BJP’s purported Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi’s Kashmir call is a clear-cut message that the party would like to seek Jammu and Kashmir’s complete merger with Indian union. Those who have appreciated it have either misread the message or are in league with BJP.
Junaid Rashid
Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi appears to have perfected his art in politics, a skill necessarily needed for any political actor aspiring to conduct himself as a national leader. His statement on Kashmir is a classic case in point.
Presiding over a function held to commemorate the death anniversary of one of the staunch opponents of Jammu and Kashmir’s individuality as a state within Indian union and founder leader of Jan Sangh — Shyama Prasad Mukherjee — Modi asked for ‘healing the wounds’ of Kashmiri people. Unlike other leaders, Modi had his own prescription of how to heal these wounds. He prescribes for connecting Kashmir’s ‘aspiring’ youth with national mainstream for the development of the state.
Modi’s message is loud and clear. Without talking much he said so much. He believes that the problem in Kashmir is not in upholding or strengthening the individuality of the state but, like his godfather Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, in integrating Kashmir with rest of the country in the fullest term of the meaning. What else could it mean when said by a person who got the top-job in the BJP only for his extreme anti-minority positions on key issues?
BJP has an established position on Jammu and Kashmir. It has always been pleading for scrapping of Article 370 of Indian Constitution, which gives a special status to the state. Its mantra has been to merge completely the state in the Indian union like any other state. L K Advani, who was recently projected as ‘mascot of secularism’ by some quarters reiterated BJP’s stand on Article 370 by asking for its immediate abrogation on Sunday. It would be absurd to interpret Narendra Modi’s call on Kashmir in different perspective who, for his entire image and projection, is a hard-line pro Hindu political charmer.
It is quite baffling to find Kashmir’s two premier political outfits — ruling NC and the opposition PDP — showering praise on Modi for his Kashmir remark, like naive schoolboys. PDP termed Modi’s statement as ‘inclusive and constructive’ while NC simply welcomed it. It is not clear whether it is sheer political opportunism that has overtaken the two parties or they have misread the statement or are in league with the opponents of Kashmir’s distinctiveness.
On the face of it, NC has been advocating for strengthening the special character of the state of Jammu and Kashmir under Indian constitution. It has rather been pleading for restoring pre-53 position of the state. PDP, for its part, is a step ahead of the NC by pleading self-rule for the state that not only makes the state a unique political unit but an economic individuality as well. Welcoming Modi’s assertions has but exposed their real intent. It is anybody’s guess that both the parties have tried to build up a balance of relations with the BJP, should it lift them to power in the upcoming parliamentary elections. The Modi-cajoling could simply be described this way only.
National Conference had been an ally of the BJP before it lost power to Congress at the centre in 2004. The NC’s partnership with the BJP continued even in thick of Muslim massacre in Gujarat under Modi’s leadership, and Omar Abdullah continued as minister in the union cabinet despite severe criticism from various secular and Muslim quarters. It was for the unflinching bond between the two parties that kept Congress in Jammu and Kashmir away from the NC to enter into coalition for forming a government in 2002. The Congress instead chose to tie-up with PDP.
The political equations in Kashmir changed again in 2009 when, for its betrayal during Amarnath land row, Congress divorced PDP and went into coalition with the NC. Even as NC-Congress coalition is still intact, there are speculations that the two parties might not continue with the present arrangement anymore beyond next year’s assembly elections.
NC’s soft reaction to Modi’s Kashmir talk could be an attempt to keep options open for alliance with non-Congress parties as and when required. PDP is also reported to have traveled down a substantial distance to make friendship with the BJP. Though at local level it would like to ally with the Congress for government formation after 2014 assembly elections, but it is not averse to BJP’s rise to power at the centre.
Appreciating Modi is the demonstration of this simple fact.
(The author is opinion editor, FreePress. For response write to [email protected])
