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| Not a word of praise for BJP in six months | | Time to introspect | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Aug 30: The BJP, which till February 2015 was considered by some as the nation's and Jammu region's mouthpiece, today stands thoroughly discredited and isolated in the region. It would complete six months in office as a junior partner in the PDP-led coalition government on Monday, but during all these months, not a single word of praise was said by anyone in Jammu region for the BJP. Contrarily, the people of Jammu region as one man repeatedly condemned the BJP and charged it with "betraying the mandate" it won in the last crucial assembly elections. The people, cutting across party lines, used all kinds of invectives and epithets against the BJP, accused it of "cheating" them and their region and termed it as a party "worse than the Congress and similar other Kashmir-centric parties and formations".
"We committed a grave blunder by trusting it and voting for it. We had voted for the BJP hoping that it, if came into power, would accelerate the process of the state's integration into India, isolate and bring to justice separatists of all hues, take on the separatist-friendly Kashmiri parties and expose their perverted and sectarian ideology and end discrimination with us," the angry and alienated people of Jammu region repeatedly said, and added that "they were paying through their nose for the sin they committed by returning to the assembly 25 BJP MLAs". Even the non-BJP political parties attacked the BJP on a daily basis and these included the NC, the Congress, the Panthers Party and even its coalition partner, the PDP. The aggrieved people of Jammu region not only dismissed with contempt the BJP through statements and press conferences, but organized massive protests against it in its own bastion, Jammu city. They organized three massive bandhs against the BJP on April 24, May 27 and also six-day-long bandh between July 31 and August 5. Besides, they organized two candlelight protest marches and one huge, huge Lalkar Rally in between to register their protest against the BJP and it "politics of bluff and deceit" and for its bias in favour of Kashmir and insensitivity towards Jammu region.
The nature of anger of the people of Jammu against the BJP could be seen from the fact that a very heavy contingent of police had to deployed in and around the Pt Prem Nath Dogra Bhawan, as it had become a target of the people of Jammu. Even the Deputy Commissioner would visit the Bhawan to reassure the looked-down-upon and frightened BJP MPs, MLAs and MLCs and the roundly condemned BJP leaders to reassure them that the district administration was there to avoid any untoward incident. Such was the nature of anger that these BJP legislators and small time BJP leaders didn't dare to venture out of their houses for days together without a foolproof security cover. The civil administration had to tighten the security grid around the official residences of BJP ministers and MLAs. They were so mortally afraid of the agitating people of Jammu region, who didn't spare even the Speaker of the Assembly, the BJP MLA from Gandhi Nagar. Indeed, the period between April and August was very difficult for the BJP. The situation in the Jammu region has not changed a bit. The people continue to lambaste the BJP and its "anti-Jammu" policies. They want the BJP to be thrown out lock, stock and barrel with more radical among them saying that "it would be a crime against man and God if someone goes near any BJP leader" and opining that "it would be suicidal for the people of Jammu region to trust a party that repeatedly abused and murdered Syama Prasad Mookerjee and threw its ideology to the wind for the sake of power".
Why have the people of Jammu region turned against the BJP? Why do they want to decimate the BJP and make it a story of the past? What are their grievances against the BJP? The people of Jammu region have several grievances against the BJP. They say that it won equal number of seats, but handed over to Kashmir all the vital departments, all the vital positions in the government and all the department and offices which look after internal security-related matters. They say that had hoped that Jammu region would get equal share, if not more, with Kashmir in the Cabinet, in the governance of the state and in the corporations, boards and recruitment agencies, but the BJP "cheated" them, bartered their interests and deprived them of their due share, thus further consolidating the Kashmiri hegemony and domination over the Jammu region. They say that they had hoped that the BJP would adopt a hard approach towards separatists and Pakistani agents, but it did just the opposite, declared Jammu & Kashmir a disputed territory and described Hurriyat and Pakistan stakeholders in the state. These and several other similar actions of the BJP have only added to the Jammu's anger. And what added to their anger all the more was the manner in which the sanctioned AIIMS was snatched from Jammu.
Besides the manner in which the BJP dealt with the issue of AIIMS that brought the entire population of Jammu region on the roads for days together, certain statements made by senior BJP leader further added fuel to the fire. The statements which shocked, alarmed and angered them included "no power on earth can snatch AIIMS from Kashmir and it will not be established in Jammu" and "India is using our land and water and we will see to it that the NHPC-run projects in the state were handed over to the state government. Another development that dumbfounded the people of Jammu region was the resolution to which the BJP was a party that condemned India for what called "repeated ceasefire violations across the international border and Line of Control". It is pertinent to mention here that the BJP cheated people of Jammu region thrice as for as the AIIMS issue was concerned.
One can catalogue here many provocative statements which were made by various BJP leaders and ministers. Suffice to say that the BJP did nothing for the people of Jammu region and left the Jammu-based refugees of all varieties, numbering more than 1.5 million, in the lurch and sealed the fate of the people of Jammu region for decades and decades together by accepting the anti-Jammu suggestion that delimitation of assembly constituencies could be done "as required by law" and by "as required by law", it meant grant of veto power to Kashmir.
The prevailing anger in Jammu region against the BJP, which has been playing "dirty games" and is interested only in transfers, appointments and posting of its men and women, needs to be viewed in this context. The truth, in short, is that the BJP has willfully and deliberately failed Jammu region to remain in the good books of Kashmir, which is not going to happen. Kashmir is as it is and it hates the BJP from the core of its heart. The question is: Will the BJP change itself? The answer appears to be a big NO. It committed several sins in the past six months and it will commit many more in the days to come because it has been asked to tread a particular path by the party high command, which broke the jinx in Jammu & Kashmir by jeopardizing the national interests in the state. It calls as "pragmatic politics" what it has been doing to the people of Jammu region. |
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