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| BJP again in Article 370 trade –is there any taker? | | | Early Times Reporter
Jammu | June 3
In a desperate bid to hoodwink electorate of a particular thought just ahead of general elections, the Bhartiya Janta Party has once again enacted its bogey of cultural nationalism and abrogation of Article 370 but much to chagrin of the saffron party there have left very few people ready to buy this slogan.
With Lok Sabha elections just a year away, has brought back on its agenda contentious demands for scrapping Article 370 and bringing in a uniform civil code even as it projected itself as the "obvious front runner". "Along with cultural nationalism, Article 370, uniform civil code and true secularism, we are committed to preserve national unity and integrity," the BJP president Rajnath Singh had said in New Delhi at the end of National Executive meet, seeking to revive the issues that once paid it huge political dividends and even brought it to power at the Centre.
Scrap of Article 370 of the Constitution of India –a provision which gives Jammu and Kashmir a special provision –once topped the BJP’s political agenda. At a time when Kashmir made the core issue of national security and Pakistan was perceived as India’s enemy number one, the BJP campaigned for abrogation of Article 370 and reaped rich dividends in many parts of country where it made the emotional issue.
In Jammu region too, the slogan paid the BJP well as party romped home seven seats in the legislative assembly in 1996 elections. This time again when elections are just round the corner and the BJP is apparently bereft of any plausible issues it has come with the old ploy seeking abrogation of Article 370.
The constitutional provision under Article 370 puts Jammu and Kashmir in a special autonomous position. Under this special position people from outside the state are not allowed to settle down here by buying lands or avail the government jobs. Whole on the hands this provision has kept J&K slow in the industrial development while on the other hand this has saved the people from stiff competition which the outsiders would have posed.
The BJP has called for abrogation of Article 370 when the constituency of the supporters of this cause has shrunk to almost negligible. While the Kashmir Valley has always stood against any move at neutralizing the effects of Article 370, the Jammu region too has picked up the momentum and efforts are being thwarted which allow the outsiders to settle down in the state.
The political and constitutional experts say that there is nothing in the Article 370 which takes Jammu and Kashmir far from the national mainstream. In fact, this special position has offered the people of this state safeguards against the competition which could have been posed by the businessmen and industrialists from other parts of the country. Of late, other states of the country like Jharkhand and Maharashtra have also started demanding safeguards on the patterns of Jammu and Kashmir which debars the outsiders to settle down in these states.
In Jammu, silent moment is already on among the business and industrialist community as thousands of people from outside Jammu and Kashmir, who are non-state subjects, have settled down here and are dominating the business scene. The far rightist nationalist organizations like Shiv Sena have already lodged protest against the intrusion of outsiders. In such circumstances, BJP’s slogan may draw empty even it has always been a hollow slogan.
Interestingly, there are many who toe the BJP line and call for full integration of Jammu and Kashmir with the Indian Union but one wonders which was the most appropriate time to this –if at all this had to be done.
It may mentioned here that abrogation of Article 370 –which gives Jammu and Kashmir some special powers and status –forms the basics of the foundation of the BJP as a party. The BJP in various avatars like the Jana Sangh has always championed the cause of abrogation of Article 370. Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee –the Jana Sangh leader and the guiding spirit behind the BJP struggled for doing away of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and it was this cause that he lost his life in August 1953 in a Kashmir prison.
Ever since, the BJP has based all its campaigns and mobilized the national opinion for abrogation of Article 370. However, it is interesting to note here that when BJP was in power for full six years at the Center the party never talked about the special status of Jammu and Kashmir. Now when it is out of power and is looking for some issues for public consumption voices are again being raised on this issue. But one asks why it remained quite when it was in power. |
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