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| BJP's double standards: Shilpi dumped, totally sidelined; her martyr husband forgotten | | Saffron Brigade's use and throw policy exposed | | Bharat Bhushan
Early Times Report
Jammu, Nov 22: The saffron brigade's double-speak stands exposed to the fullest in J&K poll campaigns. The party is contesting elections on the plank of corruption but it is not opposed to the entry of corrupt politicians of other parties into its fold. Abrogation of article 370, which used to be its main poll issue in the Lok Sabha and J&K polls, has too taken a back seat. Its (un)intelligent leaders, who are known more for making off-the-cuff, tongue-in-cheek remarks, even said that "if Kashmiris want article 370 to stay, it will stay". It is mere vote-politics which BJP is actively pursuing in J&K to achieve its, as of now, unachievable Mission 44+.
The party's use and throw policy also stands exposed. LK Advani, who nurtured BJP, has now been sidelined. Several senior and dedicated BJP leaders have also been sidelined in Jammu. Vishvinder Dev, who nurtured Nowshera assembly segment in Rajouri district of Jammu region for 12 long years and developed a wide network of contacts, has been denied party ticket. He is not campaigning for the party's official candidate from Nowshera and locals have been forcing him to contest the election as an independent candidate.
Like him, Shilpi Verma, widow of Kuldeep Verma who had sacrificed his life during the 2008 Amarnath land row, too has been sidelined by the party.
So thankless is the party that it has dumped and forgotten Shilpi Verma who was BJP's star campaigner in 2008 state polls when the saffron brigade had made the land row an electoral issue. It was a strategic move of BJP to rope in Shilpi because after her husband's martyrdom, there was widespread sympathy for her among the people of Bishnah, her place of residence, and the people of other areas of Jammu region. She was given mandate from Bishnah constituency in the November 2008 J&K elections by BJP.
She was taken in the party to bolster BJP's poll prospects in Jammu region. Her joining was announced on October 23, 2008, by the party's J&K affairs' co-in charge RP Singh, and then state BJP president Ashok Khajuria in a press conference. Khajuria had said the party would welcome anyone from the families of other land row martyrs into its fold.
The party had also used Shilpi to woo women voters who constitute almost half the electorate. In the press conference R P Singh and Khajuria held the view that "she may prove to be a crowd-puller, as women had participated in the land agitation in large numbers".
The party, which is in power at the Centre, was never considered a key player in the state. It had failed to win even a single seat in J&K in the 1983 polls for 76 seats (at present there are 87 seats). It won two seats in the 1987 polls and eight in 1996 when the House strength rose to 87. In 2002, its tally crashed from 8 to 1 in the 87-member House but after it cashed-in-on the Amarnath land row, its tally for the first time touched double figure when it won all 11 seats of Jammu. Shilpi had then extensively campaigned for the party.
After its double tally in the 2008 polls, BJP started observing July 23, when Kuldeep had died, as Martyrdom Day. According to a senior state BJP leader, it was all drama and the move was aimed at gaining sympathy of the Jammu people. In the 2012 Martyrdom Day function, which was held at Bal Niketan inside Ved Mandir complex, portraits of Kuldeep and other martyrs were garlanded by BJP leaders, including then president Shamsher Singh Manhas, Ashok Khajuria, Dr Jitendra Singh, Jugal Kishore Sharma, Chander Mohan Sharma, Chander Prakash Ganga and some Sangarsh Samiti members.
But after their election to the Assembly, BJP MLAs never raised the issue of Kuldeep Verma on the floor of the House. They even did not demand action against the police officers who had shown disrespect to the martyr's body. But due to the protests in Jammu region, the government had appointed Justice O P Sharma Commission of Inquiry to probe into the circumstances that had led to the Kuldeep's death.
Justice Sharma had submitted his report to the government in April 2012 but it was not made public in view of the High Court orders. |
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