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| BJP's pre-poll uproar on Art 370 falls silently dead? | | | Kunal Shrivatsa
JAMMU, June 25: Politics sometimes plays strange games with political parties as their ideologies and populism at times do not get together, the same applies for the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP), which is perhaps, going through a similar dilemma where it has 'wittingly' or 'unwittingly' dumped its one of the most sought after issue of Article 370, which has provision of special status for J&K, for one reason or the other.
Going by the stoic silence maintained by its Central and State leaders on the 'contentious' issue of Article 370 ever since Union Minister of State (MoS) in Prime Minister's Office (PMO) Dr Jitendra Singh after assuming charge on May 27 asserted that process of repealing the Article has started and all stakeholders are being taken into confidence.
Dr Singh's statement created a furore in state politics and drew sharp criticism from National Conference (NC), Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP) and Congress.
Even, Dr Singh's controversial statement on the very first day of assuming office on May 27 last did not augur well with the top brass of BJP led NDA Government which does not want to embroil itself in an unnecessary controversy so early after coming to power after 10 long years.
It looks like that the saffron party, which is the most vocal supporter to abrogate the law, has decided to put Article 370 on the back burner of its agenda of governance for now.
These days, the BJP central and local leadership is not only evading direct questions on party's stand on revocation of Article 370 but the party leaders are also making it a point not to raise the issue publicly.
If Union Minister for Finance and Defence Arun Jaitley during his recent visit to Srinagar refused to speak on Article 370, the BJP General Secretary Jagat Prakash Nadda, when visited Jammu yesterday, too preferred to remain silent on the fate of the Constitutional provision as he also avoided media queries on the issue.
Similar was the stance of Dr Jitendra Singh, who stirred up a hornet's nest last month, too remained evasive on the issue.
Dr Singh told reporters after attending BJP's core working committee meeting here yesterday made a veiled reference of Article 370 when asked by the media persons.
He simply said Article 370 is 'very much alive' in the manifesto of the party and not been dumped.
But, the million dollar question remains as what prompted BJP to abandon its 'favourite' subject of Article 370, which remained a core issue for the party from the day of its inception in 1980 and which continued to be a major poll plank in every election, be it a Lok Sabha or J&K Assembly election it fought since its emergence on the national political scene.
It may be recalled that in the run up to recently held Lok Sabha polls, the party again made abrogation of Article 370 a Central issue in its poll manifesto.
Now, with Assembly elections are inching closer, the BJP has suddenly stopped talking on Article 370 which has created a doubt that whether the party would make its revocation a poll plank or not. |
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