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| Ideologically vague BJP doesn't know what it says | | Search for 'nationalist' Muslims in K | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Aug 11: The stand of the BJP till not so-long-ago was that Kashmiri Muslims were nationalists like the Hindus and that it was the pseudo-secular parties like the National Conference and the Congress which all along played divisive politics to hold the Kashmiri Muslims aloof from the national mainstream. But the attitude of what could be termed as an ideologically bankrupt BJP towards the Kashmiri Muslims has undergone a radical change. It now no longer considers them nationalist. It now talks differently and virtually says that there is dearth of nationalist Muslims in the Valley.
Besides, it has claimed that it has started a programme aimed at identifying nationalist Muslims in the Valley so that they joined the BJP and help it expand its support-base in Kashmir. Till date, Kashmir has not returned any BJP person either to the Assembly or to any local-self-governing institutions in Kashmir. In the last assembly elections, the BJP, it seemed, spent hundreds of crores of rupees and roped in the likes of Hina Bhat to open its account, but the Kashmiri electorate rebuffed the BJP. The result was that all the BJP candidates, barring one, forfeited their security deposits. Even the campaign of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who didn't raise the slogan of Bharat Mata ki Jai or Bande Mataram during his election rally in Srinagar, had failed to move the Kashmiri Muslims.
It was none other than BJP spokesperson for Kashmir Khalid Jehangir, who on August 9 disclosed the party's plan to identify nationalist Muslims in the Kashmir Valley while talking to a leading English language national daily. "The party has decided to identify people who are Indian nationalists. The motive is to destroy National Conference patronage. The Abdullah family came close to the Congress and they jointly pushed the Kashmiri people to a corner. Pakistan exploited the situation and brought violence," Jehangir told the said national daily.
Jehangir, according to a report, has also been charged with the responsibility of "compiling a list of Indian nationalists in Kashmir and said the BJP feels the need of building an "elite intellectual class", which think "within the framework of the constitution and has unquestionable faith in Indian democracy".
Khalid Jehangir and former police officer Farooq Khan had joined the BJP ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections at Hiranagar, Kathua district), where the then Prime Ministerial Narendra Modi addressed an election rally. In fact, it was Narendra Modi who admitted them to the BJP. Jehangir was later appointed spokesperson of the BJP for Kashmir region and Khan state BJP spokesperson. Impressed by his work, the BJP high command appointed Khan as BJP national secretary, thus showing the entire local BJP leadership its right place and suggesting that there was none in the state BJP who could be considered for a national level assignment. Khan is the first BJP leader in Jammu & Kashmir who rose so swiftly and become a national level leader within a short span of 16 months.
As said, Khalid Jehangir has disclosed the BJP plan to identify Indian nationalists in Kashmir. This is a dangerous plan. For, it dismisses the Kashmiri Muslims as not-nationalists. How could he, or for that matter the BJP, take a line that suits the Kashmiri separatists and even the parties like the National Conference and creates doubts in the minds of the people across the country, and even in the world, about the credentials of Kashmiri Muslims? Kashmiri Muslims are part of the Indian nation; they are not a race apart as the National Conference, the Congress and Kashmiri separatists want us to believe.
Earlier, BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra had claimed on a national television that the BJP got mandate from the Hindus in Jammu region and PDP got Muslim mandate from Kashmir. He explained things in a manner as if he was speaking for the RSS and Muslim League.
It appears the BJP high command has given a freehand to its spokespersons or it doesn't know what it is doing and what its spokespersons have been saying. One thing is absolutely clear: The BJP is playing a very dangerous politics whose results could be disastrous both for the state and the Indian nation. |
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