Early Times Report
Jammu, June 27: As was expected, the BJP, which is desperate to win the 2019 general election, has again raked up the issue of Article 370 to tell the nation that it will never compromise its stand on this Article and that it was committed to abolishing it and merging J&K fully into India. The statement to this effect was made not by Ram Madhav, party's national general secretary and one of the architects of the nasty agenda of alliance, but by another BJP national general secretary Anil Jain in Jammu. It was a significant development that gave everyone in the state to understand that Ram Madhav had perhaps outlived its utility. But more than that, the statement of Anil Jain came two days after BJP chief Amit Shah's visit to Jammu. Ironically, Amit Shah had spoken a word on Article 370 and that too on the day of Syama Prasad Mookerjee's martyrdom in Kashmir on June 23, 1953. The Amit shah's silence ha angered many not only in Jammu but across the nation and for right reasons.
Anil Jain's anti-Article 370 needs to be viewed in this context, as also in the light of the fact that the BJP has lost its appeal and sheen in Jammu and Ladakh, where the people now no longer trust it. Anil Jain's was a desperate attempt to win over the estranged people of Jammu and Ladakh so that the BJP won all the three Lok Sabha seats - two from Jammu and the Lone Ladakh seat. The BJP needs these three seats more than ever before as the BJP has become unpopular at the national level as well.
Anil Jain not only sought to conciliate the alienated people of Jammu and Ladakh, the BJP's two core constituencies in the state, but also the majority community across the country by saying that Article 370, Uniform Civil Code, Ram Mandir, Cow and Ganga were on the top of the party's agenda and that it would implement its agenda come what may. It was clear from what Anil Jain said in Jammu that the BJP would again give an emotive orientation to its election campaign to replicate 2014 in 2019 - a difficult goal to achieve.
However, the BJP can turn tables on its arch-political rivals if it implemented what it said on June 26 by the end of this year. As for Jammu and Ladakh, it has to prove through its actions that the BJP has really changed. It can win the goodwill of the people of Jammu and Ladakh through its deeds like repeal of 35 A and 370, grant of minority rights to the minorities in the state, grant of citizenship rights to the refugees from Pakistan, deportation of Rohingyas and redressal of grievances of the refugees from PoJK and Kashmir. There is no other option available. |
