Dear Editor,
This refers to media reports that the Peoples Democratic Party is inching toward a pact with the National Conference and the Congress. In the beginning, when the election result threw up a fractured verdict, a disappointed PDP gave enough signals of its inclination to join hands with the BJP, the second largest party in Jammu and Kashmir, to establish a strong Coalition Government. The National Conference, although unseated from power, had no objection to supporting the BJP to form the next regime. However, within a week, the ghost of pseudo-secularism surfaced and the so-called secular parties began working to keep the ‘communal’ BJP out.
From the looks of it, a PDP-BJP deal appears as an ideal partnership – one party representing Kashmir Valley and the other, Jammu. It would have been a historic set-up. But now we have to wait and see whether this ideal arrangement will work out or whether ‘secularism’ will triumph and leave the State’s people divided yet again.
M Ratan
New Delhi
