 seats from Jammu, Samba, Kathua,Udhampur and Reasi districts. That’s a fact which cannot be ignored. The party also won four other seats -two each from Doda and Kishtwar districts in what is commonly known as erstwhile Doda district. It, by all standards, is a remarkable performance of the party in the Jammu region
There is another fact. The BJP drew blank in Kashmir, though it increased its vote share there. It is a documented fact that the party candidate in Gurez assembly constituency of Bandipore district came close to winning the seat but lost by few hundred votes. Alongside is the fact that despite very high vote share of BJP, it could not form the government, as all the independents on whom the party was depending, lost in the elections. The Valley delivered zero seats to it and its spoken and unspoken allies.
The theory seems to be based on the past experience when the Kashmir-centric governments did not give Jammu its adequate, say in political decision-making, and also shrunk its space in jobs and other opportunities. There was an overall sense and demoralizing effect on the people who felt as if they were unequal citizens, crudely putting, as second-class citizens. There was a complete sense of disempowerment, and that’s one of the reasons that the guarantees and special status enshrined in Article 370 and Article 35A were meaningless for them. They were disenchanted with the system. Their desire was for equal treatment and political-cum economic empowerment.
Since 2002 polls, when Jammu voted for Congress and became part of the coalition government with PDP, it continued to remain as discriminated as before. Its experiment of voting for Congress and thereafter expectations from the NC-Congress coalition government under Omar Abdullah also failed. The hopes soared in 2014 when the region gave 25 out of 37 seats to BJP, which later formed the government with PDP. There were expectations that the BJP that had always spoken of discrimination with the region and the people all along will end that era. The irony became clear and too soon – Jammu could not see its voice being heard and grievances redressed. The experiment of Jammu getting its full say and political empowerment failed yet again. This was conceded by the BJP as it claimed that it had withdrawn support to the PDP-led coalition government in June 2018 because PDP discriminated against Jammu and Ladakh regions, and terrorists were getting emboldened.
What could be the way out for Jammu? To have its own Chief Minister and that too from the majority community of the region -Hindu- came as an answer. The hope was that Jammu’s CM would do what others had failed. CM is CM; all the levers of power are with them.
In 2024, Jammu tried and did its best in voting for BJP, trusting the party for all what it had promised – a Jammu -led government and end of an era of discrimination once and for all. That dream crashed as the BJP could not get anything from the Valley, whereas Kashmir voted in one direction and got the government of its own. BJP is now shaping a narrative that discrimination is in store for Jammu in the days to come. It is taking past as its guide.
BJP, however, is not reflecting on one very important factor – leadership. Jammu has not been able to develop leadership that could lead the region to live up to its expectations and proper position in the polity. It is true of all parties. And BJP knows that by its own experience that there was not a single leader who moved out of the constituency than their own to campaign. There is not a single leader with any party that has pan-region appeal. Without addressing the basics, no way forward can either be conceived or achieved, but Ram Madhav has given a food for thought to Jammu, let the region and its people think what they need next time.