Political Correspondent
JAMMU: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday indicated his resolve to implement the controversial PDP-BJP agenda of alliance in letter and spirit. “There is a larger picture there. We have to respect the mandate of the people. It could either be an elected government or Governor’s rule. In the latter option, we would have had total control, but that is not what we wanted. It is a fact that the ideologies of the two parties are very different, but people wanted us to work together in both Jammu and Kashmir regions,” he told his interviewer, adding the “alliance in the State is one of the most important developments on the political scene”.
“It (PDP-BJP alliance) has the potential to resolve one of our most difficult national problems through people’s participation and good governance. We need to understand that the two parties have varied views on some very important issues. However, we have taken a pledge to work for the development of the State and its people,” he further said, adding “it is now our duty to rise to the expectations of the people of the State and implement the CMP in letter and spirit and not digress from it”. “We will strictly follow whatever is agreed upon in the CMP,” he emphasised.
The interview of PM Modi has disappointed and disheartened people of Jammu and Ladakh. For, they had not expected the PM to insist on the implementation of the Agenda of Alliance in its original form. People of Jammu province have termed it a “new charter of bondage”. They have said umpteen times that it deprived them of their due share in the government. They have, in addition, repeatedly alleged that the “BJP violated the mandate, ditched them, linked their political fate with the secessionist Valley and endangered the very unity and integrity of the country by forming government with a party that never considered J and K an integral part of India”.
What has created a sense of insecurity among the people of Jammu province was the reported statement of PM Modi that “there is a larger picture there”. The reason is that Chief Minister Mufti Sayeed had also on 15th May talked about a “bigger picture” while talking to reporters in Jammu. He had said: “There must be a purpose. He (PM Modi) may have seen it on a bigger canvas. I say when you have some vision, when you work on bigger canvas, there is a bigger objective. I feel so. This is itself an indication”. That day, the Chief Minister had also told the people of Jammu province that the AIIIMS will be established in Kashmir and the ongoing Tawi Artificial Lake Project could be abandoned as it was not technically and economically viable. Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh was present when the Chief Minister talked about “bigger picture” and expressed his views on the AIIMS and the lake.
The people of Jammu province and those spearheading the AIIMS movement in Jammu have been, it needs to be noted, denouncing the Agenda of Alliance as “agenda of betrayal”. They are of the considered view that the Agenda of Alliance, if implemented in its original form, will jeopradise their interests and cause an immense damage to the national cause in J and K. Significantly, many in BJP, RSS, VHP and Bajrand Dal also share this view. They have been saying in private that “the BJP has handed over J and K to Ram Madhav who knows nothing about the history, geography and nature of politics” and that “we have been given strict instructions not to utter a word against the PDP and Agenda of Alliance”. It is pertinent to mention here that a few days ago VHP President Leela Karan Sharma made a startling disclosure in the High Court that “something serious was happening under the carpet as far as the future of J and K is concerned” and extended support to the Bar Association on the issues of AIIMS and Tawi Artificial Lake Project.
It is now manifestly clear that PM Modi was not given proper feedback on the Agenda of Alliance. Had the J and K unit of the BJP given the right feedback, PM Modi would not have said that his government will implement the agenda in letter and spirit. The State unit of the BJP, which has been at the receiving end in Jammu and Ladakh after the installation of the PDP-led Coalition Government, was the appropriate source of information for PM Modi. But it now appears that it was Ram Madhav, the architect of the Agenda of Alliance, who had misled the PM. It is Ram Madhav who has been defending the Agenda of Alliance.
PM Modi would be well advised to send a team of unbiased ministers to Jammu and Ladakh to take stock of the situation prevailing in J and K after the formation of the PDP-BJP Coalition Government. To depend on the feedback given to him by Ram Madhav and act accordingly would be only to undo all that the country did to integrate J and K into India.
