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| BJP's struggle for political space in Jammu and Kashmir | | Search for a clicking agenda | | Neha
Jammu, Jan 21: The Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) unit of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) got new president in the person of MLA from Nagrota Jugal Kishore Sharma last month. Two days ago, he announced the names of other office-bearers, besides the names of those who will constitute the party's executive committee. One may term it as a new team or one may describe it as old wine in a new bottle. New team in the sense that the party dispensed with most of the earlier office-bearers. Old wine in a new bottle in the sense that those who were there at the helm in the party before continue to be there in one capacity or the other. Nothing abnormal. Such things do happen and, hence, nothing surprising.
With the completion of the process that was initiated more than two months ago to give a new look to the party, the newly-appointed team of office-bearers has, according to an insider, informally started discussing ways and means of retrieving the political space the party lost over the period. It may adopt some agenda in the meeting of new office-bearers which has already been fixed.
It is difficult to say what kind of agenda they would adopt and put for sale in the political market of the State in general and Jammu province and Ladakh region in particular because the party is to operate in the State which is known as a State of irreconcilable contradictions. It has to cater to the specific needs and compulsions of the people of Jammu province and Ladakh region and evolve and implement a political policy that integrates them fully with the national mainstream and ends the age-old Kashmiri domination over them. It is not an easy task. The reason is that the people of Jammu and Ladakh stand for a system that many people in Kashmir do not like.
In other words, it is extremely difficult to maintain a balance between Kashmir and the State's two other regions. For, if the BJP vouches for a Jammu and Ladakh-specific agenda, an overwhelming majority of Kashmiri population, barring the Kashmiri Hindus and Kashmiri Sikhs, would not only hold itself aloof from it but would also dub it as a communal party. The BJP has no support-base in the Valley because the people there, like their co-religionists in other parts of India, consider it a Hindu and communal party. And, if the BJP tries to win over the people of Kashmir by advocating views which the bulk of population in the Valley appreciates, then an overwhelming majority of people in Jammu province and Ladakh region would dismiss the party as pseudo-secular or replica of the Congress party and hold themselves aloof from it.
The fact is that the BJP cannot win the confidence of the Kashmiri constituency even if it starts talking in terms in which the Kashmiri leadership talks. The Kashmiri constituency is like that constituency in the rest of the country which never appreciated even liberal Atal Behari Vajpayee. This is the situation: If the BJP addresses the genuine concerns of the people of Jammu and Ladakh, it evokes a sharp reaction from Kashmir and if it addresses the so-called concerns of Kashmir, and everyone knows what the Kashmiri concerns mean, then it drives the people of Jammu and Ladakh away from it. They are already not very pleased with it for reasons too well-known. The new team has to operate in such a complicated political environment. It can become quite relevant in Jammu province and to an extent in Ladakh's Leh district by identifying it with the sentiments of the people of these two regions, but the question is: Is it prepared to recognize that the people of Kashmir hate it from the core of their heart and focus its attention only on Jammu and Ladakh? Only the BJP leadership can answer this question. And people would come to know in a day or two as to what kind of agenda it finally adopts and makes public. The ball is in the BJP court. It is the BJP leadership which has to exercise an option between hostile Kashmir and winnable Jammu and Ladakh. Before that it has to take into consideration the fact that its position like the NC and other Kashmir-based political parties which fail to click in Jammu because of their respective political agendas. |
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