Early Times Report
Jammu, Aug 5: It was the long-cherished desire of Kashmiri leaders of all shades of opinion to destroy BJP and its mentor RSS in Jammu region and create a situation in the region where the people would develop an extreme form of hatred for the BJP and the RSS. They finally succeeded in 2015. It was a political master stroke of the PDP when it roped in the willing, power hungry and unscrupulous BJP and formed coalition government with it on March 1.
Why did the Kashmiri leadership want to destroy and discredit the BJP in Jammu region, its core constituency? Why because the BJP used to advocate an ideology that didn't fit in the scheme of things of the protagonists of Kashmiri Muslim sub-nationalism. Also because the BJP used to pretend (or whatever one may say) that it was the champion of the Jammu cause and it stood for the persecuted sections of society like the refugees from West Pakistan, displaced persons from PoJK and suppressed, oppressed, persecuted and hounded out Kashmiri Hindus. Again, also because the BJP used to claim that it drew inspiration from the supreme sacrifice of Syama Prasad Mookerjee, who had laid down his life in Kashmir on June 23, 1953 to get Jammu & Kashmir completely integrated into India, and that it was a party with a difference. The today's BJP is nothing but an extension of the Kashmiri parties which have been working for the disintegration of India and achieving for Jammu & Kashmir a dispensation that is outside the political and constitutional framework of India.
It's not an over statement. It is a statement of fact. That the BJP stands destroyed and discredited it can be seen from the ongoing no-holds-barred campaign across Jammu region against the party . On the one hand, the bluffed, humiliated, cheated and badly let down people of the region have been contemptuously dubbing the BJP as a party of "betrayers, cheaters, Muslim appeasers and unscrupulous and selfish elements". And, on the other hand, the parties like the NC and the Congress, which between 1947 and March 2015 left no stone unturned to cause an immense damage to the Jammu cause, are not only identifying themselves with the Jammu cause but also accusing the BJP of betraying the people of Jammu region who voted for it.
These essentially Kashmir-centric parties are extending support to the AIIMS Coordination Committee (ACC), which has been spearheading the movement for the establishment of AIIMS in Jammu, and urging the Modi Government to concede the demand of the agitating people in the region. It is an irony of sorts.
That the BJP today stands totally discredited in Jammu region could be seen from the fact that not a single BJP minister, BJP MP, BJP MLA, BJP MLC and BJP leader could muster courage to venture out of their houses and walk freely in the streets and bazaars of Jammu. They are living under police protection and they go to the party headquarters under tight security cover. The situation has turned so critical for the BJP that even Pt Prem Nath Dogra Bhawan in the heart of Jammu city has become the target of the agitating people of Jammu region.
The fact of the matter is that the BJP today is being hated and despised by all in Jammu region, barring the rank opportunists. The most striking aspect of the whole situation is that the BJP leadership has, instead of feeling the pulse of the alienated people of Jammu region, has been committing blunder after blunder and ensuring its demise. It is rightly said that the very existence of the BJP as party in Jammu region is under grave threat. |
