JAMMU: BJP is stronger in its discourse as it aims at forming the government after the ongoing Assembly elections are over. The first phase is set to begin in less than a week’s time. That is September 18 when 24 Assembly constituencies out of a total of 90 will go to polls. A lot has happened since the elections were announced by Election Commission of India in deference to the directions of the Supreme Court.
The party leadership, guided by the ever-shining star on the India’s political firmament, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has made its intentions clear that it would form the Government in Jammu and Kashmir on its own, without any ally or pre-poll alliance. That has proved correct as the party has not had any handshake with any of the parties in the political arena. It has gone solo, in Jammu region which is where its strong bastions beacon it to the finish line of crossing 50 seats in the House of 90. The foundation for this goal was laid out by Union Home Minister Amit Shah on September 6 and 7 when he unveiled 25-point manifesto of the party and addressed the workers, declaring that Jammu would determine the course of the elections leading to the victory at the end of the day, that is October 8 when votes will be counted.
BJP’s political discourse in this point in time is based on some of the fundamentals – the changes that have taken place in Jammu and Kashmir since the abrogation of Article 370 on August 5, 2019, the work on which had started long ago, and the future of the Union Territory in its physical, psychological and social perspectives. It was natural for BJP to talk about the revocation of Article 370 with a lot of emphasis as it was under its rule with Narendra Modi as Prime Minister that a historical wrong was corrected. If nothing else this Article gave a feeling to the people in J&K that they were different from the rest of the country. Their idea of India was diluted by parallel symbols. This irritated the whole of the nation as it felt a part of the country that had legally and constitutionally acceded to India in 1947 continued to exist as a separate entity. The nation had two kinds of logics; why should J&K consider itself separate from the Indian union when for all practical purposes , it sat on the map of the country and drew more than due benefits . Second, the irritation was also due to the fact that there were voices challenging the Indian system and the very idea of the Indian nationhood .The terrorism that targeted Indians and who represented the country was too much to bear for the countrymen. The governments in the past were ignoring the nation’s sentiment for their political expediencies.
As Modi has done what the nation was looking for decades, he deserves credit in respecting the nation’s sentiments, and also that of the nationalistic people of J&K. Therefore, it is important that party goes to the people with this achievement. Party is looking for political gains in the elections, but in reality, it is more than that; it is furthering the cause of nationalism and the basic founding principle of “one nation, one constitution and one flag.” This has given a sense of participation to the people in Jammu and Kashmir and those who had other ideas or promoted terrorism and its infrastructure, have also fallen in line, they know that their options have been closed. Any attempt to reopen the options would have consequences because Modi government has shown it time and again, there would be no compromise on the national security and country’s integrity in whispers even.
Non-BJP parties have their own drums to beat, but the people are conscious that there is nothing that can be done with the Article 370. The jailed leader, Abdul Rashid, popularly known as Engineer Rashid, in his press conference in Srinagar on Thursday- a day after his release on interim bail to campaign for his party AIP candidates in Kashmir, said that those showing dreams of restoration of Article 370 while sitting in their luxury homes were misleading the people . “How something that Parliament has passed could be undone without either entering into dialogue with the Government or mobilizing the public opinion,” he asked. There is a catch, the people may hear slogans but they are intelligent and sane enough not to put peace of the day to risk. The BJP is the protagonist of peace in Kashmir, so it has all the right to claim that it brought normalcy to J&K. BJP should use these strong points to secure what it is aiming at- forming the government.