Fulfilling the communal and separatist urges of the Kashmiri leadership is not the same as meeting the nationalist and democratic urges of the people of Jammu and ladakh who constitute half of the State's population and inhabit over 88 per cent of its land area
The BJP-led NDA under the able, skilful and effective leadership of Mr Narendra Modi has scored a spectacular, splendid and epoch-making victory. The BJP’s own tally is 282 seats, 10 more than the required number, and its allies won 54 seats, 10 more than the Congress’s own tally of a paltry 44 seats. The BJP swept the nation, barring Kerala (zero), Tamil Nadu (one), Odisha (one), West Bengal (two) and a few smaller States in the North-East. Even those who got stung by the mandate the nation gave to Mr Modi would now have no other option but to term the BJP as the pan-India political party.
The mandate was undoubtedly against the fake secular outfits and those who used to survive and thrive on divisive, communal and casteist politics, and this can be seen from the fact that the politically-conscious Indian electorate decimated outfits like the Samajwadi Party (five seats — all family members), the BSP (zero), the RJD (four), the JDU (two), the RlD (zero), the Nationalist Congress Party (three), the National Conference (zero), the DMK (zero) — and reduced the Congress to the status of a regional outfit. It got only 44 seats — a performance that denies it even of the post of leader of Opposition in the lok Sabha.
The mandate of 2014 indicates many things. It shows that only those parties will survive which will practise politics based on sound democratic and economic issues or which will follow Mr Modi’s governance and inclusive development mantra.
The message from the sensitive border State of Jammu & Kashmir was no different. In fact, its messages were three: First, people want governance and inclusive development and growth. Second, the politics of autonomy, as was brazenly indulged in by the Congress-supported National Conference for decades, has no place in the State. And, third, the People’s Democratic Party, which trounced the NC by inflicting a comprehensive defeat on its all of the three candidates, including NC president Farooq Abdullah, must behave in a responsible manner and play a constructive role, instead of indulging in a soft version of secessionism.
With the victory, the PDP’s responsibility has increased manifold in the sense that the defeated, desperate and frustrated NC leadership will turn more radical in the coming days to restore the political space it has lost to the PDP, which also got less number of votes this time. Its vote share declined from 22.36 per cent in 2009 to 20.5 per cent in 2014. As for the NC, its vote share reduced from 19.11 per cent in 2009 to just 11 per cent in 2014.
A peep into the history of the NC shows that its leaders turn more radical when they find themselves in trouble. It happened between 1952 and 1953; 1980; 1984; 1986; 1990; 2002; 2008; 2010 and 2013. There are potent reasons to believe that things would worsen in the valley as the Assembly election in the State is just five months away. There would be cut-throat competition between the NC and the PDP, and in the process, the PDP, which, like the NC, contested the lok Sabha election on the planks of Kashmir issue and self-rule (read semi-independence, India-Pakistan joint control over Jammu & Kashmir and de-militarisation) might take recourse to the politics of competitive secessionism. And if all this happens, the results would be disastrous. That’s the reason that it should not walk into the NC’s dangerous trap.
One can only hope that good sense would prevail and the PDP will focus on public-related issues and issues of governance. This hope stems from the PDP’s positive statements in favour of the BJP and Mr Modi, which were made umpteen times during the election campaign in Kashmir by PDP patron Mufti Mohammed Sayeed and his daughter, party president and lok Sabha member from Anantnag constituency, Ms Mehbooba Mufti — a stance that was exploited by the NC leadership to the hilt in its desperate bid to lower the image of the Muftis in the eyes of the Kashmiri people. The Abdullahs repeatedly accused the Muftis of hobnobbing with Mr Modi and other senior BJP leaders to ‘abrogate Article 370 and harm the Kashmir cause’. They described the PDP as the “B-team of the BJP”.
As for Jammu and ladakh, which witnessed the decimation of the ruling coalition comprising the NC and the Congress, and the PDP, the people there rejected outright and with contempt the autonomy concept as advocated by the NC and the self-rule doctrine of the PDP. They, as expected, voted overwhelmingly in favour of the BJP/mainstream politics. The BJP replicated 1996, 1998 and 1999, and won both the lok Sabha seats in Jammu province with huge margins, defeating political heavyweights such as Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad and Mr Madan lal Sharma. It also won the lone ladakh seat.
The BJP won the ladakh seat for the first time defeating the Congress and two very prominent Shia candidates, who had the full backing of some well-known clerics. Of course, the victory margin was not impressive; it was only by 36 votes. But it has great symbolic value. After all, a number of many senior leaders lost or won the election by small votes in the past. Take, for example, Mr CP Joshi of the Congress in Rajasthan. It needs to be underlined that more than 10,000 Buddhist students studying in different parts of the country wanted to exercise their franchise. They not only approached the election authorities concerned, asking to set up ‘special polling booths in Jammu’, but also held a number of protest demonstrations where they raised pro-Modi slogans to persuade the authorities to concede to their democratic demand — but with no result. Had their demand been conceded, 10,000 out of 10,000 votes would have gone to the BJP candidate Thupstan Chhewang. The slender victory margin of his should be viewed in this context. It’s important to note that the BJP in ladakh contested the election on two main planks: Full integration with India and Union Territory status.
It is important to note that the BJP polled the highest number of votes. It got 32.4 per cent votes (11,54,220), the Congress 22.9 per cent (8,15,510), the PDP 20.5 per cent and the NC 11.1 per cent (3,96,713). The BJP increased its vote share by a whopping 14 per cent. In 2009, it had got 18.4 per cent of the total votes polled. The BJP is the only party in the State which increased its vote share. The voting percentage should clear all the cobwebs of confusion and send a clear message to the Kashmiri leadership that the people of Jammu and ladakh hate and despise the politics of autonomy, self-rule and separatism.
This should also make the biased and non-secular opinion leaders recognise the fact that Kashmir doesn’t mean the State of Jammu, Kashmir and ladakh, and that fulfilling the communal and separatist urges of the Kashmiri leadership is not the same as meeting the nationalist and democratic urges of the people of Jammu and ladakh who constitute half of the State’s population and inhabit over 88 per cent of its land area.
(The writer is former Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Jammu)