The Aap Shambu desecration incident in Roopnagar area of Jammu City has brought in the open the prevailing political divide the coalition is carrying. As far as Jammu is concerned it is BJP which is nearer to people than PDP and the saffron party rode to power banking on religious sentiments during the 2008 Amarnath Yatra agitation from one seat to eleven. The 2014 assembly elections saw the party once again riding on the Hindutva sentiments gaining the maximum of 25 seats, an all time high for the party, to share power with PDP. All through this period the party has failed to give a sense of belongingness to the people of Jammu. The Roopnagar incident has brought to the lime light how this party which championed for the cause of Jammu and Hindutva remained a mute spectator till now over the issue. And whatever opposition was there, it was from small outfits who were just trying to take mileage out of the issue. They have neither to gain or lose anything from the issue. The political desecration by BJP leaders by just remaining silent to protect the chairs they occupy does not absolve them from the ‘Bhagidari’ of responsibility. Don’t the party leaders owe an explanation to the people of Jammu. The imposition of PSA on the desecrator and joining hands of mainstream politicians to bail the culprit by terming him as mentally imbalanced without getting medically examined shows how the whole episode was masterminded to foment trouble in the region ahead of the Amarnath Yatra, which is scheduled for July 2. Not only this, two other incidents took place one in Nanak Nagar area and another in Poonch where majority community members asked the temple to not use loud speakers. Does the BJP leaders of the region have the conviction and strength to oppose such nefarious elements and designs? The whole episode may be an attempt to gauge the reaction has no doubt exposed the BJP leadership’ weak knee approach to the sordid experiment. Such political conspiracies have dangerous designs for the society.
