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| Wah! Poll planks of NC and PDP semi-independence for J&K, BJP's tourism development | | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Jan 7: On Saturday, BJP national president Amit Shah appointed party's senior leader Avinash Rai Khanna as election in-charge of BJP in J&K. A day later, he made four significant statements. He claimed that the BJP this time will create history and win both "Lok Sabha and assembly elections in J&K". He claimed that the BJP performed exceedingly well in the just-concluded ULBs and panchayat elections and that was an indication that the BJP was a force to reckon with in J&K. He also claimed that the BJP has retrieved the ground it lost in the state after it snapped its ties with the PDP. "The party's core constituency was annoyed due to the alliance with the PDP, but after breaking the alliance, the BJP has retrieved its lost ground to a large extent," Khanna was quoted as saying.
However, his fourth statement was all the more significant. He said the BJP's main poll plank will be revival of tourism. "Tourism will be the main focus as it helps in generating employment for the youth," he said.
Nothing wrong in what he said. But it did surprise the J&K-watchers. The reason: The BJP ignored the divisive poll planks of the Kashmiri parties like the PDP and the NC, which have unleashed a no-holds-barred campaign calculated to further drive Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh away from the national mainstream. Both the parties have stated in unambiguous terms that their main poll planks will be self-rule and greater autonomy or pre-1953 political-constitutional status for J&K. In other words, both the parties have declared that they would seek withdrawal of all the central laws introduced in the state after August 9, 1953 and that they one-point agenda will be to get for the state semi-independent status. Besides, both the parties have been taking about the people of Kashmir.
"The BJP should have taken cognizance of the divisive slogans of the NC, the PDP and the Congress. It can't induce its constituency in Jammu to vote for it by talking tourism development as almost one crore religious tourists visit Jammu every year. People in millions pay obeisance at the holy shrine of Mata Vaishno Devi every year. Lakhs of people also come to Jammu during the annual Amarnath Yatra. The BJP needs to counter the divisive slogans of the NC, the PDP and Congress with integrationist slogans, slogans like empowerment of Jammu and Ladakh and by telling divisive forces in Kashmir Valley that it, if voted to power, will remove from the Indian statute book all those laws which have held the state aloof from the national mainstream and denied fundamental rights to the people of the state as well as refugees from West Pakistan and daughter of the state married outside J&K to non-state subjects. Elections are fought on democratic, political and economic issues, but the BJP has chosen to contest election on tourism slogan. It will not bring votes for BJP," said a keen BJP-watcher on the condition of anonymity, adding that the BJP would mar its poll prospects if it didn't contest polls on Jammu and Ladakh-specific issues.
"The BJP has to adhere to its old ideology, if it wants to win Jammu and Ladakh, where the people bitterly oppose the slogans of autonomy and self-rule and vouch for their complete merger with India," he further opined. He did make a point. Indeed, integrationist slogans in Jammu and Ladakh alone could counter divisive slogans of the NC, the PDP and the Congress and help the BJP in both the regions. |
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