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| BJP’s Double-Speak | | Bhim, Jitendra talked sense, Rudy added to confusion | |
MINCING NO WORDS
NEHA
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Mar 23: “It’s a conspiracy hatched by the Congress and National Conference (NC). We vehemently oppose demands like autonomy and self-rule,” asserted chairman of Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP) on Monday evening while responding to the question posed by the correspondent of Times Now. The question was: “What have you to say about the interlocutors’ reported suggestion seeking pre-1953 political status for Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) or seeking withdrawal from the state of all the Central laws and institutions, including the institutions of Supreme Court, Election Commission and Comptroller-General.
The response of state BJP chief spokesperson Jitendra Singh was almost identical. He told the Times Now correspondent that the BJP is bitterly opposed to the idea of J&K getting the pre-1953 political and constitutional status. “We are opposed to it politically, ideologically and morally” and “we believe that the whole move has been conceived” to help out the NC, which has lost its grip and become unpopular. This was the bottom-line of what he said.
As expected, NC MP Mehboob Baig religiously toed the party line. He left none in any doubt that he is a votary of two/three nation and that the NC was, and is, for a radical change in the Centre-State relations and that it would want New Delhi to restrict its jurisdiction over the state to what the Instrument of Accession provided. He was vocal, unambiguous and forthright. He told the correspondent that the “status quo is not acceptable” and that “it has been our consistent stand that the solution to the Kashmir issue lies in the grant of autonomy.”
The same evening the Times Now also organized a debate on the same topic. PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti, NC leader Mustafa Kamal, BJP national spokesperson and Member Rajya Sabha Rajiv Pratap Rudy and Kamal Hak of Panun Kashmir took part in the “news hour debate.” Arnab Goswami conducts the news hour debate every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
Mufti and Kamal not only fought with each other, but also reiterated their respective stands. The former didn’t reject the autonomy proposition. At the same time, she expressed the view that autonomy could be just one issue and that what her party would like New Delhi to do would be to also address the external dimension of the issue. In other words, she suggested that it was imperative on the part of New Delhi to bring on board Pakistan. She, in addition, took recourse to rabble-rousing and accused the state government of violating human rights in Kashmir, putting behind bars innocent persons, including children, drew the attention to the losses the state has been suffering due to the 1960 Indus Water Treaty between India and Pakistan and so on. However, it is important to note that she was not able to answer any of the questions put to her by Goswami.
The manner in which Kamal expressed his views also left none in any doubt that he had no definite answer to any of the questions put to him by the anchor. He not only beat about the bush, but also took recourse to falsehood. The extent of falsehood could be determined from his statement that his father Sheikh Abdullah had to go in 1953 because he wanted New Delhi to grant autonomy to the state. It’s not true, Sheikh had to be dismissed from the post of Wazir-e-Azam and arrested because there were reports that he, in collaboration with USA, was conspiring against India. In any case, he, like Mufti, advocated the party line and demanded restoration of the pre-1953 political status and there was no confusion in this regard.
As for Hak, who had very limited time at his disposal, he tried his best to put things in perspective and call the Kashmiri leaders’ bluff. He did convey what he and his community stand for through the small intervention that he was allowed to make. He did send a right message.
However, it was Rudy of the BJP who sprang a very big surprise. Rather, he outraged and disappointed everyone who was expecting him to corner the protagonists of autonomy, self-rule and India-Pakistan joint-management. He not only contradicted what the state BJP spokesperson had told the Times Now correspondent the same evening, but he started his whole uninspiring, misleading and ambivalent intervention with the observation that “he would not contradict” Mufti and Kamal. The very fact that he made such a ridiculous remark clearly indicated that the BJP still indulges in double-speak or that it speaks one language in Jammu and another in New Delhi or that it has no clear-cut line on J&K as well as Pakistan. He did talk about integration and what not, but that was just meaningless. His I-would-not-like-to-contradict-formulation had clinched the whole issue even before he could make other confusing and ridiculous statements.
The BJP has to adopt a clear-cut line on J&K. It just cannot hoodwink the nation by making contradictory statements. It appears the BJP is still under the influence of Atal Bihari Vajpayee who had made up his mind as early as in 1999 to barter away the national interests to appease and please Pakistan and pander to Kashmiri separatists, including the mainstream separatists. The BJP leadership would commit a grave mistakes if it feels that it can take the nationalist constituency for a ride. The nationalist constituency is keeping a close watch on all the activities of the BJP. The BJP high command has to adopt the line the state unit of the BJP has been taking in and outside the assembly for quite sometime now if it really wishes to carry conviction with the concerned nation and come back to power in New Delhi. It has not other option.
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