RAJ DALUJA
Shocking it may be for them though, yet BJP has all the reason to be elated over ruckus created by the Congress, National Conference and other Kashmir centric so-called mainstream parties, with compulsive exception of the PDP (because of being in the government), on the opening day of the Legislative Assembly when it met for the month-long Budget Session. Disrespect to the National Anthem, reportedly by these parties, has brought the BJP again into the centre-stage of Jammu politics. The united opposition has provided much needed oxygen to the ‘dying’ BJP, which had almost gone into oblivion due to its mis-governance, second-fiddle obedience to PDP and complete reversal of fundamental ideology on Kashmir.
Due to pitiable positioning of the BJP, the patriotic, peace loving and development oriented people of the Jammu region had started looking towards Congress as an alternative and a hope. Similarly, an influential section of the Jammu people had begun developing a sort of affinity with the National Conference, which withstood the Narendra Modi tsunami during 2014 elections by bagging two crucial seats. But today’s indecent posturing has brought both the Congress and the NC close to Hurriyat, with only difference that the constituencies they wanted to placate in Kashmir don’t trust and believe them. Congress has very little stakes in the Valley. National Conference has lost its credibility which is reflected by gruesome fact that Sheikh Abdullah’s mausoleum continues to remain under heavy guard notwithstanding support to Hurriyat, sitting on the other-side of the fence and demonstrating total solidarity with India bashers.
The Congress has not put its act together in the Legislative Assembly. It should have shown the grace of being static in approach by showing due regards to the National Anthem. For sake of opposition to the BJP, the Congress has jumped the red-line it is going to boomerang and cost it dearly in the Jammu region. The discomfort of today’s happening in the Legislative Assembly is seen looming large on the Congress leadership and cadre in this part of the State, who are shell shocked, not essentially because of the political fall-out but because of their deep commitment to national sentiment. The Congress lawmakers have allowed themselves to get swayed by mistaken belief of repeating what the party has been doing in Parliament ever since Narendra Modi snatched the command from them.
Disrespecting National Anthem shows the amount of frustration the Congress and the National Conference are suffering from. The two parties have lost sense of proportion which has started recoiling by their sympathetic cadre in Jammu feeling jittery.
While Congress will get hurt the most, the National Conference too is not going to gain anything in the Valley where it is seen bigger evil than the PDP, which is being portrayed as villain, responsible for killing of nearly ninety stone pelters during the past five months. In its enthusiasm of playing to galleries on Kashmir, the Congress described the Valley incidents as mass uprising, without saying a word against perpetrators from across the border and within or the stone-pelters misadventure of waging war against Indian nation.
The nationalistic Congress was cornered effectively by the BJP which wanted to pay tribute to the civilians who got killed by unprovoked shelling from across the border.
The attempts of National Conference to align with a segment of particular ideology to garner sympathy in Kashmir was torn out in shreds by Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti who held the party responsible 2010 civilian killings in the Valley. She retorted back saying, “Some people here say that a commission should be set up to probe it (recent unrest). But just yesterday I received the report of the (Justice M L) Koul Commission set up to probe the 2010 killings. Let us first fix the responsibilities in it (2010 killings) and talk of new commission only after reading that report”. The PDP is not allowing the NC to free itself from the shackles of 2010 ghost. In this competitive exploitation of pro-Kashmir sentiment, the Congress has willingly become a party to hurt its Jammu base. The patriotic people of the region, therefore, genuinely feel alienated from the Congress which they had thought as an alternative to the BJP. In this allegations and counter-allegations game, the BJP is having its last laugh. Noting would have come to the rescue of the ‘dying’ BJP than the line adopted by the Congress in the Legislative Assembly.
