Early Times Report
JAMMU, July 3: Now that the BJP has withdrawn its support to the Mehbooba Mufti-led coalition government and the state has been under the Governor's Rule since June 19, it is time for the BJP-led NDA Government at the Centre to appreciate the 2014 mandate in J&K.
The 2014 mandate was clearly for the reorganization of the state and ending the 66-year-old inter-regional tensions between Jammu province and Kashmir and between Kashmir and Ladakh, the three disparate regions which became a state by a quirk of history in March 1846 under the Treaty of Amritsar, signed between Raja of Jammu, Gulab Singh, and the British Indian Government.
The 2014 mandate was unique. The people exhibited their preferences in clear terms. In Jammu province, the BJP sprung a big surprise by winning 25 of the 37 assembly seats. The people of Jammu voted for it overwhelmingly because the BJP gave them to understand that a vote for it would be a vote for their socio-economic and political empowerment and vote for ending the 66-year-old Kashmiri hegemony.
The BJP had also given the people of Jammu to understand that a vote for it would be a vote for "Hindu Chief Minister from Jammu".
The BJP's poll planks clicked. The people rejected outright the NC, the Congress and the PDP. The NC could win only 3 seats, the Congress 5 and the PDP also 3 seats. One seat went to an independent candidate, a BJP rebel, Pawan Gupta. He won the prestigious Udhampur seat with a huge margin.
In Ladakh, the people, especially Buddhists, rejected both the BJP and the NC. They voted for the Congress. The Congress won 3 of the 4 seats - Leh, Nubra and Zanskar. The Kargil seat was won by an independent candidate. The Congress could turn tables on the BJP despite the fact that it had won the lone Ladakh Lok Sabha seat in May 2014 because the Congress sought and got the mandate on the Union Territory status plank. As for the PDP, it didn't field any candidate in Ladakh either in the Lok Sabha polls or in the Assembly elections.
In Kashmir, the people voted differently. They did give 25 seats to the PDP, but it could not be termed as a big and clear mandate. For, Kashmir returns 46 members to the 87-member House. The PDP won a little over than 50 per cent seats. It was the NC, which suffered a humiliating defeat. It could win only 12 seats, the poorest-ever performance in decades. The Congress won 4 seats. It also surprised when it captured the Sopore seat. The People's Conference, BJP's ally, won two seats. 2 of the remaining 3 seats went to independent candidates and one seat to the CPI-M candidate, Mohd Yousus Tarigami.
Even a superficial look at the 2014 mandate would be enough to conclude that the people of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh voted differently, thus clearly suggesting that the State of J&K had outlived its utility and that it was time to reorganize the state so that the people of each region became master in their own house.
It was a different story that the BJP and the PDP subverted the mandate and formed a coalition government on March 1, 2015 much to the chagrin of their respective constituencies in particular and the nation as a whole. That the unnatural coalition would collapse became clear on day one and it did collapse 38 months later.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi would do well to appreciate the 2014 mandate and take steps that end the 70-year-old inter-regional tensions. The best thing to do would be reorganize the state. The sooner it is done, the better. |
