Early Times Report
JAMMU, Feb 4: Upset over the refusal by the PDP to form government with the BJP without obtaining a written assurance from the Prime Minister, Nagpur has sent RSS leader Arun, former Pranatiya Prachark to Jammu to intervene and save the coalition. Sources close to the Veer Bhavan, the RSS headquarters in Jammu, said that the "RSS is desperate for the PDP-BJP alliance and is prepared to walk an extra mile to conciliate Mehbooba Mufti". Sources said "it wants to save the coalition at whatever cost".
In 2015 also, the RSS had played an important role in the government formation in Jammu and Kashmir. Ram Madhav, former RSS spokesperson, was one of the BJP's chief interlocutors, as he had "good relations" with some top PDP leaders. He had also hobnobbed with Kashmiri separatists like Sajad Lone and ensured that he supported the BJP candidates in Kashmir in the Assembly elections.
It is a different issue that the Kashmiri electorate rejected all the BJP candidates. So much so, all, barring one BJP, candidates lost their security deposit and the BJP could get only a paltry 50, 000 votes.
The formation of the PDP-BJP coalition government in March 2015 had been endorsed by the top RSS brass at Nagpur. One top RSS functionary had even held a press conference and described the formation of the PDP-BJP coalition a good experiment.
That the RSS commended the alliance between the BJP and the PDP and that it also endorsed the divisive and anti-Jammu and anti-Ladakh Agenda of Alliance despite the fact that it maintained the existing separate status the state enjoyed under Article 370 and provided for something more than that was an indication that the RSS, the BJP's mentor, would go beyond the Agenda of Alliance, in case of need be. It was for capturing power and it captured it after compromising all that it stood for.
It bears recalling that Arun had also visited Jammu when the controversy over the beef issue had reportedly strained the relations between the coalition partners. He had called a meeting of some "journalists, academicians and a few civil society members" close to the RSS and pleaded in the meeting that "the coalition government must be supported for some more time". The suggestion didn't click, as most of the participants in the meeting criticized the BJP ministers and their style of functioning, as also their utter failure to deliver". According to the participants in the meeting, "Arun had left Jammu as a broken hearted person".
The beef issue had culminated in the ignominious ouster of two law officers, both the RSS-BJP nominees, as the PDP-BJP government didn't appreciate their stand on the cow-killing and beef eating laws. They had defended these laws. The fact is that the RSS and the BJP sacrificed their own men to save the coalition government.
Arun is on a mission once again in Jammu. He and the Pranatiya Prachark, Ramesh Pappa, has already met with the core committee members of the BJP and, according to insiders, "he discussed the ways which could induce the PDP to shake hands with the BJP so that their coalition government could be formed". The meeting took place at the official residence of former Forest Minister Bali Bhagat. Sources said that "BJP was more eager to become part of the government".
In the meantime, another senior RSS leader, who served the RSS in J&K for many years as Pranatiya Prachark, is also visiting Jammu in a couple of days. |
