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| Is under-pressure BJP distancing itself from PDP? | | 'Mookerjee's line sacred for us' | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Feb 23: The BJP, which has been in the line of fire all across the country for its "dubious" stand on Jammu and Kashmir and for compromising its ideology for power for months, is, it seems, slowly but surely distancing itself from the PDP. The BJP after becoming part of the government in the state never ever made any political statement and observed criminal silence even when the situation in the Valley had assumed alarming proportions and the anger in Jammu was mountung. So much so, it fired two law officers, who had interpreted the cow-killing and beef-eating laws as they were and went with the finance minister's unilateral and highly provocative decision to impose jaziya on the sacred Hindu religious places. Besides, it adopted anti-Jammu stand on the issues of All-India Institute of Medical Sciences and Tawi Artificial Lake. These issues were very dear to the people of Jammu. There are many other instances which only serve to suggest that it had adopted a very hostile attitude towards issues of Jammu and national import.
However, during the past few days, especially after the BJP general secretary Ram Madhav's meeting with PDP president Mehbooba Mufti in Srinagar on February 17, BJP leaders have started making political statements which resonate with Jammu and the nation as a whole and anger the PDP leadership. It was none other than Ram Madhav, the BJP's point man for the state and one of the architects of the agenda of alliance, who took the lead. On February 18, he dismissed all speculations that the BJP "could consider lifting of Armed Forces Special Powers Act". The statement got maximum coverage for obvious reasons.
The same day another BJP leader and former Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh gave interview to Kashmir-based news agency and denied reports that the BJP had discussions with the PDP on the issue of NHPC-managed and controlled power projects in the state.
Responding to a pointed question, Nirmal Singh said: "Returning of power projects from NHPC didn't figure in the meeting. PDP did not set any condition during the meeting but it was stressed upon that both parties should govern on the basis of already formulated Agenda of Alliance".
The statements of Madhav and Singh were very significant because these had the potential of further straining the already rather strained relations between the two former coalition partners.
On Monday, the BJP went several steps further and declared that for the party the line of Syama Prasad Mookerjee on Jammu and Kashmir was more sacred than power. It was BJP's national spokesperson Sambit Patra who made this statement. He said the "BJP was committed to removing those provisions from the constitution under which the state has the right to have two constitutions and two flags. He didn't stop just there". He went on to say that "the BJP has already knocked at the doors of the state High Court and Supreme Court to get these provisions (read Article 370 and Article 35-A of Indian Constitution) declared null and void as they made invidious and unjust distinctions between Jammu and Kashmir and other states of the Union". He made this very important statement when the nationalistic credentials of the BJP were questioned by the JDU and the Congress party.
All this should suggest that the BJP has decided to maintain distance from the PDP to satisfy its constituency in Jammu and rest of the country, where everyone is attacking the BJP for entering into an alliance with PDP. |
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